The weekly Union times. [volume] (Union C.H., South Carolina) 1871-1894, 1878-03-15
ssfaa and Tho qnsrsat 3sus oIsahe Aap 4. y .

be required on xsystem of good roads. IF
this hypothesis be correct, then do we not
pay q tax for the privilege of bad roads,
equivalent to the expense of supporting
one-tfth Of tho horses and mules in Geor-
gia?
Another place where the tax for bad road
comes in, is tho loss of time Hero is q
farmer who lives ten miles from Americus,
or some other market town. He has O wag-
on and two good mules; he loads on two
bales of cotton and starts for Americus.-
With the rutty and boggy roads, steep hills
and deep mud holes, you know it is a good
days work to get those two bales to Ameri-
Gus, and return in the day. We will sup
pose at moderate estimate, that his wagon
and team are worth $3.50 per day. Now,
smtUtn, won't
graded read 6vSF winch to drive his wagon,
it would be just as easy for his team to car
ry four bales, as it is now to carry only two;
in other words, he could then accomplish
in one day, the Same amount of hauling
that now requires t,ro days. His team, as
| have said, being estimated at 50 SO per
day, and his being compelled to take two
days to accomplish tho work of one, is it
not a logical inference, that in this case, the
farmer bays a tax of $3.50 day, for the priv
ilegc of using bad roads Now multiply this
item by the number Of farmers in the State
of Georgia, who go thrlgh this identical
process numberless times during the year,
and what fearful burden of taxation it
piles up. If this tax came in visible, tau
Sible shape, Or if it wcre collected by scv-
ernment officials, backed up by bayoncts,
what an amount of righteous indignation it
would provoke! But it comes so noiseless-
ly and quietly that our people bear it with
the cquanimity Of Christian martyrs, and
in deed seldom think of it as tax at all.
Alta certain town in Georgia, which an
nually ships from ten to twelve thousand
bales of cotton, there was few years ago
a long, narrow causcway leading to bridge,
said bridge and causeway being wider than
necessary for one vehicle, and yet not wide
enough for two. Whenever, therefore, a
vehicle fairly secured the entrance to the
causeway, it was necessary for the other ve-
hicles at the end of the bridge no matter
how many they were, to wait until the first
vehicle had entirely passed over. On ono oc-
acsion, l passed this causeway, and ut the
end of the bridge counted eighteen vehicles
-buggies with ladies and gentlemen, wag-
ons loaded with cotton, carts With wood, etc.
There they stood, on . wintry day, reminds
ing one of "patience sitting on monument
smiling at grief" waiting, with Christian
resignation, for a one.horse team to drag its
slow length along the causeway and over
the bridge. The owners of these vehicles
never once dreamed that they were paying
tho heaviest sort of tax for the privilege
of riding over causeway too narrow for
two vehicles to 60 abreast; nor did they
once imagine that the loss of time in bug
gies, wagons, carts, ETC., with tho vexation
incident thereto, would have paid the cost
of constructing wider embankment twice
over, in one season. All this is altered
now. To the credit of that town, be it
said, few cnterprisins citizons saw the
heavy tax that they were paying, and re-
solved to pay it no longer; and now they
have broad embankment and wide
bridge, ample enough to cover any amount
of travel.