USA > New Hampshire > History of New Hampshire, Volume IV > Part 24
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The third floor of the State House is a busy place. The State Department of Highways was created about 1904 and the last biennial report sums up the work of ten years. The total mileage of improved roads is 1,026. Trunk lines, laid out in 1909, run from Colebrook, far up in the north, to the state line at Seabrook on the east side and to Winchester on the west side, while the Merrimack Valley road runs from Lincoln to the State line at Nashua. Some pieces of road are built entirely by the State and are called State Roads, but most of the roads are built by towns with some assistance of the State. Cross roads running from one main trunk line to another are in course of construction. The last report tells of thirty bridges built in the White Mountains region, four of them being of concrete and steel. Of the 285 miles of road built in two years 220 miles were of gravel, than which there is no better material, and the rest were of macadam construction and bituminous macadam. The tax on automobiles is sufficient to keep all these roads in
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repair. In a few years all the roads in New Hampshire that are much used will be in good condition for automobiles and car- riages, and many roads now little used will become lines of frequent travel. Summer hotels will spring up along country routes as in the old days of stage coaches. Every good road brings indirect revenue to the State from many thousands of visitors. A large amount of State bonds has been issued to build these roads, and the annual interest will be felt as a burden, but their building is as much a necessity as the building of railroads was fifty or more years ago. During the years 1913-14 the State expended $624,000 for building roads and $295,000 for their maintenance.
The Board of Health is doing great work for all the inhabi- tants and visitors of the State. Its secretary is Dr. Irving A. Watson and the laboratory of hygiene is conducted under his direction. During the last biennial period twelve thousand chemical and bacteriological examinations were made of speci- mens submitted by the physicians of the State. This depart- ment is constantly on the watch to protect the people from con- taminated water and milk, from adulterated foods, from falsely advertized patent medicines, from fake liquors, and from the pestilence that walketh in darkness. One inspector has been engaged constantly for four years in the inspection of dairies, groceries, bakeries, meat markets, slaughter-houses and local nuisances. A quarterly bulletin is issued, giving the people much needed instruction. The aim is to administer the ounce of prevention, that there may be no necessity for the pound of cure. The restriction and prevention of tuberculosis has received attention. Free public illustrated lectures on health questions are given throughout the State. Reservoirs and ice are in- spected. Nine hundred articles of food were examined by the Board and one hundred drugs. These included one hundred and fifty-four alcoholic liquors. About one-third of the articles and drugs examined were not conformable to proper standards. Seven complaints were filed by the State chemist and legal prosecutions resulted for adding water to milk before its sale. This is almost as bad as watering stock by the speculators. Distilled liquors also contain too much water. Greed poisons food and drink in order to make money faster. The sharpers
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are worse than the microbes in preying upon human victims. Provisions kept too long in cold storage are consumed by hun- gry innocents, when such provisions ought to have been buried or burned. Public schools are medically inspected, and in one town, out of nine hundred and forty children examined, two hundred and eighty-two had various defects, in sight, hearing, teeth, skin diseases, breathing, etc., the majority of which were curable. The annual expense of the Board of Health and the Laboratory of Hygiene is about $12,000. The value of their work can not be estimated in dollars and cents. We can not well understand how people once lived without such protection as is now indispensable.
