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About Tillamook headlight. (Tillamook, Or.) 1888-1934 | View Entire Issue (April 5, 1917)
TILLAMOÖk - HEADLIGHT. ÂPR il 5. 1917, - — pULL TILLAMOOK OUT OF THE MUD ! Splendid Opportunity of Obtaining Hard Sur faced Highway Through the County with State and Federal Aid. Good Ro»d» Oregon’» Greatest Issue. now, then in the very near future. 1 he time is past when we should con Good roads is the most important sider the advisability of paving our ,» before the peopled Oregon. main roads if we have to consider There i- other question which de- motorized transportation.—F. S Gun 1 7. such earnest consideration. It ning, County Judge of Wasco County. Sns so much to the develownent of ?«tate—so much to the tillers of "Pull Oregon Out of The Mud” soil- ‘hat it must be met square- ----- 0----- The automobile and motor truck Washington has approximately 440 ' e reaching out and changing con ations in ‘he rural districts. The miles of hard surfaced roads, built at “ a°ge has been so complete in plac- a cost of $6,600.000, says the Pacific .h-a wc have before us such con Homestead. Washington has approximately crete examples of vital need oi better foads-From an address by Gover 5,3oo miles of oil and water-bound macadam, gravel and crushed rock nor Withycombe, roads, which, it is estimated by James Allen, State Highway Commissioner, State Wide Road Conference Post- have cost $39,320,000. The expenditures of the State High poncd. way Department in Washington the past eight years represent a total of Instead of being held April 7 or $12,032,095.10 and the tax levies for Anril 14 as originally announced and county road improvement for the hter amended, the state-wide con same period have been as follows: i' „ of good roads supporters has County road and bridge fund, $13,902- ieen postponed to a date lobe an- 812.81, and county road district fund, nounced shortly. 9,707,420.79; aggregate tax levies As delegates have been elected for county road improvement for the from nearly every county, indications period being $33,610,233.60. are that the meeting will be well at- Washington continues to spend big of money for good roads. The ^The Statewide Legislative Good sums people of that state are willing to tax Roads Committee, of which Dr. W. themselves for that purpose, fot they A Wood of Hillsboro, is chairman, have discovered it is the best invest and Bruce Dennis, of LaGrande is ment they can make. secretary, feels that the conference is California has expended $85,000,000 so important that they desire to ar- for good roads. That state plans to in inve it as such a date as will insure vest $15,000,000 more for good roads the largest attendance and the b-»t within the next two years. If these immense stlms had not proved good tCText of formal call, as soon as it is investments, it is not reasonable to assured, will be forwarded. suppose that the citizens of California would continue to put their money in more good roads. Cost Falls on Autos. Citizens of Oregon, can you afford The cost of this bond issue lias been to ignore such a momentous issue? placed on the automobile and most Are you satisfied to remain in the automobile men are glad to pay the mire? If you want the state to devel cost. Why? Because we had rather op and keep abreast with Washington pay our money to build good roads and California, it should be your duty than to pay it out for extra tires and to vote for the $6,000,000 road bond ing act. Help ‘Pull Oregon out of repairs. . ■ Will the people from the interior be the mud.” benefitted? There is no question about that. The bonds mean better Mr. Spence’s Argument Fallacious. roads for every section of the country and better roads mean many things. The Pacific Interstate says C. E. The farm or ranch can be sold for Spence, master of the Oregon State sell. to more money if one wishes Grange, has filed an argument with Marketing is facilitated and the cost secretary of State Olcott against the por get is lessened. The sooner we $6,000,000 road bonding act to be us manent roads the sooner will tile ed in the voters pamphlet. He says he taxes grow less. Good roads cost less favors good roads, but he urges the to maintain. If we dump our money people not to vote a debt upon the each year into a few mud holes and state for what he calls a "luxury." keep it up from year to year we have If that is the main argument Mr. benefitted no one not even the men Spence has against the measure, every who fill the mud holes for they have one of his friends who does not own to pay part of the taxes too. an automobile especially should vote for the bonds. If an automobile is a Automobile God’» Greatest Gift To “luxury”, possibly a paved road is a “luxury.” The quarter mill levy on The Farmer. taxable property now is being applied ----- o----- The automobile is God’s greatest to road construction; the law doubl gift to the farmer. It has brought him ing automobile licenses was