French Broad hustler and Western Carolina Democrat. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1915-1916, 1916-04-13

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knowing what they contain. As to
the contents of the petition | think you
can ind hundreds OF citizens in Hen
Jacksonville township who can clearly
SIT . straight on this matter.
I am afraid your memory either is not
good or that you misjudge that of the
public. You will probably now recall
that when you first started your critl-
cisms, something more than a yea"
ago. letters from Mr.. Spoon and DR..
Pratt were publiShed,-in fact, MI
Spoon wrote an article in Southern
Good Roads, advocating the same
method for sanding roads as that used
by Henderson County. 1t has always
been my purpose and intention to put
the sand on the roads when they are
as muddy as possible. This, however,
can not always be done, since a force
can not be organized and disorganized,
waiting each time for a rain. and since
there are certain places from which
send has been hauled where it could
not have been gotten during wet
weather. Since sand was first placed
on the roads of Henderson County the
second application has only been USED
during the winter when the roads were
wet or when they soon would be.
l was certainly not aware of the fact
that l was a victim of hero worship,
and am more than surprised to know
that o would acknowledge that any
one would even approve of any of my
rOad work. AS to yOur remarks in re-
gard to Ben Souther, they are as mucn
out of place, untrue and ridiculous as
the balance of your statements. l
nave in public many times. as well as
to every one with whom | came in
contact, praised the work Of B. B.
SCuther. No II knows his qualities,
his splendid road ability more than /
n no one is more willing to give hipl
the full praise to which he is entitled.
Were it not for the fact that l think a
great deal of Henderson County and
her road system, l would already have
had Ben Souther with me in Green
vile. Men of his type are not easily
found and he would be of great assist
ance to me. This is not the first time
l nave kept him from giving up the
henderson County roads. / feel that
the county needs him. However. | be-
lieve some of the roads in Henderson
County were built by me with othei
man than B. B.. Souther, A. F. Byers,
T.. H. Liverett, l.. T. Dermid, F. C. JUS
tus and E. w. Ward to all of whom l
give just credit. l now have some OF
these men with me here who 1 have
trained and others 1 am now training,
amounting to sixteen in all, who l hope
Will be able to build roads in Green
Vile County. In my recent article in
which l stated that you criticised me
for not building concrete roads all
over Henderson County with $25, 900, /
endeaVored to give you the most favor
able view. You certainly will not deny
the fact that you advocated concrete
roads and l take it you wished the
people of Henderson County to be-
Ieve that $25 900 would build a con-
siderable mileage, when as you know,
II you are as well informed as most
people about concrete roads, that Hen
derson could not have built two mile>
o. road with this amount of money
since the cost of concrete roads is no.:
claimed by any one to be less than
$4,000 per mile and only her with
very expensive machinery. Now,
which side of the question will you
take? That you criticize me for not
building roads all over the county, as
| formerly stated, or would you criti-
cize me for not building with this
$25 600 two miles of road? Take which
ever horn of the dilemma you wish.
| repeat that at the same time you
were criticizing me together with the
rest OF the Hendersonville township
commissioners you we're expecting to
be one of a committee to expend $780,
900 on the extension of a few streets
within the corporate limits of Hender-
SonVille. This statement is consistent.
You may. attempt to make your denial
as clear as you wish. 1 repeat again
for your careful consideration taat
were it not for the fact that l am very