Year: 1874

/
been constructed passing through thai
county which could not at that time
have been built had not the State loaned
her credit by taking stock in aid of its
construction. It can be said of these
Improvements as is claimed to be the
case with subscriptions to railroads by
counties, that all has been lost to the
State, because she was compelled to sell
her stock in the turnpikes for a nominal
sum; and noy has to spend a large
amount annually to keep the canals in
| running condition. Although the State
does not directly derive a revenue from
these public works, yet no sane man that
is conyersent with the history of the
State, her rise and rapid progress in
wealth ard population in consequence OF
these improvements, would pretend to
claim that these public works have not
been a great advantage to the State and
to large portion of her people individ-
ually, and even now, although the State
could afford without loss to abandon
them or sell them to the lowest bidder.
have no doubt but if she undertook to
dispose of them, that the people of that
county would rise up almost as one man
to try to preserve them for the purposes
for which they were constructed and the
great local use they prove to be, and con-
tend for the State to continue to operate
or keep them in repairs at the cost of
the State as heretofore; and if | am not
mistaken the gentleman from Pickaway


Mr.. Page voted for that policy by op-
posing an amendment offered by the
gentleman from Geauga Mr.. Hitchcock
to section 6 of Article XII.


These public works cost the State as l
have stated $22, 100000, forty years ago,
for which she paid or issued her bonds
She constructed with this expenditure
500 miles of canal of which Pickaway
county has about % miles or the 1872
part of the whole, and also got her equal
portion of the turnpike built by the aid
OF the State-charge her up with the l-32
part of so, 100000 and she alone received
out of the treasury of the State the sum
S6S1 800 for the first cost of these works,
but that is not all, the State has paid the
interest on this sum for forty years which
must be added to the first cost and
which at simple interest amounts to the
sum of S2,4l7,5 800, and if this was COM
pounded as the gentleman from Lake
Mr.. Bosworth compounds the money
paid to construct railroads, God only
knows how much Pickaway county is
justly indebted to the State for money
paid and expended for her use. l have
d
amount at simple interest would be as
much as the exceedingly sensitive peo-
pie of that county, over this subject
would be willing to refund when re-
minded of the unjust and iniquitous way
according to their own theory in which
1t wrenched in part from the poor people
of Jackson county.


There is no guess work in this matter.
What l nave stated is founded upon actual
calculation, and figures, which, when prop
erly used, will not lie.


Under these favorable circumstances
Plckaway county with her riclgAoil and
great breadth of territory has become an
important county of the State, both in
population and wealth.


Jackson county, for twenty years after
the canals of the State were constructed,
was compelled to haul by wagon, over the
rough clay roads over the hills and through
the mud, all the surplus productions other
soil. which in wheat was no small amount,
to some point on the Ohio River, mostly
to the city of Portsmouth, a distance
from the center Of the county of 35 miles,
and in the mean time had Topped off two
of her best townships to aid in forming
the county of Vinton. Under these cir
cumstances much of her lands remained
.
her duplicate was made and kept small,
and her population about $4,000 souls.
Her people then plainly saw the situation,
the State had supplied the wants of
majority of the counties of the State by
raising taxes creating debt and build
ing system of public works that enabled
most of the counties of the State to rap
idly increase in population and wealth,
but had left her out in the cold, this ma
jority OF. the counties thus provided for,
now like the virtuous people of Pickaway
and Lake, suddenly saw the great sin
the violation of a great governmental
principle which was that of taxing the
people for the purpose of building rail
roads or making public improvements,
and their bowels of compassion began to
yearn for the widow and the orphan lest
the oppressive hand of the taxgatherer
should visit their houses to collect money
levied without their consent, but at the
same time they shut their eyes to the
fact, and close their ears to the appeals,
that jackson and other counties had
been for twenty years paying their pro
rata shares to aid them in constructing
their works, and were equally bound with
them to fully discharge the debt made
by the State until the utmost farthing is
paid. Her people seeing and under
standing all this, in 1S49 and 1850, OBJ
tanned from the Legislature leave to vote
500, 100000 to construct or aid in con-
structing a railroad, the money was
voted and the road was built in 1858
when the county, although her territory
was reduced, leaped forward in the race,
and in ten years her population increas-
ed so per cent and her duplicate at a
much greater rate.


Tn naoaDob how 1870 n ;++oa 1roS n
pointed composed of the Auditor of the
county with other competent gentlemen
of the county, to investigate the subject
of the propriety of the county loaning
her credit to aid in constructing q COM
peting line of railroad, and they report
ed among other things ''that the number
of furnaces in the county at the COM
mencement of the present railroad was
three-now seventeen. These seventeen
furnaces produce annually from 45, 900
to $4,000 tons of pig iron at its (then)
present value being worth 2-l4 million
dollars annually. Taxes paid by these
furnaces in jackson county since 1865
not going back of that period, over $751;
600, and by those built since the railroad
was built over sos, 900. Amount of taxes
paid bv the Marietta e. Cincinnati rail


road from 1865, to 1872, 3,Sl8.50 being


an average of So, ,4S0 for each year max


ing total paid by the furnaces and rail


roads in years alone, of $124,0O0 oil


about l-5 of the entire taxes paid during
that time. The committee are of the


opinion that the whole amount paiC


since the railroad was built, by the roaC


and furnaces is notless than $25O,000, be


ing $l5O,O00 more than the county sub


scribed, and that the increase of wealth


in the county by it's mineral developed by


the building of the present railroad car