The Mena weekly star., 1917-08-30
ANTI-HICHWAY
 FIGHT TO MENA
A Large Audience Of Farmers and Business Mena Heard the Opposi- ton and Some Fantastic Figur-
 ing-Next Effort at Hatfield.

The anti-highway folks held a meeting Saturday at the courthouse.
 E. D. Myers, vice president of the
 Bank of Hatfield, large landowner
 and probably the biggest cattle man
 i'll Polk county, was chairman and Iehief speaker, while Joe Lewis, who classilies himself as a farmer, made
 an address. Both were strongly
 against the proposed Jefferson
 Highway i'll Polk county.
 t was the ayowed purpose of the speakers to hold strictly anti-high- way meeting and to bar all from the lother side of the question, but as the
 meeting progressed, MT. Myers al lowed few questions to be asked, and Mir. Lewis most courteously granted few moments to state ment bearing on the cost and dis
 trlbution of the burden on the vari- ous classes that would pay the tax 1 1T the highway was built.
 Mr. Myers, in opening. expressed
 his appreciation of the large audi ence and stated the purpose of the
 meeting, which was to fight the highway. Before he had gone far he repeatedly designated those who
 favored the enterprise as plutocrats.
 who desired to force upon the farm CTS the burden of a highway. over which they (the plutocrats) could
 take pleasure. He declared boldly that If those plutoerats did not like conditions as now existing in Polk county they could get out-that they
 have our permission to go.n He talked of the poor farmer. of the weight of his burden and how hard It was for him to make ends meet and pay his taxes. Then he took Up his own experience, and told how a few years ago he bought a small farm out west of Hatfield. and how by improving the soil and by economy he had gotten a start. He related that he now owned i,l0O acres near Hatfield and 800 across the line in Oklahoma. How he had, by raising cattle on his place en- lriched the soil until his various farms now produced several times as much per acre as when he bought them, and urged that it was good farming and more stock the county needed, not highways.
 Remarks were heard about the house that Ed had nobly proved his ability and claim to the place of farm demonstration.
 Then Mr Myers gave a fine eulo- gy of the COW of how it provided food for us in our earliest days, and was solace and an aid all thru life, and everybody in hearing was ready to declare for the COW.
 The speaker talked against the highway because of the war, declar- ing no man knew what the war tax was going to be, and that it was no time to throw such a burden on the farmer About here Mr. Myers per- mitted an interruption and was asked if it was not a fact that Pres ident Wilson had urged the people to go on with their business enter .prises. and if he had not said it would be the worst thing we could do to do otherwise: and if he had in any way heard of any tax that Con greSs had even hinted on placing on the farmer because of the war? And, further. if President Wilson had not within few days past, an- nounced 1t to be the policy of the to use it's powers to see that the farmers should receive high prices for his products that by such course production should be increased to meet the worlds grow ing demands
 Mr. Myers did not deny any of the assertions. but did say the president had not said to start new enter prises.
 He then referred to figures he had placed on a blackboard, presuming to show the cost of the highway and this presentation was in all truth the fantastic feature of the meeting
 He gave his estimated cost of the highway. then the interest on the total amount for one year. He then mad tine taxpayers Of the district go to the Polk county banks and borrow the money at 10 per cent interest, with which to pay the road tax, and added that to the cost. The next year he repeated the process, com pounding the interest, again at 10 per cent, and added the result to the total cost. and on, year by year, un- till al the end of 20 years the banks, to his figures, had bled the farmers mo one paid anything but the farmers under his plan-of most a million dollars in interest all at 10 per eent--and still owed the principal the whole thing had run up from S240000 to around 2 millions. To make it clearer, Mir. Myers-and he is banker mind you said he might conclude to build two miles of road from his place to the highway al Hatfield. He figured it something like this: First cost. 5000 Interest at bank. year. 800
 Fetal .......... ...s,. ,.......,S $500 Second year interest. SS0
 Total . ........s,s..-...S 9,680 Vfbir1 xaop fufarpsi Q69