1910-04-24-colville-examiner-p3-rube-on-new-detillion-bridge

April 24, 1910 Colville Examiner Page 3:

Reflections of a Rube

"A chain is only as strong as its weakest link."

"A road is as good as its worst hill."

During the last campaign for county offices I was accosted by a gentleman from Newport, who was a candidate for county commissioner. He was accompanied by a gentleman from the upper Columbia valley, who wished to succeed Thos. Major in that district. Their plea was that the county should be run on a business basis. One of them gave me a card with a beautiful picture of a nice old man with a "Billy goat" beard and a line which read "Vote for a business man to control the county’s business." These gentlemen were the republican nominees for commissioners.

I have heard for years that in choosing county officers we should look at policies and not politics, therefore I listened with interest to these gentlemen, and I said: "If you are elected I am going to watch with equal interest your administration." They were elected, and here is the result of my observations:

I received my tax receipt for 1909 the other day and compared it with my 1908 tax receipt. I was surprised to find that it cost about 60% more to run the county on a business basis than on the other basis, whatever it was. Or, to be exact, my total county tax in 1908 was 12.42 mills, while in 1909 it was 18.20 mills or an increase of 5.88 mills, and while my road and bridge tax for the county was 2.50 mills in 1908 it was 3.10 mills in 1909, and my district road tax had raised from 4 mills to 5 mills in the same time, a total increase of 1.6 mills, or about 25% more than the previous year.

Now I believe in good roads and in paying to get them, therefore I said this is good. We will have better roads in this district now. And as we are 25 or 30 miles from a railroad we can afford more taxes to better our roads. I hope we shall soon see the result of this heavier tax.

I was compelled to make a visit to Davenport recently and I crossed the Spokane river at Detillion’s bridge. I noticed that a new bridge was being built there, and as the old one is only six or seven years old, I asked a man who was working there, why?

He said that the old one was a foot or two out of line, at least its middle pier was.

On looking the bridge over I could see that that was so, and I asked him if they could put a new pier in there.

"O, yes," he said, "the original plan was to do that, but after part of the material was delivered the commissioners changed their plan and decided to build a new bridge. It will be one of the finest west of the Rockies. They put it below the rock, because they could get a pier on that side easier by blasting the rock off than by making a concrete one on this side."

I answered: "Well, if they are going to build a bridge as good as that why don’t they put it where we can use it. To reach that bridge I will have to pull over that clay hill on a 4% grade and then pull down that grade again for 80 rods before I can get on it, and it will take four good horses to pull a ton up it when it is dry, and when it is wet a buggy will sink half hub deep, and where do you suppose a load will go? If I want to go the other way I will be compelled to pull over this hill also. On the other bridge I can go over a level road, and if they will level the old bridge there I will use it and look at this one. If they don’t, I will use the Nee bridge, eight miles lower down the river. I don’t see why the commissioners should spend $11,000 or $12,000 building a new bridge when the old one could be repaired for a third as much and would serve the public 10 times better."

I have since heard that the old bridge stood the highest water we have had in the Spokane in years. True, the traffic is not going that way, because the commissioners have pronounced it in danger. But before high water came the bridge men had built a concrete pier for the new bridge, and by that token they could have repaired the old one in time to have made it safe.

It may be good business for the United Steel Company to buy this new bridge, but we Rubes do not believe it is good business to increase our taxes and make our loads harder to haul.

So, Mr. Businessman, when you come again you will have to show us why we want you to build more monuments to carelessness, ignorance or graft.

A RUBE.