The Morristown gazette. [volume] (Morristown, Tenn.) 1867-1920, 1874-07-01

the road tax. High and low, rich
and poor, were assessed according
to their sgrand list" and they
either worked or paid.
But in Tennessee, property, real
and personal, has, as / am informed,
always been exempt from road tax.
The man that owns one half of the
whole territory of a road district,
and proportional part of the oxen,
horses, mules, carriages and carts,
is required to do no more for the
support of highways than the poor
est day laborer in the whole neigh
borhood in fact, in consequence of
the numerous exemptions from road
service, which by statute are at
tached to such offices as generally
fall to the lot of the wealthy, therich
man practically does less for high
ways than the poor. And then when
he reaches the venerable age of forty
five years he steps out of the ranks
entirely, repeating the adage, old
men for counsel, young men for
working the highways By the
side of such man, how diminutive
an ordinary specimen of the Goldfish
aristocrat! A farmer who lives
about five miles from Knoxville told
me while in that city that he was
one of four adjoining farmers who
owned the land on both sides of
country road for a distance of some
four miles. Each of these gentle
men are over forty-five years of age
and neither of them has a son at
home liable to the summons of the
road master. Consequently the
hired men who may be employed on
these estates must pay whatever
road tax the laws of Tennessee i'm
pose on these four plantations
The utter injustice and outrageous
oppression of the middle class and
plebians'' of such system for sup.
porting highways make me almost
doubt the correctness of my own
statements, and hope that ]. II c.,
Jr. will be able to tighten in some
degree the dark picture. even though
such correction should be made at
the expense of the wisdom of Solo,
mon F.
[ have heard of the lower classes
of society being made hewers of
wood. and drawers of water, for the
upper class but it was reserved to
che Legislature of Tennessee to
complete the catalogue by adding,
makers of highways"
In my simplicity, 1 should expect
that the first attempt to enforce the
road law of Tennessee, would excite
a general insurrection throughout
the State. Time, skill and strength
are the only capital Of the poor man.
Why should such capital be subject
to road tax, and the capital invested
in lands, mansions, stock, imple-
ments, etc. be exempt? If l am
correctly informed as to the laws of
Tennessee on this subject, the won
der is that her highways are us good
as they are, or that when one road is
washed entirely away, men enough
can be conscripted to rebuild it.
l am sorry to see that j. II. G. Jr.,
says, Il take the position that the
quality of the average of the East
Tennessee road is equal to the travel
over it, and the qCealh of the peo-
pie; and, yet. in the same para
graph, he writes: eve oil complain
of our dirt roads, 7 do not accuse
him Of contradicting himself. but if
tie roads are as good as the people
can afford, and equal to the travel
over them, is il not ungenerous for
j. II. C. Jr., and every other citizen
included by that little word ''all," to
complain of them? But what evi-
dcnce has he that they are equal to
the wealth of the people, when the
militia or poll, and not the estate or
wealth, have made them what they
are?
l have written the foregoing as I
wrote my first letter, in the convic-
ton that the Importance of good
roads is not duly appreciated by the
people of East Tennessee, while at
the same time they exaggerate the
difficulties in the way of their i'm
provement-in my opinion, etc.
In my opinion. a very light tax on
the person and property of every
citizen, levied and collected with |
perfect equality and fairness, so
that the road master could, with a
clear conscience, demand a days |
work for every days credit on his
book, would soon effect an improve
ment in the. highways that would
seem uirqcnlOuS
Extreme cases are often used by !
way of illustration. J. III. c., Jr.,
says that farmers have a quarrel
with the railroad because the charge
of 33 cents per 100 pounds to
210 miles-yields such an
immense profit; but that the farmers
and merchants have no quarrel with
the wagoners across the country who
charges 25 to so cents for carrying
a hundred pounds ten miles, because
he earns his money. A good and a
bad road make all the difference
there is between the cost of trans
Dortation in these two cases. Hence
The desirableness that the dirt road
shall in some degree approximate
The railroad. ST.
An additional excuse is being Of
rered for lovers to sit nm late o'niohts-