The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1877-12-28
III i SC G Han us.
Our Public Roads.
DARLINGTON, Nd, Dec, II, 49,

q.
John III. Cooley, Esq, Darlington, Md.
MY DEAR SIR Your note of recent
date requesting sketch of my views upon
the all-important subject Of improvement
of our public highways, has been received
and considered. The subject is one in
which, as you are aware, have for years
taken deep interest; and my reflections
upon it, although so far, fear, Improbable,
have occupied considerable portion of
my time. You suggest that we prepare
some plan, through which our roads may
be improved, to be submitted to our repre-
sentatives in the Legislature, at the COM
ing session. You have evidently forgotten,
that in reply to suggestions on my part,
made in the public prints, that the Legis-
lature should adopt some better law for
the improvement of the roads, Col. Walsh,
then member of the Senate from our
county, replied through THE LEgis Dc Intel
Hgencer, that the County Commissioners had
plenary powers in the premises; that it
rested with them to have the roads improv-
ed in any way that they might think would
be agreeable and satisfactory to their con.
stituents. In short, he announced that no
further legislation was necessary either for
the guidance or restriction of the County
Commissioners. A moments reflection
will satisfy us that this is as it should be-
The taxation from which the money for
road-making is raised, is exclusively upon
and paid by the people of the county
They alone are interested in the expendi-
ture of the same; and they alone should
decide by whom and in what manner that
money should be expended.
1t will therefore be seen that we have no
longer to look to the Legislature, or to any
other outside body for the improvement of
our roads, but must rely entirely upon
ourselves. When we view the subject in
this light, we find that it becomes very
much simplified.
The great difficulty primarily to be en-
countered and necessary to be overcome, in
the construction and improvement of the
public roads, is the prevalent idea that
every man is naturally qualified for the
simple and easy business of road. making.
To the majority of the people road-making
appears so simple that the necessity for any
qualifications on the part of those who I'M
dertake it is not even dreamed of, much
less seriously considered
1t has usually been the custom of those
in authority to look around in the neigh
borhood where piece of road is to be ''let
out" and inquire not If Mr.. A. or Mr.. B.
is competent to mend and keep the road
in proper condition, but have they pair
of horses, pillow, cart, oxen, picks, shovels,
&C.; in short, the only qualifications asked
for are the implements for road-making,
and in two-thirds of the instances where
supervisors are appointed they do not even
possess the usual implements considered
necessary for the performance of the work.
What would be thought of men of CAPT
tai, who were preparing to construct rail
road, if they should be found willing to
entrust their money with agents who pos
sessed no other qualifications for the work
than the ordinary tools used in moving the
rocks, earth, &c. Such spectacle, how
ever, we do not witness. Months and often
years are spent by the most competent en-
gineers in locating, grading and arranging
all the details; and the physical labor that
follows, in the execution of the trained
mental labors of those specially educated
for the purpose, is simply animal labor, and
can generally be as well if not better per-
formed by horses, mules, and machines than
by men. Yet this last kind of labor-mere
animal is all that we get upon our public
roads
No system under heaven will ever prove
seccesstul in road making if competent
men are not employed to execute it. The
Supervisor must have the talent necessary
for his vocation. He should not attempt
to convey water up hill, unless he has some
forcing apparatus to overcome the laws of
gravity nor should he turn it down steep
embankment, which would ruin the far
mer's fields by the washing of deep gullies.
The monied interest of course is less, but
there is just as much need for engineering
in the construction of wagon roads as there
is in the construction of railroads. This
is the point that the people fail to see, and
hence all our woes! If every man, instead
of paying mere pittance, as at present,
toward making and mending the public
roads, as they voluntarily do in building
railroads, the matter would be looked upon
in very different light from the view that
is now taken. Each contributor would in
slst upon and demand that competent men
should be selected for the proper expendi-
ture of that money. Taken in connection
with the prevalent idea that every man is
a road-maker by nature, as previously re-
marked, we will find that here lies the
whole secret of our failure in road making;
each Individual is only interested to such a
small extent in regard to the amount OF
money he invests, that he is often indiffer-
ent as to how it is or should be expended
The only way to reach the case is to make
it the interest of the supervisor to mend
kln. 81 - II