The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1916-02-27
Jury Cost Much More.

Jury Cost Much More.
With the courts taken away from
mere n combined at Fort Madison,
the cost Of juries will be much great
er- Now, a man who resides in keo-
u and is drawn on a jury is allowed
TO cents for mileage. If there was
one court only at Fort Madison, he
would have to be paid the full mile
age there and back, every time the
Jury was called, and would also get
his per diem besides for the time he
spent travelling. The grand jury ex-
pense would be much greater for the
same reason. The expense Of prison.
ers would be more, because where
prisoners now are taken to our county
jail for terms, they would have to be
transported to Fort Madison, and the
county would have to pay the expenses
Of the prisoner, and the officers taking
them there. This in itself would be
a large item.
"Tf we had only n court house.
the expense Of other business would
be increased. People like to see the
tax books when they pay taxes. 1t
would cost a whole lot more to go to
Fort Madison from any point in this
part of the county than it would to
come to Keokuk to pay taxes to the
treasurer here. And as for the county
recorder, the office here is kept
buster for the most part, than the one
in Fort Madison.
Same Number Employed.
ut is very doubtful if there would
be any saving anywhere in q COM
bination OF the present county offices
If there was one office at Fort Madi-
o n it would take the clerk. deputy
and at least one ste~nographer to taxi
care of all the business The same
would be true for the other offices. The
same number of officials would be re-
CURED, no matter what the conbina-
ton was. You can't expect to COM
bine two factories which have each
been employing ten men, and have the
work done by ten, alone. You would
have to keep the same number, twenty,
in order to have your work all done
This is the same situation as here
That the people are signing the Pc
tition on the representation that 1t
will reduce county expenses is the
general belief Of people who have
looked into the matter. It is not that
1t is being represented that the idea
is to take tn, court house away
from Keokuk.
"Will politics coming this year, cut
any figure in signing these pet1tions?"'
It was asked.
Turn Vote Against Sieners.
"Well, it shouldn't any more than
to turn the vote Of Keokuk and this
section of the county against every
official in the upper district who sigh
cd the petition was the reply.
. If Keokul1 will say to these people,
there is one-third of the county here,
and if you sign the petition We won't
vote for you. it is not likely that
there will be many signatures or
present county officials on the list
And by the same token the officials at
Keokuk should be Keokuk-spirited
enough to refuse to put their names
on the petition.
That the Fort Madison attorneys
are not in favor of the petition ana
do not expect to sign 1t Is the state
ment of one man from Fort Madison
whose name. of course, can not Ea
used in this connection, but who be-
"1SN - 1880
iieves that many people in Fort Mad
ison do not consider the plan fe2slble,
Another Fort Madison man demanded
to know Of a certain county official
of Fort Madison who signed the peti-
ton. why he did 50. And when old
that he didn't realize the extent or
the idea. gave the official some good
advice on signing petitions without
reading them.
1t only takes signatures Of one-hall
of the voters to sign away a county
seat. but It takes two-thirds vote TO
bring It back again.
Bv all means let loyal keokuk
stand by the city and not sign away
cur rights Just because it is the fash
ion to sign petitions to shorten the
way to Tipperary or because 1t is the
fashion to holler for economy.