Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1921-03-24

! fact is, those land owners-and the
Great Northern Paper Company is
| one of the largest Of those land
owners, feel aggrieved to have the
State say to them. We are going to
. hold you up. We are going to force
| you to sell some of your land at
some kind of price to be agreed
| upon by county commissioners or
somebody else. We are going to
place that right in our statutes so
that we can hold you up any time.
Now there comes the question per-
| haps the State Park never can be
, established unless we use the right
| OF eminent domain. I do not know
how that will be. But the question
before us right here this morning is
very simple one. Are the condi-
tons here in Maine such that under
our Constitution public exigencies
| demand that we exercise the right
j of eminent domain against the land
owners? / do not believe they are.
Mr.. President, my belief is that we
/ can within a few years have a
! Katahdin Park, but we will not do
! it by antagoniZing and fighting such
, institutions as the Great Northern
Paper Company. If we do it, we
! will do it by working in unison with
! them and cooperating with them.
! That is the way to get a park.
/ Now I want, as a representative
! from Piscataquis county, to explain
to you why I have some personal
! feelings about this matter 1t wasn't
! great many years ago that the
, land owners. or certain part OF
! them, were always opposing what
we people in our cOunty--and L i've
! in one of the largest wild land coun-
ties in the State-what we believed
was a fair, reasonable increase IN
the taxation of wild lands. They
always maintained a lobby here,
/ fighting us every inch of the way.
! Now when these lands went into
these great concerns like the Great
Northern Paper Company, they
adopted INN ediately different pol
icy, Il broader and more liberal pol
icy. They are willing to pay their
taxes There is no murmuring now.
All they want apparently is what IS
just and fair and equal.
Now, further than that, the Great
Northern Paper Company has built
something like 100000 worth of
good auto highways right in the
dense wilderness in Pi3cataquis
county. They have pursued that
same broad policy which they have
about taxation, and they nave
opcncd those roads-they don't for
bid anybody-the man coming down
here to see Maine and putting out
his money from New York or Phila-
delphia can ride up there, and they
do every summer. We have the
right as citizens to use them. They
are omen to the public. Now about
three years ago we said to the Great
Northern Paper Company - our
county people and grangers were
interested in that county-now we
said to the Great Northern Paper
Company. Here is a connecting link
of your highway system in that will
( derncss leading by your camps and
your storehouses of nine miles,
which has not yet been built, from
I Greenville village to lilly Bay. and
it will be of great benefit to our far
mers in PiscataQuis county if we can
have that connecting link in there.
They said, I'VE will cooperate with
you. We have wanted it, We can
( sec the neccsTity of it. But we have
not felt yet like building it, but If
you people are enough interested we
J will take hold and cooperate with
YOU" So that corporation paid &
little more, as it turned out, than
one-third, but the proposition was,
the arrangement made, that the cor
poration, the county of PiSCataqui.i
and the town Of GrGenVillc should
build that road together. which we
did. And in the whole history of
any attempt to develop northern
psicatapuis, up in that wilderness
country, in the whole history of it.
Mr. President, it is the one instance
where we have attempted to build
new road in an unorganized town
ship, where by employing able COun-
sci the land owners can control the
situation.---it is the only instance
! where a road has been built without
/ opposition before the county COM
missionors and before the supreme
court-becausc that corporation CO.
I operated with us. Now what is the
result? Oar formers in Piscataquis
county today can take their auto
trucks. go from Dover, from MonSon,
from Guilford, Sebe". anywhere in
that county, drive right un there and
in one forenoon they are at the camp
stOrehouscs of the Great Northern
! Paper Company unloading their
produce at one of the best markets
for farm produce in tho whole Uni
ted states Now that is how the
Great Northern has benefited us.
Now I say that I could not come
oycp here and vote at present, until L
feel that the public eXigencies de-
mand more than I can see it now
vote to antagonizc such corporation
as that, that has been of so much
i benefit to Piscataquis County, to it's
farmers and to it's business men, as
has the Great Northern Paper Com
pany. | can say truthfuliy, ] never
took a retainer from tho Great North
ern Paper Company in my life. l
certainly haven't any at this time. ]
wish l had. They are good paymas-
tcrs. They pay their help from the
smallest to the highest well and Ii
bcrally. 1t is n good corporation. And
representing as 1 do the county of
Piscataquis, which is in such cordial
relations with that company as it is.
and is in debt to them, as they are.
for their broad and liberal policy, 1