In locating the excise commissioners next door to the health commissioners there appears to be a mixture of logic, irony and sense of humor. The work of one office is to prevent disease, and conserve health; that of the other is to regulate and tax the worst enemy of health and morals. The chemists and bac- teriologists of the health department, men of special scientific training, get $1,500 and $1,800 salary and the three license com- missioners get $1,800 and the chairman $2,500. This is, perhaps, due to the great abilities demanded in license commissioners, as well as to their arduous labors; or is it because so much revenue comes in through the licensing of the sale of intoxicating liquors, that it is felt that such commissioners should be well paid? It is noticeable that the law provides that two, but not three, may be of the same political party. In so important a matter as the sale and drinking of liquor the minority party demands and gets recognition, a rule that is not found in the administration of any other office. There are seven kinds of licenses, all bad, except perhaps that to druggists to sell liquors for medicines, although the physicians do not agree about that. The tendency of science is to eliminate alcohol from the remedial agents. Six hundred and ninety-four applications for licenses to sell liquors were received in one year, and six hundred and eighteen of them were approved. The total amount received from fees and for- feitures was $282,637. The total amount received since the license law went into effect is stated in the last annual report to be $3,705,734, and many readers will be gratified that the State has gained so much money, whereby to reduce direct tax-
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ation. Who contributed all this money? Out of the mouths of how many hungry women and children was much of it taken? How many were sent to jail, to the almshouse, to the asylum for the insane, and to sickness and death because of the liquor sold? Why does not the law make it the duty of commis- sioners to gather up statistics of this sort? Many legal restric- tions are put upon the sale of liquor, but liquor-sellers are in the business to make money and they obey law generally when they must.
Most of the small towns vote for no license. The circle of towns around a populous city, Concord for instance, can get supplied easily from the city. A dress suit case can carry home the desired refreshment. The expenses of the commissioners, their agents and office are about $16,000. One-half of the fees collected by the commissioners is paid to the city or town whence the fees came, and the other half to the county. Let the whole be paid to the State and no city or town get any special reduction of taxation therefrom, and a lot of places that have been voting for license will be "dry" at the next election. Even teetotalers have been known to vote for license, for the purpose of decreasing direct taxation.
The Forestry Commission was appointed in 1909, consist- ing of three persons who are paid according to time employed. They choose a State Forester, whose salary is $2,500. The object is to preserve forests from fires, to add to the acreage of forests by reforestation of such land as is not adapted to agri- culture, to prevent the washing down of hills and mountain sides, and to conserve the rainfall as a result. Four tracts of land, comprising over seven thousand acres, are owned by the State. The Crawford Notch is the largest of these tracts. The United States government has bought up over three hundred thousand acres in New Hampshire, most of the land being in the White Mountains region. This tract will be a reservation for the use of all the people. There have been distributed from the nursery at Gerrish, West Concord, 1,618,000 trees. Fire patrols have reported and extinguished hundreds of fires. Printed information is sent throughout the State and lectures are deliv- ered, so that the owners of wood lots may be helped and pro- tected. There are twenty-six lookout stations, from which 1,339
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fires have been discovered in a period of five years. The rail- roads are required to do their part in preventing fires by using spark arresters, by patrolling dangerous parts of the way during drouth, and by paying damages, if fires arise from sparks of engines. Lumbermen are obliged to take care of brush and slash so that fires may not be started therein and fed thereby. Over three thousand acres have been planted. There are four million acres that should be forest land, and only a little over half of that area is covered with forest. This is the only way to make most of this land productive. Some farmers are wisely letting some of their cleared land grow up again to woods. To meet full demands would require the planting of thirty mil- lion trees annually. The State nursery can not supply the pres- ent demand and orders are sent to private nurseries. By plant- ing trees in abundance around the sources of water supply the flow of water is kept constant and pure. Some municipalities own hundreds of acres of forest land and use the products to decrease taxation. Four hundred thousand Christmas trees are cut in New Hampshire in a single year and shipped to fourteen States. The Forestry Commission studies the diseases of trees and seeks to exterminate destructive insects. Rural schools are furnished with trees and the children are taught to set them out for decoration of roadsides and school grounds and for windbrakes. About $30,000 are expended by this department, of which $7,500 go to reimburse towns for fighting forest fires. Without the department property worth several hundred thou- sand dollars would be burned up every year. The people do well to take care of what they have. A penny saved is a penny earned.