enacted more benefits than any other civiliz by the last legislature and will be ed agency. Coupled with g,ood toads, come effective August 1, 1917, but it is the greatest force of the age for the new scale of fees generally is not bettering the farmer’s living condi oprative during the present year. The tion. It puts him within easy i%ach of interest and principal of the bond is town. It gives him the advantage of sue are to be met mostly out of the the city. It has taught him to live the fund created by motor vehicle license. It therefore follows that the burden hours he used to spend in waiting be fore he learned to live 011 pneumatics. is placed on the men who have the It takes much of the drugery out of ability to pay for paved roads, “lux farming. It keeps the young people on uries,” at it were, for the big propor the farm. It keeps him in touch with tion of the people who are not taxed what others are doing—gives hint a for the additional cost of permanent chance to get the outside viewpoint, highways, except that they shall pay and by placing him in frequent con their quota of the quarter mill levy tact with his fellows, puts him in a for road work anyway. We as yet position to take advantage of what haven’t found the owner even of a they have learned. It makes better “flivver” who is not supporting the school attendance. It has made a real bond measure. One of the results of good roads, tanner out of him, because without an automobile he spends half of his as proposed under the bonding act, would be to develop the rural com time as a teamster.—W. S. Allen, munities. The main proportion of the lamhill County, Oregon cost will fall on the shoulders of the urban population. It is simply a prop osition where the farmer is to be Auto Pays The Bonds. benefited in a tremendous way at a That $6,000,000 is a large sum to minimum cost to himself. Mr. Spence, we reiterate that you take away from the taxpayer,” is an assertion being made a good deal in are trying to hoodwink the grange commenting upon the pending road and to play politics at the expense of the state’s real progress and develop- bond issue. The assertion is based upon a prev ment. Again, we suggest that it alent misunderstanding of what the would be a patriotic act on your part act involves. to take a protracted vacation. Nothing in the act requires any in crease of taxation in order to get the »0,000,000. It is the automobile which Washington'» Great Dairy Progrès» Pays the money. Auto license fees Du« to Good Roads. "ave been doubled, and with a nor- t’ai increase in the number of ma Probable the most notable develop chines owned in Oregon, the fees “'ll more than cover the interest and ment incident to the building; of our ,e sinking fund payments to retire fine highways is dairying. W hen we be entire bond issue. Should there be commenced this , 0 increase at all in the number of 15 years ago, we had about aotos used, it would still be unneces- dairy cows on the western side of the Cascade range, and one little . :ond«n- "2 to raise taxes, for the extra 1 ? ®°ney needed would come from the ser at Kent, producing quarter mill road tax. Sup- rarloads, week. With the budding of good roads, the products could be »in t*le road bonding measure j.° *eH to correct the misundeer- brought to market, the farms cleared and the dairy herds' l«re”e^ ttanding. So that today we have m western Washington some 13 c®"d'"*'o good Pern>anent Ro*ds are Inevitable. two in Oregon a. hundred - ■ o ■■ .i - yj’,e hardsurfaced road is inevitable. creameries and cheese tact on , ha,ULCan * Ret »"’ay from this fact. It I s ,n proven so conclusively so t,n,«s that those who cannot ti ’j writing on the wall look with will 1 e\es' The "all-year” road that t»m L*^e iarmer haul his produce :,lr, without making a day’s job tonri’?"e road ‘hat will bring the Oregon has as g , perhaps that,t ¿rare' to our state; the road the " ii j ve’°P Oregon as nothing tlv develop it—is the permanen- th. "lpr°ved road. We must educate ' ,0 1 h« truth . of this. We .hat evaporat- ' Show them that it is the time for this product tl’er*. Washing- s,,ion.‘° come forward with a coni- market. Reports sh » „..n’,ve *ystcm of state highways, ton is the very be»t that go« m-in m ‘hat will include all our market from any p«nt m the routes. All our road ma,l 1,ure from now on should be Th7erm'to tL Government st.nd- ho"'” prOd“Ct’ “ *he basis that the main roads X and « °C hard surfaced, if not right i”‘SSf.is 3-in. i— J"! T'. that can be produced will be sold at a profit. Fifteen years ago, when we began to build good roads, we were selling milk to the condensers at $1.25 per hundred, while the ’ast quotation is about $2.10. What is true of assisting and promoting the dairy farmer is likewise true, in the fullest degree, when applied to the wheat, fruit and other farm interests.