The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1915-02-04

|
county done by the Topeka Bridge
and Iron company, it looks as if the
division of territory among the
bridge companies that Cowley county
was allotted to that company, and
TO say further that | was unable to.
get any information from the county
clerk of Cowley county relative to-
the bridge work in that county.
When the measure was called up,
Davis of Edwards moved to strike
out the enacting clause before the
first section had been read, This
brought on the debate but the mo-
tion lost lacking a good many votes
of enough to carry. Then began a
fire of amendments lasting two hours
by which the bill was weakened con
siderably but was still left in pretty
good shape, and in such form that a
friendly senate could easily restore
most of the loss.
"A great many members of the
| house came to me and said that they
had letters from their commissioners
requesting them to vote against the
bill. ! saw one of those letters and
| from the language used and the gen
eral tenor and appearance, ! am sat
isfied that it was mailed to the
county commissioner who sent il by
bridge company for him to sign
and Send to the representative. |
| also saw letter sent to o. S. Glib |
son of Cowley county, signed by
Herman, president, and w. H. Bra
den, secretary of the state county
commissioners association, denounc-
ing Gibson in scathing terms for
his opposition to the commissioners
way of handling the bridge question
Il saw Representative Tanner OF
labette county in conversation with
Ed w. AppIeby and Fred r. Hoover
Of the Canton Bridge company
short time before the bill was called
up, and Mr.. Tanner made red hot
speech against the bill. Representa-
tive Houtz of Dickson county inform
ed me after the bill had passed the
house and was on the senate calen-
dar, that his commissioner, McCol.
lough, was there to oppose the bill
in the senate. | asked Mr.. Houtz
to introduce me to him as | would
like to talk to him-but the intro
duction never came.
Shortly after the bill was reported
out of committee, a county commits
sioner from Atchison county, whose
name | have forgotten, approached
me concerning the bridge bill, say
ing that bridge man had told him
that the proposed measure would
take bridge building entirely out of
the commissioners hands. A lum-
Der man from Nehama county want
ed to see the provisions of the bill
because bridge man had told him
that If the pending measure passed
he wouldn't be able to sell any white ,
oak lumber
81 mention these to show the subtle
ways the bridge companies have OF ,
poisoning minds and creating adverse ,
sentiment against bridge legislation.
81 know there are comparatively =.
few county commissioners who profit
by the manipulations of
the bridge companies but the rep,
resentatives of the companies are 4
shrewd men who understand thor 4
oughIy that the average county COM II
missioner is very jealous of his =
bridge patronage, and brooks no in O
reference with his handling the [
bridge business with a free hand con- II
sequently the bridge men play this L
feature to the limit and to their own .
profit. a
"lt is this suggestion Of the
bridge companies to the county COM
missioners that a proposed law is
taking the control of bridge building
out Of their hands, that calls forth C
the letters to the representatives S
from their counties. The strange W
part of it is that the county COM g
missioners accept as gospel truth b
such Misrepresentation without in
Iestigatng for themselves"
What Happened in Iowa. /
The bridge lobby began active
work jollying up the legislators and
lad just gotten settled down to
at Des Moines so as to keep
! weather eye on the doings of the
legislature, when something happen
ID. There was sizzling and sput-
ering in the house committee on
Dads. when all of a sudden there
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