The Bank Commissioners report in 1915 that there are fifty-seven savings banks under their supervision. In addition there are thirteen trust and banking companies that have sav- ings departments, and twenty buildings and loan associations. Nearly $III,000,000 are deposited in these banks. The dividends paid are three, three and a half, and four per cent. The total dividends declared in the last year were $3,940,372. Such in brief is the seventieth annual report. The commissioners guard the people's money. The savings banks not only invest the earnings of the toilers for them, but they furnish a safe and
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fairly lucrative way of investment for those who know little about the best ways of putting their money out to interest. Bonds can be bought, of fluctuating value, and perhaps they can be sold at the time desired, but the broker must have his commission for both buying and selling. Various overcapital- ized and fake corporations are offering bonds that pay from five to seven per cent. They look good on paper to one who knows nothing about banks, stocks, bonds, and the investment of money. The savings banks are agents of the people of limited means to protect them from being duped. A safe in- vestment at four per cent., without taxation, is better than a risky investment at six per cent, with taxation. Much of the money in New Hampshire savings banks is let to farmers and for business enterprises in the State. The commissioners seek to invest the deposits in such ways that the interests of the State will be furthered. They watch the banks also, to prevent dishonesty and speculation with intrusted funds. They are not infallible, and very rarely some bank official for a time goes wrong and is not discovered. The only absolutely safe place to lay up treasures is in Heaven. All that is given away in the right spirit is securely invested and pays satisfactory dividends.
The Attorney-General, supported by the county attorneys, looks after the lawbreakers, and gives "opinions" or interpre- tations of law. Over a thousand cases have been tried in the county courts in a year, and ninety-six persons have been sen- tenced to state prison. The report of the attorney-general is the least interesting of all the annual reports of State officials. But laws are necessary, and they would be useless, were there not proper persons to enforce them. It will be seen that a large part of the work done in the State House is for the pro- tection of society, that is, of life and property.
Having thus taken a hasty survey of the business of the State, let us go back to the office of the State Treasurer and learn what it costs to live decently as a well-governed people. The entire cost for the year ending August 31, 1915, was $3,526,- 105 and the total receipts were $3,400,296, so that the State's indebtedness was increased $134,972, making the total indebted- ness $1,100,476. Where did all this money come from? Direct taxation brought in $800,000. The rest came by indirect taxa-
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tion. The largest contributors were the railroads, the corpora- tions, the savings banks, the saloon-keepers, the receivers of legacies, the automobilists, and the insurance companies. Nearly all these contributions were collected in unseen ways from the people at large. The State is not in the business of making money; it spends the people's money for the welfare of the people, and incidentally a good many officials are well paid for doing it. That is, they are so well paid that when there is a political overthrow, the leaders of the victorious party stand ready to take all the principal offices. It is noticeable that many of the clerks are retained through succeeding administrations, for the women do not vote, and, moreover, in many cases they know all about the work of the office, while the new incomer knows scarcely anything about it. He has to learn of them. They do most of the work, and he does the heavy looking on. His salary may be three or four times what they receive, but of course the capacious intellect of man is needed to guide mat- ters aright politically and financially. One wonders how it will be when the women have the chance, as they always have had the right, to vote. Perhaps some clerk, who is now getting $500 to $800 salary, will run a department and really earn three times as much and get it. One wonders how many of the male employes of the government are in favor of equal suf- frage.
When a new industry arises or a new manufactory comes into the State, the first thought is to tax it, and when the revenue therefrom is sufficient create a new department and employ some more managers and clerks. Thus the machinery of gov- ernment is constantly increasing. The greater the indirect tax thus collected, the more extravagant the legislators become. The expenses of national, State and municipal government and the increase of public debt through the issue of bonds whereby to borrow money is truly alarming to those who study a little financial problems and look ahead. All these expenses of gov- ernment and all the growing interest on bonds are a severe bur- den laid on the shoulders of working people. Let us not for a moment imagine that the rich pay the taxes. They shift them to tenants, consumers and toilers. It is a sort of sleight-of-hand performance that the average person can not see into without
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a good deal of explanation that the taxers are not eager to give.
