The Nespelem tribune. [volume] (Nespelem, Wash.) 1934-1936, 1934-10-24

been directly in charge and respon-
Sible for the building OF some sixty
miles Of railroad, Of which twenty
miles has been standard road bed
construction. I have not found any
of this difficult construction and
might add that we have now under
construction four miles OF railroad
that parallels the proposed roaS at
cost of less than 5000 per mile for
road bed construction. have spent
lot of time going over the road
possibilities and can truthfully say |
that there is no difficult engineer
ing or construction problem on any
of the proposed road.
feel it only just and proper to
uphold Mr.. Laycock to the extent
of answering any and all statements
to the effect that he is wasting the
peoples money and is building this
road for the sole purpose of person.
al gains for himself and other pri-
vate enterprises.
When Mr.. Laycock made the
statement that his decision on the
Disautel-Nespelem route was for the
best interest of the people of Ok
anogan county, he had the facts
and did not depend on what he
heard and, to bear this out, m
going to give you some figures for
your consideration. Then you may
be your own judge.
Before going further, would like
to say that I do not think anyone
is much interested in the past but,
since we are living in new age,
we are hoping to live in the future
but in order to outline what the
future has in store for us, it is ne
cessary that I refer back to the past
| in defense of Mr.. Laycock.
I wonder how many people know
that from 1922 to March 80, 1884,
his referred to private enterprise"
namely Biles-Coleman Lumber Co.,
has paid out in labor $1,557,514.53 in
the logging and railroad depart
ment, which is in the DiSautel vic
unity This is an average of $121,-
1884 per year, or $10,121.62 per
month. Its payroll sheets show that
the people who received this money
live in all four corners of the coun-
ty and does not include feed and
team hire which was purchased
from the farmers and runs into
thousands of dollars. A road by way
of Disautel- Nespelem would not be
wasted so badly after all, would it?
Disautel has a population of some
hing like 275 people, has a school
with two teachers, with an enroll
ment of 60 pupils; ITO eligible to
register. This is only a small COM
munity and, with bringing the en-
tire Nespelem valley and the Coulee
dam into the picture, where else in
Okanogan county is there another
valley which has produced so much
revenue in the form of cash, and
where else is there road that has
had as little money spent on it as
the Disautel-N road? Never
before was there one dime of perm
anent road construction money
spent on it.
Now we pass on to the future,
referring to the total payroll paid
out in the past twelve years, Biles-
Coleman Lumber company has,
under contract, sufficient timber to
repeat the above expenditures in the
next twelve years and it is only
reasonable to expect that they will
do that much, if not more. A
highway by way of Disautel
Nespelem taps the richest natural
resources in Okanogan county,
which timber value alone will run
in excess Of two and one-haM
million dollars which will represent
a labor cost to harvest it in excess
of another four million dollars.
This may seem like big figures but,
to make long story short, the past
twelve years payroll can, and no
doubt, will, be made perpetual so
far as this present generation is
concerned and yet, they say it is
money wasted.
just think and suppose proposed
road would be instrumental in
causing Mr.. Laycock's oft-referred
to mine" to open up and put on
another hundred or two men, would
you not consider that a benefit and
beyond that, the Nespelem valley
and the Coulee dam? However, this
prospect is eight miles from the
Omak-Disautel- Nespelem road
twice as far from the route as the
property in the town of Okanogan
If any ore is ever taken from this
prospect it is only natural to believe
that it's owners will seek railroad
transportation since the survey of
he Biles- Coleman railway runs
through it.
Voters and taxpayers of Okla
hogan county, again ask you: Are
you going to let anything that
1eans so much to our county stop
us from having this road? Here is
a solution, elect Joe Laycock for