The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1913-03-08
FIRST DISTRICT ROAD ELECTION

fourth police jury wards, or all that
part of the parish lying on the west
side of the Mississippi river-will
have the privilege of deciding wheth.
er the present slipshod, expensive
and ineffective system OF public road
maintenance shall be Indefinitely
continued, or q better system be sub
stituted by the approval of the ordi-
nance unanimously adopted by the
police jury en- the 21st ultimo.
It should require no argument to
convince any voter in the district CT
the urgent necessity for the proposed
reformation. The policy OF providing
public roads which are good only IN
good weather, and which degenerate
into more or less impossible quag-
mires in all prolonged seasons of wet
weather, has been tried consistently
| for more than a hundred years. That
it is high time to abandon it fer
some more effective and profitable
plan no sane citizen will doubt or
deny.
The value. of good roads to a COM
munity-roads that are available for
use and in good condition at all
times-can scarcely be overestimated
To the country people who wish to
get into DonaldsonVille from the
other three wards of the first dis
trict, for instance, and to the towing
people who wish to have their couh-
try neighbors come to town, it is
equally desirable and important that
good roads should be maintained at
all times. Everybody who has oc-
casion to traverse any part of the
territory of the first district has some
degree Of interest in the adoption Of
the pending ordnance, which offers
the only practicable means of bring
ing about the desired improvement in
the public thoroughfares.
To construct a system of gravel
roads like those which have given
such satisfaction in the neighboring
parish of Iberville, will require an
expenditure of $4,000 in the first
road district. 1t is proposed that the
police jury provide $4,000 of this
fund by an annual appropriation of
$4,000 in the regular parochial bud
get, and that the. remaining $4,000
be obtained from a bond issue re-
deemable by the proceeds of special
tax of IL mills annually to run
twenty years.
To the property-holder assessed for
500 this special tax means the pay
ment of Is cents "a year for twenty
years. or So in all. The possessor of
$500 worth OF taxable property will
pay. rs cents a year, or SIS in twenty
years. For each $1,000 Of assessment
the road tax will be .s1.50 a year, or
$50 for the twenty years.
Let every firstsdistrict voter ask
himself whether is not well worth
while to incur this trifling additional
outlay in order secure the desider-
alum Of good ros&s2
1t seems to ere can be but
one sensible ands zeal answer to
the question.
Ora q, RAcrIoH
tn shree epor NAL has went
done one and Gust what we
expected it TODD n eonnection with
our protest against its persistent hab-
it of classifying Theh Chief as a Re
,subliean organ. IN fits issue of Feb
mary 10 the Journal reproduces our
article Of the. preceding week and
follows it with he appended con=
ment:
s'We are glad to stand corrected as
to the politics of The Chief, and re-
gret exceedingly that we were un-
fortunate enough to miss previous
announcements of the character of
the. aboye. We have been aware, of
course, that the Donaldsonyille con-
temporary had passed from the own
ership Of our longtime friend, L. E..
Bentley, to that of his son and assoc
ciates, but, for some reason we must
have missed reading the issues in
which the change of political policy
was announced. We hope our breth-
rem of the press will forgive US for
now admitting that The Chief needs
nothing to give it first place among
the weekly newspapers of Louisiana.
And while The Chief, as an indie
pendent, impartial, fearless and con-
A'S@@4ttAS1Ao 1ASW2popAls s1OSo 1iOt &3pSGA
for any political party or faction,
still, when it endorses Senator Fos-
ter for the position of collector Of
the port of New Orleans, it unfor-
tunately does speak the sentiments
of the staldpatters of the two par
ties, both Republicans and Democrats,
in Louisiana. We wish that The
Chief might have added that it was
to be progressive as well as indie
pendent in matters political, for
then and in that event we would be
together as to the political future of
the present senior senator from Lou
isiana.
In conclusion. we desire to assure
the editors of The Chief that we
recognize the enorn1ity of our error
that We would not, for the world,
knowingly accuse a couple of good
and patriotic Democrats-eVen the
independent kind-of harboring stand.
pat Republican political ideas. And
now, if Bros. Bentley and Won Lot
ten will lay aside their business
troubles and come up to SANITY
Shreveport for the annual meeting of