Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1916-02-24
YOU CANT FOOL
ALL THE PEOPLE
ALL THE TIME

Il
ALL THE TIME
/ Mr.. Editor:
| On this anniversary of Lin
coin s birthday we would re-
spectf,llly call the attention Of
the Pine City County Seat Com.
mittee to. one Of the most famous
sayings Of the great American
Statesman. viz: You can fool
|an Of the people part Of the time,
and part Of the people all Of tho
time, but you cant fool all Of the
people all of the time. &"
/ ! hardly need call the atten-
tion of the intelligent voters of
Pine county to the absardity of
some of the statements and argn.
ments put forth by the Pine City
committee.
| Last fall their newspaper and
many of their leading citizens
ladmitted openly that a new court
house was necessary and that to
build was the only sane, sensible
and economic thing to do, they
were even in favor of spending
| $100,000.00 for such building
and said that the county could
| well afford it. Now they say 1t
| is better to fix up the old one.
We're they trying to fool the peo-
Iple last fall or are they trying to
| fool the people nowY
| They told you i'm their letter
that the cost of two elections
would be $15, ,000.o0, certainly i'm.
lplying that these two elections
would cost the taxpayers Of the
'comty $15,G00.00--every intelli.
gent voter knows that this is no,
Iltrne and the figures and records
show that the last election cost
the taxpayers less than $1,000. LOO.
AT juggling figures they are
past masters, they try to startls
us by saying that to build new
courthouse at Hinckley and move
the county seat will cost $265
p0000, they might just as well
have made it good one and said
,s265, ,0O0, ,O000O, it would have
taken little more printers ink,
that is all. Every one who has
gone into the matter at all
knows that il will cost
the county less than 100000
will cost from $50, 900 to $65, 900.
As good courthouses are being
built in this and other states for
these amounts, why should one
cost more in Pine Connty9 The
absurdity Of adding the interest
on the money borrowed to the cost
of the building is apparent to
IIall. You might just as appro-
Ppriately offset this by charging
the county rent for the use of the
building.
I'm any event the amount to be
spent for a new courthouse will
Inot be matter for Hinckley or
Pine City to decide, but will be
put up to all the people to de-
eide for themselves.
If an $4,000 courthouse has
done us for the past 81 years it
would seem that a $65, 900 one
should do us now for 80 or 100
years to come. This talk of a
$500, 600 building is all bosh put
out to scare the voters.
But the statement put out by
the Pine City committee in last
week 3 press purporting to show
what the courthouse would cost,
as sample of Juggling fignres
Ifor a purpose takes not only the
cake, but the whole bakery and
all the property adjoining. II Is
an insult to the intelligence of
the voters of Pine County to as
sumo that any one would swal-
low if. We can hardly believe
that it was not intended for a
joke. We do not have to 90 far
ther than the first item. Inter-
| TEST on bonds for 20 years ST.
10000; we have always been
led to believe that this was the
cost of the money and not the
cost of the building and that be-
fore the money was paid we had
1.-the use of it which was worth to
I'ns some where near the interest
1--we paid.
II You ask q farmer what his
barn cost him and he viii tell
you that he paid out for labor
and material, say 100000 and