—John P. Hart man, Seattle, Washington. Jay Bowerman Speaks. ----- o--■ ■ At a recent good roads meeting at Oregon City, Attorney Jay Bower man, of Portland, who drafted the original bonding bill, gave an inter esting talk on the good roads ques tion. Following are a few scraps of his speech, taken from the Oregon Voter: “1 can’t understand how Mr. Brown can consistently oppose this act and try to prevail upon his farmer friends that it is a vicious measure. Mr. Brown and 1 lived in the same county for a good many years, traveled over the roads which were two feet deep in dust on the level in Summer and impassable muddy bogs in winter. We both moved to Multnomah County where we have enjoyed the benefits of good roads, and why he should want his farmer friends of Eastern Oregon to be condemned to everlast ing wallowing in dust and mud is be yond my comprehension. “Mr. Brown’s chief objections to the bonds, so far as I could gather, was that they do not run long enough I drew the bonding measure myself and know that both interest and prin cipal will be taken care of under the system laid out. There were no dark mysterious star-chamber proceedings, as have been gravely hinted at. I know what I am talking about and no one can justly accuse me of being identified with the paving interests. Why I defeated the Warren Con struction Company in two separate suits in the circuit courts, Would they likely to regard me in a friendly light in consequence? "The legislature labored along for 35 days and had a road code and everything worked out except the means wherewith to build the roads. I concived the idea of capitalizing the quarter-mill tax levy and the automo bile license revenue whereby we could realize a large amount of ready cash and a splendid system of good roads immediately and could take our time in paying for them without costing the taxpayers a single cent. “I will admit that I am a little proud of the idea and cannot see for the life why the farmers, the very ones which the measure is designed to benefit and in whose behalf the peo ple of the state have so generously voted to permit the state to bond it self for $¡8,000,000 to provide them with cheaper money, should arise and condemn this proposition, when they have everything to gain and ab solutely nothing to lose. "The trouble with Mr, Brown is, as he confesses, that he does not know much about the bill he is condemning. I think he is acting in very poor grac when he claims he is representing the | farmers, the very people you and I j helped to secure cheap improvement money, in opposing something we 1 now want. "To show that he does not know ' much about the bill, he asserts that the only roads of first importance designated as the hard-surfaced roads Section 6 of the measure clearly pre scribes that all of the roads desig nated in Sections 6 and 7 of the bill shall be known as ‘roads of the first importance.’ Section 7 prescribes what shall constitute post roads. Doesn’t that look like all of the roads in the measure, with the exception of the forest roads, are of the first importance? “As to the whole matter being put up to the counties, as represented by Mr. Brown, Section 10 of the act pre scribes that the Highway Commission shall designate the routes and pre pare the plans and specifications for all of the roads constructed in the several counties. The county has nothing to do with it and does not have to prepare any road fcr hard- surfacing if it does not want to. “You are not going to have contin uous roads then." interrupted Mr. Brown. . , . , . , “That's a matter that is left entirely with the counties.” replied Mr. Bow erman. "But I’m here to tell you that there will be very few of the counties 1 that will not be ready for the pave ment when the time comes for laying “As to the legislators all voting for the measure because the roads were laid out ‘past their doors I will call your attention to the case of Repre sentative Sam Brown, of Manon County, who owns a big ,0**n^erry ranch near Gervais, and the highway passes in front of his house. He hauls hundreds of tons of berries over this highway with his big auto truck at low expense and he voted against the bill in the legislature. As a matter of fact hard-surfaced roads reduces the I hauling cost to the farmers by at least one-half the present cost. "I feel ill-at-ease in opposing the interests of the farmers. » »fcer are correctly represented by Mr. Brown, • and it is hard for me to believe that thev do oppose the bonding measure. for’I was born and raised upon a farm myself, my father was an active , member of the grange, and be was I hid to his final rest by the farmer s organization. I trust we will all look at this thing from a purely business standpoint and not be guided by short-sighted prejudices. Fallacious INSURANCE PROTECTION Mutual Fire Policy Holders “Pay Up.” ASSETS, #121.71. LIABILITIES, #11,238 Often Repeated Story of Mutual Fire Insurance Difficulties to Pay Losses : Mr. I. C. Rowe, who has a small farm north of town, has sup plied this office with the following information, which passed be