The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1874-02-13
For tie Asgis g. MteNigenrer.
OUR COUNTY ROADS.

bad condition of our county roads, and also in-
| direct appeals to our honorable board of Coun-
| ty Commissioners to provide remedy, while
| the cry of many has been not 0n TO Richmond,
| but on to the supervisors, with whip and spur
| dereliction OF duty, incompetency TO properly
| execute road warrant, and host OF other bad
qualities, sufficient to exclude them from the
| Kingdom of good citizens, because the roads are
not rounded up and the bitches kept open.
The adage "Where there is so much smoke there
must be some fire." holds good in this case; for
| the roads are still, and have been for q long
| time, in Il bad condition. The taxpayer COM
plains, and asks why this horrible condition of
| roads? The Commissioners have made their
levy upon us for road repairs; we have paid the
amount due to the collector, but in return we
| have the roads unchanged in general appearance
| and as bad if not worse than before.
! We have carefully examined the road system
in ali lis rtments, and find it all working
| harmoniously until Se>-reach the excavation
or dirt-throwng department. feere we una
things radically wrong. The amount OF WORK
necessary has not been done, and what has been
done is not executed in aworkman-likc manner.
We were about to apply to the law.makng
power for redress of grievance, for remedy
against this intolerabe nuisance, but our hon
orable Senator j. G. Walsh informs us that there
is ample remedy in the existing laws to macad
amize all the roads in the county, if the public
| require it. Therefore we must give up in despair
and submit to being bored TO death bya set of
| INSCRIPTIONS road members With your per-
for their further consideration, which may re-
lcvc them of so much anxiety.
There are SO many miles of public roads in
the county, and the County Commissioners have
charge OF them, TO open, close, change, and re-
pair them. They also have the power to evya
tax on property in the county, and to collect
this same in money, to be applied by them for
the purpose of keeping said roads in good con-
dition and they alone are responsible TO the
public for the faithful discharge of that duty
In order TO acppmnlsb the above cha they
have adapted the following system, viz: TO lay
off the county into five road districts and to APP
point one General Supervisor to each district.
The duty of said general supervisor Is to subdi-
vide the district into many divisions as is
necessary for one man TO personally procure
hands and teams and keep in good repair said
subdivisions. Each subsupervisor appointed
by the general supervisor to keep correct ac-
count of all expenses and return the same, I'M
der oath, through the hands of the General Su
pcryisor to the said Commissioners. The Gfore-
said General Supervisors having stipulated
| amount made out with Il schedule OF prices) by
the Commissioners, to be by them apportioned
among the various subdivisions, and when the
returned accounts have been examined and APP
proved by the board, the Clerk issues check
for the amount on the collector of the said road
district, "to be paid by him at his leisure"
while the sub-supervisor becomes personally
responsible for the cash to the hands he may
employ. Let us examine how the above sys-
tom is working. The price per hand is Sl.25
per day, (..nuing himself,) which is equal TO 70
cents per day net, while the farmer pays the
same character of hand from one dollar to two
dollars according to the scason), per day net.
The mechanic realizes from S15 to So per day,
not working ten hours for day. The sub-su-
pervisor gets as q hand, but one extra day to
procure hands and teams, collect Dill and set
tie with said hands when he may be three days in
accomplishing it, The teams arc worth 20 per
cent. more to u man on the farm per day than is
allowed on road repair. The allowance to be
expended on o subdivision, i'll majority OF in
stances, is not within fifty or one hundred per
cent. of what it should be TO place the road in
travelling condition, and in many cases the mon
ey can not be collected until six months after
the work is done.
The warrant requires the road to be repaired
between the first Of May and the last of Septem-
ber-tiyc of the farmers most busy months
and the farmer who attends properly to his bust
ness as u farmer has no time to spend repairing
public roads during the time above named, es-
pecially when he is not receiving within twenty
live per cent. per day Of what lie is paying his
employees tho farm The Supervisori is under
the necessity of employing boys, (who can not
command full wages on tarm,) and superanua-
ted laborers, whose days of service are almost
passed away, or otherwise wait until such time
as farm hands can be spared, which time is
generally when the roads are not in condition to
repair. Hence it is apparent to the most casual
observer that in many instances the Commission
ers are employing second.rate hands at full
hands and team of horses or oxen may consti-
tute gang to operate with. Now, one good
horsc-tcdm can pillow us much cartn as twenty
good hands can shovel into the middle OF the
road from the bitches; therefore said team must
remain idle three-fourths of the time, when
there are three OF four hands TO do the shov-
cling.
As remedy for the scarcity of hands and the
price of labor would itnot be advisable for the
Commissioners to procure road scrapers Tor the
Sur,prviSprs IL a r we'll handled. with
one pair of horses and two good hands, will move
as much earth (and place ii in better condition
on the road,) rs ten or twelve good hands can Ill
the same time. The cost to the county for the
pair of hands and horses is equal to Si.ao per
day; while the cost of ten hands is equal to
Sl2.5 per day. Here we find saving in favor
of the scraper equal to SS.25 per day. Again
would it not be good policy in said Commission
crs to pay farmers small premium for each load
of stones they deliver to supervisors to be prop
erly placed i'll the roads, instead of said farmers
dumping hem into the gulIcys, fence corners, and
other out of the way places, TO be again removed
as the country is improved: Had such thing
been done forty years ago, many of the principal
road of our county might to-day be in good
travelling condition. Also would it not be pru-
dent to appropriate TO the repair of roads the
money paid to general supervisors for their use
less services such as passing road accounts
without seeing the work performed, or knowing
whether il is performed at all, and examining
roads after the money has been expended on
them, without being abe to save or remedy an
improper expenditure of the county's money?
In the above suggestions we do not intend to
cast reflection upon any of our county officers
or employees; for they arc walking in the paths
their fathers trod. 1t is the past generation that
organized the plan; the present are but carrying
it out. We only wish to impress upon the minds
of our honorable Board the idea that the Amer-
can 1ratcI,- Wo,dS are, progression and improve
ment,h that when we compare the improvements
of Hartford with the improvements of some of
the counties in our Western States, we must ac-
knowledge that in the way of progress we are
fifty years behind; and that unless we arouse the
spirit of enterprise to greater degree of activi
ty, and shake off those primitive ideas which
properly belong to people that have long since
been numbered with their ancestors, and with
one united effort push forward the car of inter
nal improvement, we may still expect TO hear
from those who migrated forty years and more
ago commenting upon the slothfulness of old
fashioned Hartford.
The Commissioners are the guardians of the
public interests, let them but shoulder the res
possibility, and unhinchingly discharge their
duty as officers of the county, regardless of the
few selfish ones who may object, and though the
frowning clouds may be lowering for WHILE
they will eventually break away, and their acts
will stand out in bold relief, to be admired by
even those who sweled the number of their adj
ycrtarcs.
JANUARY.
PUT AGREEMENTS IN WRITING How
many misunderstanding arise from the
loose ways in which business matters are
talked over, and, when each party puts his
own construction on the conversation, the
matter is dismissed by each with the words:
"All right; all right" Frequently it turns
out all wrong, and becomes question for
lawyer and courts. More than three ourths
Of the litigation of the country would be
saved if the people would put down their
agreements in writing and sign their names
to it. Each word in our language has its
peculiar meaning, and memory may, by the