Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1914-10-21

Omy Dut IL seems as soon as some one
gets the Office of County Commission
er, his brain becomes affected, and his
good judgment is gone (if he ever had
any,. We must not blame them too
much as I think it is the system that
affects them. Very few of them pur-
posely will do wrong, but they have
a notion to please some times: but
most of the time they are scared in
to some foolish action because Of the
law, (which of course some one has
made" and which compels them to do
many things, even if their common
sense tells them it is not right. I wish
to state that it has not always been
so wrong, as we have had County
Commissioners who have without
fear or favor, dared to do the right
thing.
/ The special case, l wish to call to
the attention of the tax payers of
Kandiyohi county, is the appropria.
ton of $500 to town Of Cosmos, Meek
er county, some time ago. Meeker
county sent committee of two to
the Kandiyohi County Board and re-
quested an appropriation to a bridge
on the road between East Lake Lill-
ian and town Of Cosmos. I was in
Willmar that day and the County
Commissioners asked me if I knew
anything about this matter. 1 told
them that the town boards of Cosmos
and East Lake Lillian had agreed to
construct and repair each a part of
that six mile line. They divided it fair
ly and justly and each party under
stood what they were to do. It was
recorded in the Road record books
at least in the one for East Lake
Lillian. Cosmos got the road which
crosses the river, while East Lake
Lillian got a piece of road with large
sloughs in and poor drainage and l
should not wonder if Cosmos thought
they got the best Of East Lake Lill-
ian. This is fifteen years ago and
Cosmos has never made an attempt
to build this bridge across the river.
In the first place there is very little
travel on that line, the traffic towards
south and north just divides here,
being about fourteen miles to each
railroad. Second, they thought it was
too expensive. The committee asked
500, one-half of the cost of a bridge,
but when they heard Of the condition
Of the agreement between the two
townships, they understood they were
applying in the wrong county for this
money so left with the remark, IF
the town Of Cosmos had agreed to
that let them have it." Now a month
ago or so after this l read in the Will
mar paper that the County Commits
sioners had allowed $500 to the town
of Cosmos l called the attention to
this money to the people in this vicin-
ity and they were astonished because
we have built six or seven bridges
across the river but have never re-
ceived more than about 5000 or $500
to assist us to build these bridges,
and now they give $500 to the town
of Cosmos for to pay one-half of the
bridge. We have never paid more
than from $500 to $500 for a good
steel bridge from Is to 80 feet long
and 16 to IS feet wide and we find
that the most of the money for these
bridges has been solicited for in our
own community. know of cases
where the town boards have been ask
ed for $1,000 to $1,000 for the same
kind of bridge for which we paid
$500. We have, Of course, been fool
ish enough to try to economic and
cut down expenses but I understand
it is not stylish any more because if