The weekly tribune and the Cape County herald. (Cape Girardeau, Mo.) 1914-1918, 1916-05-19
PETITIONS BEING
CIRCULATED, But
FARMERSARESHY
Scheme Will Solve Question
of Building Bridges Over
Drainage bitches.
FARMERS UP IN ARMS
OVER 100000 GRAB
Residents of Southern Part Of
County May be Marooned
When Roads Are Cut.

Petitions calling for a 100000
bond issue, to be used on the public
roads of Cape Girardeau County, are
being circulated among the farmers.
If the required number of signatures
are obtained, the proposition will be
submitted to the voters in the early
summer.
The identity of the leaders in this
movement has been kept in the back
ground, but it is understood that an
itinerant spieler from st. Louis is to
be imported into this county to beat
the bushes and drum up sentiment for
the bond issue. He is reported to be
q professional and is on the payroll
of the St. Louis bonding houses which
make a speciality of dealing in good
roads bonds.
If the project should be submitted
to the voters and passed, the law pro-
vides for the organization of good
roads district, which is composed of
several commissioners, who will fix
the taxes and spend the money. The
taxes will be assessed upon the propo-
Sition of benefits. In other words,
property owners who receive the
greatest benefit by the improvement
will be called upon to pay the largest
share of the tax.
Farmers who have learned of the
proposed bond issue, believe it is being
fathered by people friendly to the
drainage district. In case the bond
issue carries, the question of building
the bridges over the county roads
which are to be cut by the Little River
Drainage District would be settled.
These could be provided for out of
the 100000 bond issue by the COM
missioners who will have charge of
making the improvements and decid
ing how the money shall be spent.
According to reports in circulation
in Cape Girardeau, the Little River
Drainage District will give the pro-
posed bond issue its unstinted support
A bond issue of such immense proper
tons is intended to obscure the $780,
900 cost of building the bridges. 1t is
believed that if a 100000 bond issue
were submitted to the voters for the
sole purpose of providing bridges over
the canals made by the Little River
Drainage District, it would be de-
feated. The farmers of this county
are up in arms because they have been
called upon to pay 100000 for the
benefit of the drainage people, and
they have announced they would vote
against q bond issue to provide the
bridges.
BY making the issue for S1,OOO,OOO
payable in twenty years, the bridge
question could be settled by the COM
missioners setting aside the 100000 |
for the bridges and using the remain
ing 100000 to improve the highways |
This would avoid bringing the bridge |
question to direct issue with the
voters.
But under the provisions of the law,
the burden of the bridges would fall |
upon certain property owners with |
greater severity than on others AS |
the tax assessments would be arranged |
on basis Of benefits, the farmers
whose lands are located along the |
roads which are to be cut by the |
drainage district would be called upon
to pay the bulk of the taxes, because
they would receive more benefits than
the. farmers who live along roads |
which will not be disturbed by the
drainage work.
Many farmers, living south of the
line of the Diversion channel, are
afraid they are going to be cut off
from Cape Girardeau, and according
to those who are familiar with pres
ent conditions, their fears are well
founded.
For instance, if the county roads are
cut and no bridges built across the
bitches, the people living south of the
bitches will not be able to visit the
city. The Diversion channel will be
1900 feet wide, or a river in width
and depth. To cross this stream ex-
cept on a barge will be impossible.
When this grave question is brought
to the attention of the farmers, the
friends of the drainage project say,
they will vote for the bond issue. But
the farmers living in the northern part
of the county, who will not be discom-
NODDED by the destruction of the roads,
will vote against the bond issue on the
grounds that they do not propose to
bear the burden of the drainage COM
pany and the land -ners living in