, 1923-09-26
Brookhart's Canny Offer

Brookhart's Canny Offer
Since the farm discussion between Senator
Brookhart and former Secretary of Agriculture
Meredith, both Iowa statesmen, resulted in n
libel suit filed by the latter against the former,
inquiring newspapers of that safe have been
looking into the merits of the matter and from
the Davenport Times these facts are learned:
Senator Brookhart's offer of his profits oil
his excellent 40 acre farm with an excellent
crop of wheat, corn and everything" as a settle
ment of the suit brought against him by L. L.
Meredith prompted the Muscatine Journal to
make an investigation of the holding, TO which
the Farmer-Labor advocate makes such frequent
reference. This farm" the senator stated,
carries a 100000 joint land bank mortgage and
If he (Mr. Incredibly will agree to pay the eN-
penses of operation, the interest and the taxes,
l will offer him the whole job in settlement of
his 80 cents"
The inquiring reporter discovered that the
240 acre farm is located in Seventy.six township
in Muscatinc county. 1t is included in the No.
'13 drainage district, the most fought over recla-
nation project of the middle west. Scott county
duck hunters will know the location, when it is
stated that it was a part of the old Keokuk lake.
In a word, the colonel took a flier in swamp
land. About the only thing it was possible to
raise in that area a few years ago was ducks.
Pond lilies and weeds were the only plant
growths. True, the area has been drained, but
it has cost every land owner a lot of money. The
reclamation was a speculative venture, and judg-
ing from the senator's admission, not a very
successful one as far as he was concerned.
The land may be "the finest in the land" but
it's mostly water today. To quote the Journal:
at is said on good authority that a farmer
digging a posthole in this particular region
strikes water when down two or three feet. This
land is on n level with the Mississippi river and
a pumping station is kept constantly going in
order to take the drainage water out of the ditch
and empty 1t into the Muscatine slough. Water
seeps back up underground from the river and
the slough to such an extent that the subsoil is
always soaked, necessitating the expenditure of
large amounts of money in order to keep the
land anywhere dry SO that it can be cultivated.
But what has this to do with Mr.. Brook.
hart's offer to Mr.. Meredith? Simply this:
This state of extreme moisture and tho condi-
tions of this excellent land, which sometimes
raises excellent crops, causes taxes, both land
and drainage, to be extraordinarily high, es-
pecially this year, to which the senator refers.
These taxes, which Mr.. Brookhart would have
Mr.. Meredith pay in return for his 30 cents,
have n very close relation to the profits to be
made in farming this particular 240 acres, as
we shall see.
a searching Of the records at the courthouse
here discloses that the taxes on the Brookhart
farm for this year are as follows:
Land tax $1,55645
drainage tax ................. 1,O44S3
Personal tax ....--............. ZIG
Iotal .$2,67S46
"This land tax seems excessive and it is, for
this reason: There were so many drainage
tb81'1N 'A' tAstA - RNRAA liz "
per cent interest, that the board of supervisors,
in order to clear them up, levied a tax of two
and n half times the regular amount. This sum
OF $l,o5645 also includes drainage maintenance
taxes. The drainage tax itself amounts to
s. ,O4l.S5, or slightly more than $4.35 per acre.
In addition to these taxes there is, as the senator
says, a $4,000 mortgage on the property on
which interest must be paid and, of course, the
expenses of farm operation. Incidentally, the
Brookhart loan of $4,000 was secured from the
Des Moines Joint Stock Land bank Dec. %, 1919
and it is known here that loans sought recently
on other property adjoining that of the Brook
hart brothers, have been refused point blank
because of the drainage conditions prevalent in
that area"
with all this expense upon the land, II the
Brookharts can make their investment pay out,
every farmer on dry soil with but normal taxa.
ton, would be rolling in wealth.
"The writer happens to know something of
the nature of the country, where the colonel does
his farming by proxy. 1t would be more prof
liable to cultivate muskrats than corn or wheat
in the old Keokuk lake bed. Land owners in
that district have been forced to pay not only
high engineering and drainage costs but court
costs running up into thousands of dollars, for
there has been injunction after Injunction fought.
Any one conyersant with the history of that
drainage enterprise would recommend that such
land in the fture be set aside as fish and game
sanctuary, for the cost of putting it to agricul-
tural uses is excessive"
Foreign Conditions