[Newspaper]
Publication: The Cincinnati Enquirer
Cincinnati, OH, United States
vol. 42, no. 173, p. 5, col. 3
NOT THAT BRIDGE.
The Opinions of Leading Manufacturers
of the West End of Covington.
The Alleged Free Bridge bill is the subject of conversation throughout Covington, and to judge by the information derived from a tour through the West End of that city the election next Saturday would be all one-sided, and that to the bill, if it were left to a vote of the property owners solely. The West End of that city is the section in which the advocates of a free bridge have found the warmest support in the past. The fear is generally expressed that the votes of those who feel that they have no interest in the taxes because they own no properly may be sufficient to do mischief and saddle the city with a useless debt because the true friends of the city may prove too apathetic to record their suffrages against the bill.
Mr. Charles Trantor, of Mitchell & Trantor, told the ENQUIRER reporter who dropped in upon him that some would vote for the acceptance of the act became they desired an other bridge some way, and did not care how it came. He was opposed to the bill.
"I wish to see another bridge built, but I am not in favor of the city issuing bonds to the amount of [dollar:$600,000] to build a structure in which it would have a very small interest. There are two sides to the question of taxation, for another bridge might increase the valuation of property, in this end of the town particularly, to such an amount more than balance any increase of taxation. But we do not know that we would have a bridge under this bill. There are too many objections to it. Besides, what manufacturers need here is better facilities for transportation, sidetracks, with cars that may be loaded at our doors. A railroad bridge must be built here some day. If the Chesapeake and Ohio comes to the river at all, the most natural route would be down Willow Run, where there is plenty of room for side-tracks and buildings. If such a bridge is built, the city could secure free footways at much less cost than the issue of [dollar:$600,000] of bonds to this company involves.
"These gentlemen would have a good thing of it, for the credit of the city is good, and her five per cent, bonds would readily sell for [dollar:$1.10] to [dollar:$1.20]. I am taking no part in this discussion. I have kept aloof from it. I know, though, that the free bridge advocates are working zealously and with effect. Alex. Davezac is taking a great deal of interest in it, and you know what a hard worker he is, and they are distributing their papers all through this end of the city. The seventh Ward gave five hundred majority for a free bridge at the election five or six years ago, but I do not think It will give two hundred now.
"A good many are taken in by that bond. They can’t see that it is not worth a cent. Mr. John Mitchell, who has always been for a free bridge, is warmly opposed to this."
NOT AT THE PUBLIC EXPENSE.
Mr. Ralph Hemingray said: "The proposed bridge would save us [dollar:$1,500] a year over and above the increased tax. but we do not propose to vote to compel other citizens of Covington to build a bridge because it would help us. That’s the position this firm takes. There should be another bridge. There should be two more of them. With more bridges this city would become prosperous as a manufacturing place. But this proposition to give the men named in that bill [dollar:$600,000] in city bonds worth 120 does not strike us as just the thing. That million-dollar bond does not mean any thing. They can dilly-dally along as they please with the work. If a bridge is built the city should own it.
Mr. J. H. Deglow, whose tannery is situated on Pike street, near Main, is a representative of the intelligent German element. Upon the subject of the probable vote he said:
"All property-owners are against that bill, but 1 am afraid of what I call the ‘voting element.' You see in Kentucky every man’s vote goes down on the book, and the books are always looked over after the election. So the grocery-keeper and butcher and brewer men not afford to vote, because his vote is looked at after every election, and the friends of the man he voted against will not deal with him. So they never vote, and there are a good many others who won’t vote for the same reason. They are all against this plan, but the voting element, who have nothing to lose, will go to the polls. The free bridge men are working hard among them."
Mr. Deglow, like most others, could not see what advantages would accrue to the city from the bill. "I would like to see that bond first," he said. "We don’t know whether they mean to build this bridge or not. They can go so far and then quit, and the city will have to sell the work. A new company can come in and buy it, or the same company can buy it in again and then the buyers can go to Frankfort and get their charter changed so they can charge just as much as the old company does now. Or, what’s to prevent the old company buying it in and owning both bridges? Yes we’d have to pay for those bonds just the same. And that million dollar bond does not prevent that."
