The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1878-03-29
PUBLIC ROADS.


s0sNhsAAI A&Oku DuliuInEs
We clip from the Loogootce Times
the following excellent and timely sug-
gestion In regard to highways. III farm
ers will profit by them. their author
will be universally thanked:
The road laws do not furnish work
and material enough to make good roads.
hence. their requirements should be
supplemented by volunteer labor on lie
part of the proprietors, whose land
border on The sides Of the road. and
whose boundary lines reach the middle
Of The road. This can be done by each
iandhodcr, undertaking to make good.
'and 70 Keep ~ good repair one-half The
road fronting his premises, which. iis
many instances, will amply repay linn
ior his extra work, by the increased
drainage secured thereby for his fields
adjacent to The road. Ittakes persistent.
practical work, aud, enough oil il. weiI
pun on. 10 make good roads. they can't
be legislatcG into existence. We have.
in this county several neighborl,oods.
where the farmers have not only ditched
and graded tl.er main roads by yolun-
iary effort, bat have gravelci tlIam also !.
and they now have free turnpikes ~
their own construction, without tax or
assessment OF benefits. Go We and do
llikewise, all ye VINO are suffering from,
mud, ana dragging through The ..sloughs
%. despond,' that annually impede AMI
embariass locomotion on the public
aud don't wait FOR some
road law-making .Solon TO devise some
patent process Of enacting. Tint every
loM"ay shall be highway, on paper
Win an emergency clause attached.
THE TERM HIGHWAY.
The very name ''highway.' as nsed inl
our statutes. implies a high. raised. or
elevated way, but how seldom do the
So called highways of the country fultiIll
the appellation of the law; on the con-
irary, they are often lower than the
natural surface on either side OF tbo
road. Therefore. we say TO the farmers
who are complaining Of such exccrable
roacs, go 70 work, either by volunteer
labor, o. Dy corporate action under the
gravel road laws Of 1877, and make vourI
nishways, highways In fact. as well as
IN name. Even If new road law
should be enacted. or the old law re-
vsed AID amended. il will reoiire more
than a years time to get il accomplished.
because another legislature il 10 be el-
ected and another session thereof must
he had, commencing next January. be-
fore ANYTHING can be done IN that direc-
ton; hence, another winter will psssl
and another year mnst clapse. ere anr
benefit could be derived from The enact
incnt ofa new law, aud whilst waiting,
for legislative relief. the roads might be
put ia good repair. by concerted action.
on the part OF the people themselves
and the possibility of The repetition OF 4
mud blockade next winter, in good
prevented.
TuRNriKE LAWS OF 1877.
We have two excellent turnpike laws
IN force now, the first approved march,
q, 1877; the second approved Marcel
81, 1877; The first for company roads
hat take toll; the second for county
roads free Of toll. let the landowners
along the roads call meetings and talk
he matter up, while The roads are bad
md organize under one or the Other OIL
aid laws, while everybody is Of one
mind, IN favor Of the betlernlent of Tie
'oads.