tween the MUTUAL FIRE COMPANY, of Portland, Oregon, and himself, and of which we will only give a portion of to cover the essential points : In August, 1914, Mr. Rowe secured from the above company Policy No. 9604 covering $1,400 00 insurance on his house for 3 years. The assessments made on this policy amounted in the first payment to $13 60, which was paid. Now, before September, 1915, in less than one year, the assessments made against this policy amounted to a total of $33.50, which were all duly paid, the last payments being made under protest and cancellation by Mr. Rowe of his policy, being duly acknowledged by the company on October 11th, 1915, as follows ; “Mr. I. C. Rowe, Tillamook, Ore. Dear Sir,—We ask you to regard this letter as official notice of the cancellation of your policy, No - 9604 as per your instructions. Yours truly, Mutual Fire Co., by Hamilton Waguon, sec.’’ When the above notice was received Mr. Rowe supposed that this finally disposed of the matter as far as his insurance was con cerned, and, to be fully protected, secured “OLD LINE’’ protec tion in this agency. ’ NEW READ THIS (dated March 1st, 1917). What Do You Think About It ? Mr. I. C. Rowe, Tillamook, Oregon- Dear Sir,—The records of the Mutual Fire Company, of Port land, Oregon, show that Policy Number 9601 was issued to you for $1,400.00, and as per Court order herewith enclosed, your assess ment under this policy amounts to $13.10. 'Phis amount is now due, and I request that you send your check or money order in payment at once. Yours truly, Lester E. Thompson, Receiver Mutual Fire Co. The Court order is a follows : In Re William Anderson, plaintiff, vs. Mutual Fire Company of Port land, Oregon, a corporation ct al de fendants. To the policy holders of the Mutual Fire Co:—This is to notify you that on the loth day of December 1916, the Honorable Circuit Judge of De partment No. 3, of the Circuit Court of the State of Oregon, for Mult nomah County, duly made and enter ed an order in the above entitled cause, that undersigned, as receiver of Mutual Fire Company, of Portland, Ore., should levy an assessment on all policy holders of said company, in the suni of $11,238,08, which sum is ex pected to be sufficient to cover all fir«* losses, liabilities and accounts payable owed by said company, and which estimate' includes overlay and ex penses in administration, which order is as follows: "Wherefore it is ordered and ad judged, and this does so order and adjudge, that said receiver levy upon such policies held, or heretofore held by members in said company, and liable therefore, an assessment amounting to $11,238.08; that said assessment be based upon the books and records of said company, and that each and every of said policy holders assessed in accordance with this order be required to pay by vir tue thereof.” " I here is no assets in the hands of the receiver except $121.71, and this assessment was ordered by the court for the purpose of paying the proven established indebtedness of the com pany and expenses herein, and was made under the authority of section 8, of the bylaws of the company, which section is incorporated into your policy contract, and is as follows;” ''Section 8. The mutual contingent liability of each policy holder for as sessment tor losses or expenses shall not exceed one full standard annual premium, in addition to the unpaid portion of the premium as is now charged by standard insurance com panies.” "Enclosed please find statement of amount due from you as your part of said sum assessed, and please remit same promptly by check or money order to the end that said indebted ness be paid at an early date, and the affairs of the company wound up. Signed, Lister E Thompson, Re ceiver, of Mutual Fire Company of Portland, Oregon. Now Where Are We At ? What would Mr. Rowe’s Insurance Have Cost Him to Date : $33.50 previously paid. 13.18 assessment wanted. Total $40.08, for $1,400,00 insurance. If admitting that this insurance had been in force for <3 years at above cost, the company that wrote the insurance have been in solvent and unable at any time to meet its liabilities. In an Old Line Company, this insurance would have been carried for the past three years at a standard rate for this property for $28.00 with no assessments and ample assets to meet all losses. There is a Difference—In insurance, as in all business matters. We are in a position to serve you on all matters pertaining to insurance. Now, under the by-laws of this Mutual Company the policy holder is liable for the amount of TWO ANNUAL RATE of an Old Line standard company, which would total 156 00. Your Insurance is Safe with this Agency. All Losses and Claims are satisfactorily adjusted and settled promptly in cash. No Assessments. One Payment. Low Rates Phone Us. Call on Us. Write Us. When your next Mutual Assessment is made, Cancel and get an Old Time Policy. ROLLIE W. WATSON, Tillamook City, Oregon. The Insurance Man. Court House Square.