The weekly soliphone., 1917-04-12
HOPKINS KICKS
 ON GOOD ROADS
Greene County Citizen Thinks Pro- posal to Tax Property Savers
 Of Confiscation.
To The E4itor of Tue So.ipho Q:

To The F1itor of Tue So.ipno@o:
 We noticed ill ;-lc -oiiplonc that at a meeting of the Chamber Of : Commerce, quite an interesting au- ,dience of good roads boosters be-
 came thoroughly intoxicated with enthusiastic enthusiasm, while dis : cussing the modern highway prop osition We enter a protest, not against modern highways or good reads, but against tAe system by which these roads are proposed to be made. We arc now grooming un- der the burden of ditch taxes. There 1seems to be no relief in sight but on the contrary, it gets worse. On account of the river levee not be- ling made high enough it washed lout. Now there is an extra bond tissue of $75,000 to fill up the gap. Locust Creek was stopped without an outlet, has filled up, hence an lother expense to clean it out.
 Our little homes are mortgaged for this work, and we have to foot Ithe bill This modern highway proposition proposes to build the lroads on the same plan. Now, broth CT farmer, if you have been asleep flor years it is time for you to wake up. We may be class of soft headed hayseeds. We may not know constitution from constipation, but we do know what confscation |means when it warns us to wake Iup or it will transfer the title to our little homes.
 Now, you are living inside of the district, where this modern high way is proposed to be made; let me call your attention to a few things
 which passed at this enthusiastic meeting referred to- in order that you may know what we are up against. We notice first, that it was an occasion taken advantage of by
 wide-awake business and profes- sional men to express their deter imitation to have modern highways, regardless of the amount of oppo- sition that may be encountered We infer from this that they expect to meet opposition; yet they pro- pose to force a bond issue over our protest Would they be so persis- tent if they expect to bear their pro rata of the burden? To soft soap the farmer (who is expected to foot the bilD it was predicted that two dollars per acre would be ample to build the road, and al bond issue for twenty years, the tax would be so light that the most miserly could not complain. They estimated that $4,122.35 would be ample. for the road east and south east of Paragould. This assertion was made without knowing any thing about the condition of the roads east of Paragould, or making a calculation of the number of acres inside of the district as outlined for there is less than 25,000 acres to build 23. miles of road. I am only directly interested in the Hopkins bridge road, from where it leaves the Mitchell point road to the Mis- souri line. If the farmers who are Interested in the Mitchell Point and and Eight Mile road want a crushed rock road, built on the bond issue system, let them lay off their dis trict so as to leave us out and build their own roads. My reasons for this protest are first, our pres ent heavy ditch tax; second, liar per's Slough must be ditched before we undertake to build a road; third, Locust Creek ditch must have an outlet. so as to draw the water out of Mud Slough, in which the wa
 ter now stands from one to three feet deep over a half mile; fourth, the Lake ditch is now overflowing and there is at least three times as much water running down the old channel as the ditch can carry. II am not going to try to estimate the cost of levying and building iron bridges acrosss Mud Slough land the lake, for 1 do not know. The two combined make a little over mile. l have been living in Green county for forty-six years. It looks like that is long enough to make a man want good roads. 1 certainly would appreciate them, but oh heck, you know what mean. Eliminate graft and let us have voice in the administration these good roads expected to have to mortgage their property to pay for them and did not expect to get a stool at the pie counter they would shut their lips and say no