The old nations of Europe have studied for many centuries to find out new and unnoticed ways of collecting more revenues by indirect taxation. The governments have become exceed- ingly complex, and red tape abounds. The number of officials is far in excess of actual needs. Opposing political parties like to give employment to as many henchmen as possible. Offices become filled with idlers. Little work and large pay are de- manded. The same dangers confront the people of the United States. Republican simplicity is fast disappearing. Politics is made a profession for the sake of the spoils. The rallying cry of a reform party may be "retrenchment and economy," but the cry is forgotten when once the reins of government have been grasped. Thus governments, like individuals, easily learn to live beyond their means and to mortgage the future to pay for present luxuries. Is the government of New Hampshire living at too high a rate? Some think there was pretty good govern- ment when it cost one-fourth or even less of the present expendi- tures. Are we too much governed? Have we too many laws and officials? Do we need simpler laws, a reformed legal pro- cedure, an easier and juster way of collecting taxes, so that industry and enterprise shall be encouraged rather than pun- ished? Let the wise ones answer.
Chapter XVI THE VACATION STATE
CLOUDS AT DIXVILLE
Chapter XVI
THE VACATION STATE
What Interests Tourists-No Castles nor Battlefields in New Hampshire- The State not Seen at Its Best from a Parlor Car-The Hotels not Excelled-Everywhere One Can Get Much for Little, or Little for Much-Only Eighteen Miles of Seacoast-Attractions of Rye Beach, New Castle and the Isles of Shoals-Appledore and Gosport-Mountains and Lakes Enough for All-The Chrystal Hills-Crawford Notch- Bethlehem-Lake Winnipisaukee-Hill Towns and Summer Boarders- All Are Invited.
M OST travelers and tourists are looking for places of his- toric interest, the site of an ancient temple, the ruins of and old castle, the mound that indicates a buried city, the palaces of kings, the relics of antiquity, and the battlefields whereon have been decided the destinies of nations. This is why so many people even of limited time and means go to Europe, Egypt, Palestine and to the Far East. The historic past allures them. The more ancient the civilization, the more distant the places, the greater is our desire to see them. That which has survived thousands of years must have great value. To stand where noble utterances have been heard and heroic souls have suffered martyrdom and valiant deeds have been wrought affords an uplift to aspiring minds. Every achievement of the past that has been of any benefit to the human race ought to be remem- bered and the place where it was wrought always has attracted and always will welcome its pilgrims and devotees.
New Hampshire has not much to offer in the way of historic antiquities. She has no ancient temples save her groves, the oldest of all, and some care is now taken to preserve and beautify them. No castles are to be seen, for the feudal system never half enslaved this land. There are no royal palaces, except that in a free republic every man's cottage is his palace and every citizen is a monarch. Our cities are all of recent date, built chiefly of wood and waiting for a conflagration to sweep them away. One can not stand as on Arthur's Seat and look out on
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the battlefield of Dunbar and Bannockburn and a dozen more places of bloody strife, or as on Mount Tabor and survey the plain of Esdraelon, called the "Battlefield of the World." No armed foe save roving bands of Indians has ever set foot upon New Hampshire's soil. There are no thrills and no romances connected with the places where victims were scalped, though some markers tell the gruesome tales. People do not come to New Hampshire to see the things which man has made, but rather to view the handiwork of the Creator. Here are the ever- lasting hills and mountains, lakes and ponds by the hundred, forests for hunters, streams for fishermen, invigorating air for the sick and weary, a little seacoast and ocean spray, a chance to play and rest and write poetry. The traveler need not go abroad to see the beauties of nature. The artist can find all the landscapes and waterscapes that he will care to portray.
In traveling through the old countries of Europe one rides on the train through a picture galley, as it were. The arts of civilization have beautified every scene. Cultivated fields, meadows divided by hedgerows, orchards and vineyards on ter- raced mountain slopes meet the eye. Nature had been subdued a long time before the railroads were built. Here, on the other hand, the railroads were built to facilitate the conquest of nature, and they were constructed at the least possible expense, in the low-lands, through swamps and thickets, over barren soil, with no thought to please the eye of the tourist as he gazes from the window of a palace car. The charming scenery waits to be created by the hand of man. Those swamps are going to be drained. Those tangled thickets will all disappear, and the places whereon they grow will be the choice garden spots of the future. Those rocky and barren hillsides will be terraced and will blossom as the rose. By the side of every waterfall will rise a village or city or a power-plant to transmit energy to distant workshops. Those lonely farm-houses will be replaced by cottages of brick, stone or cement, for wood is getting to be too expensive as building material and too unsafe, as in the old countries. Those rough and crooked lanes for carts and carriages will give way to State Roads. Let the traveler see all this transformation in his mind's eye. Let him be patient till New Hampshire becomes another Switzerland, for it is well on the
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way. Let him travel by automobile, and he will get there sooner and see more to delight the eye. The State Roads take one up out of the low-lands to enchanting points of view. Thus the tourist gets better effects than he can from the car win- dows of trains moving through Europe.
