Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1885-04-17
GENERAL TAXATION FOR
ROADS.

GENERAL TAXATION FOR
ROADS.
A correspondent wants to know, "Do
you know of case in which the State has
built roads through counties and taxed
the people at large for them How is the
State to collect road tax" Well, yes;
we know of several cases. The Valley
turnpike running out of Staunton is one.
The Parkersburg turnpike is another. At
the outbreak of the civil war there were
three or four railroads in Virginia running
through few counties, which the State
taxed the whole people for, on the two
fifths and three.ffths principle. One of
them runs through Augusta now II the
world had waited for the counties through
which these roads run to build them, they
would never have been built, but the
counties did not object to paying the tax
involved in the three-ffths of the money
being put in them by the State. The
counties along its line would never have
built the Valley pike. but its building was
the salvation unto prosperity Of this Val
ley. To-day the Parkersburg pike is an
artery for Highland and border West Vlr-
GINA trade that contributes no lncon-
siderable part of the life of Staunton
trade. Neither cities nor counties in Viz
ginia would object to paying State road
tax if they saw the work going on at once
all over the State. And since we penned
these lines we get the Richmond Dispatch
with an illustration far better than ours:
We agree with the Staunton VINDIoAToR
that no system of road making in Virginia
that is not general and compulsory from the
start is going to advance with certainty and
rapidity enough to improve the country in
our day and generation. The public highways
| like the public schools, must be made and
sustained by the whole Commonwealth or
they will not be made and sustained at all.
Perhaps, in the case of the roads in the
case of the schools the State need only sup
| plement the efforts of counties, cities, and
| districts But the law must be State law.
| As well try to build a railroad by requiring
each magisterial district to build it within its
own borders as to try to secure good county
roads in that way. The people of Virginia
have relied upon the counties long enough,
and the roads are no better now than they
were fifty years ago. Now let us see what
virtue there is in State law.
That illustration of the schools is pecu-
liarly ct. More fit, because if we had bet
ter roads we would have fuller schools
and more general education. That the
people of Virginia have relied on the
counties long enough" is as fully proved
| by results as any mathematical problem
could be. Twenty years, taeenty gears OF
the life of the State has been wasted I'm.
| der the old county system, absolutely was.
ted. 1t is not to the discredit of the peo-
| pie Of the counties, but to the system it.
self. Take this county of Augusta fol
example: what good would it do North
! River Township to have perfect system
of macadamized roads within it's limits
even if its people were willing to be taxed
to that extent? Hemmed in by the I'm.
improved roads of, the remaining town
ships of the county on three sides, and
Highland on the fourth, what good would
result to the North River people from
their enterprise and their expenditure
except to facilitate neighborhood visiting
1t is not because the people of the coun
try are not alive to the value of good
roads; are not liberal enough to pay fol
them if they knew they could get them
but because their experience with the lit
tie, broken, shoes string patches of roads
they have sunk their money in, has dis
couraged them. They are disheartened al
body at the other end Of the plank. a
good piece OF road ten miles long, thai
starts out of one mud hole and ends II
another, is of little use to build or ever
TO keep up. There must be a general sys
tenn of road making all over this State
under State authority, and the taxes tx
carry out which must be paid by ineorpo
rated cities and towns as well as the coun
try people. General taxation and genera
and simultaneous Improvement, IS the
road motto for old Virginia just now.
Ii these things are demanded by thu
people of this State, no legislature, Dem
ocratic or Republican, will dare refuse tt
pass laws to accomplish the and no Gov
ernor of either politics would risk & veto
On these laws. The voice OF the people
IS supreme in the State, and if they will
oaIy give unmlstaKeable utterancs to it
it will be needed.