The state chronicle. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1883-1893, 1884-08-23
A NEW SYSTEM
OF ROAD-MAKING AND NEW
LAWS ARE NEEDED.
An interesting and Suggestive Letter
on the Crying Need of the Time in
North Carolina.


An interesting and Suggestive Letter
on the Crying Need of the Time in
North Carolina.
TO The CHRONICLE The charge of
Judge Gudger to the Grand Jury, in re-
gard to the negligent performance of duty
by the OverseerS of roads. was all very
well, but it would have been more to the
purpose if he had called attention to the
omission of the Legislatures, in this re-
gard, for hundred years and more
Under the present laws, an intelligent
and energetic road -Overseer may do some
thing to render our highways tolerable;
but no amount of energy can make the
roads more than p0SSa6Ie with the re-
sources at hand in bad weather.
The thing to be done is to impose taxes
for the making of roads. The property
holders ought to bear nineteenth of the
burden, because they would reap nine
tenths Of the benefit. A poor man, that
is to say, a man who owns no land, houses,
horses, or wagons, has only indirect in
terest in good roads. He is only interes-
ted by their tendency to increase trade
and industry by which wages would be
Increased. But the man Of means has
the great advantage arising from increas-
ing and prospering business; from cheap
ness of travelling and transportation; from
facility IN getting to market; and, in ad-
dition to all these, his real property is
duplicated or trebled in value.
Yet, in spite of these obvious consider
ations, North Carolina imposes the whole
burdent of making, and keeping roads in
order, upon men between the ages or
eighteen and forty-five years, without the
slightest regard to their several interests
III the roads If man has turned his
fo,.+Xr -, /,
a Million the law requires nothing of
him, for keeping up the roads.
Morever, every intelligent gentleman,
and man of property, is apt to get him
self enScOnced in a = bomb proof" where
the rOad-Overseer cannot reach him. He
is a magistrate, an office-hOlder of some
sort, a doctor or preacher, and goes
scot-free of working the roads; and thus
that essential duty falls on the shoulders
Of the class of men who have least inter
est in good roads.
Property ought to be taxed, and labor
ought to be employed and paid for MAX
ing and keeping up the roads: The pres
ent plan might be continued, minus the
exemptions, and all additional labor nee
essary in thorough grading, macadamizing
and gravelling should be paid for.
picked up in an old book store some
years ago, Gillespies manual of the
Principles and Practice of Road Making"
from which our legislators might learn
many things of which they seem to be
not well informed. | will not undertake
to present his rules for making roads, but
it may be well to give the results of ex-
periments, showing what horse can do
in the way of pulling on different grades
Supposing that horse can draw on
level, smooth, hard road, 1 ton, then the
experiments show that if the road rises
only 1 foot in 100, or II feet and 6-1O in
a mile, the horse can draw only 9-1O of
ton If the rise is 1 foot in so, or 35 feet
and 1-5 in mile, the horse can draw but
S1-1OOths of a ton. If the rise is 1 foot
in "a, or 22O feet in a mile, the horse can
draw only half ton or half load. If
the rise is one foot in 100 Or 52S feet in
a mile, the horse can draw only IA of
ton on load
Now, if we would estimate the loss to
the owners of wagons and teams we are
only to ask ourselves how many roads
there are in our up country from Raleigh
west, ten miles in length, but has hill to
overcome--it may be short one-which
rises 10 or "a feet in the mile. The hill
may not be more than 100 yards in length
and 80 feet high, but it makes it necessa-
for the farmer to put on his wagon only
IA of load, although miles and
16-17th of the remaining mile may be
level.
The reader must bear in mind that these
experiments were made on a perfectly
smooth road. If the road is rough or
mirey on the hill-sides to be ascended,
that obstacle must be added to the other.
Washington, d. G. G.