As for hotels and conveniences of travel distant lands have little to offer in competition. One can find in New Hampshire accommodations in thousands of farmhouses that hold out in- ducements to summer visitors in the way of fresh country produce such as cities know not of, or one can find around Monadnock and Mount Washington, or by the sea, "ordinaries" such as tax the resources of royalty. The summer visitor can get much for little, or he can get little for much, according to his taste. Bayard Taylor wrote a notable account of the way he saw Europe with knapsack and staff; there were no bicycles and automobiles in his time. The mountain-climber can go the long and rough way if he so chooses, but most visitors prefer to take their exercise in playing golf and following up a trout- brook.
New Hampshire has only eighteen miles of seacoast and therefore the wealthy have pre-empted it; she has many thou- sand miles of lakeshore, and almost everybody can have a sum- mer cottage thereby. The State has built and is building a boulevard along the Atlantic Ocean from Portsmouth to the southern boundary. Rye Beach has been known and visited for a century by the millionaires; the multi-millionaires now prefer Dublin, Bretton Woods and palaces in the northern parts among the mountains. Those who have only thousands can build or buy a summer home at Hampton Beach, while weary toilers with brain or muscle can, like the poet Whittier and his friends, Tent on the Beach. At old New Castle (for persons and places are old or young only by comparison). The Went- worth by its name and associations invites guests, for here is certainly one spot made famous in history. The Treaty of Ports- mouth, that ended the war between Russia and Japan, brought ambassadors to the Wentworth for their entertainment, and the Navy Yard opposite on Fernald's and Seavey's islands is the place where daily deliberations were held. On Seavey's Island some may be curious enough to hunt out the spot where pris-
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oners taken in the Spanish-American War were confined, and to learn where Henderson's point was before it was blasted away to improve navigation, or to see the dry dock that has been con- structed in the former channel between the two islands of the Navy Yard. About New Castle the lover of the comparatively ancient may find the ruins of forts and towers and some old houses of earliest residents, very old, as much as two hundred years! Of course the antiquarian would not deign to look at them.
Let him go out to the Isles of Shoals and see the beginnings of American history, where fishermen had their haunts a century or two before the Pilgrims came to Plymouth. The rocks are left, not much else to mark the abodes of the six hundred people who once inhabited these islands. A memorial stone points out the site of the old church where Richard Gibson and John Brock tried to persuade the wayward fishermen to worship God on Sundays rather than go out for fish. Their reply was, according to tradition, "We came here to fish and not to pray." This was the commercial metropolis, when bills were drawn even at Bos- ton payable in good merchantable fish at the Isles of Shoals.
In 1661 the whole group of islands were made a township by the Massachusetts General Court under the name of Apple- dore, a name transferred from northern Devonshire, England. After the separation of New Hampshire from Massachusetts the southern half of the group was considered as belonging to New Hampshire. Thus Hog Island and Smutty Nose, alias Church Island, have belonged to Maine. At the time of the separation it is said that forty families crossed over to Star Island in order to be under the jurisdiction of New Hampshire, or to escape bur- dens of taxation. The meeting house on Smutty Nose fell into decay, and courts were no longer held there. Only a few families remained, and they were reported in petitions to be very poor. The fishing metropolis vanished quicker than it came into ex- istence. Roger Kelly, the ancient magistrate, was the only one of consequence left in 1692. The population and business had centered upon Star Island, which was able to furnish one hundred and six able-bodied men for military service and to offer for sale "I2000 Kintals of Codfish." In 1715 by an act of the New Hamp- shire Provincial Assembly Star Island was made a township by
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