Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1886-06-25

4A1oa huu uduy IuUIo WIZ
comprehend that this movement is not a
mere device OF expediency, but a track
written in the stars. To American eyes
much of the argument of the Tories he
reads in the canvass is strange indeed, so
strange that he can only lay down the
paper with the reflection that whom the
Gods would destroy they first make mad.
A PLAN FOR ED
ROADS.
If experience teaching by the failure of
! effort is to be regarded, we think it doubt
full if any general plan of road metallipg
will be adopted in Augusta in this genera
ton, if ever. There seem to be so many
interests to be reconciled before general
agreement can be reached, that it almost
seems hopeless. The farmers who live on
the depot side-roads want these done first,
while the farmers who live on no depot
road but on the leading roads regard the
| former as rather s'local" improvements
which should wait until the main roads
are finished. In conversation with Gen.
EchOls, who has Travelled over most of
| Kentucky, a State whose good roads are
now famous throughout the Union, we
heard some interesting facts Of how the
improvement came to be general all over
that State. The first man that inaugur-
ated the road improvement there, was that
famous old Presbyterian, DR.. Robert J.
Breckenridge. He commenced by going
| to see his neighbors along line Of road.
His plan was to ask each farmer. "How
much is it your land worth ?" When told
he would say, swell, how much do you
think macadamized road would increase
the value of it ?'' Being told $40 or SIS
an acre, he would close in by saying,
well, suppose you subscribe to COM
pany we are forming to build a road, to
the amount of, say SIS an acre of your
were formed. The roads cost $4,000 mile,
of which the county court Of each county
after it was satisfied that the private
company was composed of responsible
| citizens, subscribed on behalf of the coun
| ty to the stock, to the amount Of 81 900 a
mile. The roads were built, toll-gates put
on them, and the stock paid the county
and the stockholders dividend. In this
way Kentucky has become gridironed
| with metalled pixies.
Now look at the result of this: taking
four counties in Kentucky. all rather
| small ones Montgomery has ninety-nine
miles Of metalled pike, Clarke the adjoin-
| ing county, has one hundred and fifty
miles, Fayette, which joins that has two
hundred and fifty miles, and Barbour, the
next county to it, has three hundred
miles-nearly eight hundred miles OF mac
admiZed road in four small counties
What has been the result in increasing
values Remember they are all small
counties and nothing like the size Of Au-
gustal The real estate in Montgomery
is assessed at 81 900 900; Clarke Sc, 600 900;
Fayette $4,000 600, and Barbour $780,
600. An increase of value which is the
direct result Of the road building. This
idea is not wholly new to Augusta; but it
has never been attempted. Not very
many months ago, some enterprising gen.
tlemen of the wealthy district of River
heads, held meeting and took prelimi-
Dary steps to build road by subscription,
with some aid from the county, tbs ter
minus of which we believe was to be
-Middlebrook. But the gentlemen head
ing the movement received 80 little en-
couragement that they became dlshear-
tened and dropped it. If the landholders
of Augusta will take the plain business
view of it, this plan of private companies
or one similar to it, is the true mode of
increasing the value of their holdings. It
Is not necessary that road should run
to Waynesboro or Stanton, or Greenville
or Mt. Sidney, or any other town-some
Of the Kentucky roads are built merely
from one main road to another-they are
built by companies of farmers to pass
their oaUn farms and of course the result
in the end is that the county has a net
work of roads, and the market towns and
depots are made easy of access. The town
of Lexington in Kentucky has from fifteen
to eighteen of these roads radlating from
it into Fayette county. The travel is so
much increased by these company-built
roads that the tolls are fully adequate to
keeping them up and paying dividends al
well.
We hope some of our enterprjsipg farm
ers will think over this Kentucky plan. If
they should want some additional infor-
nation, we engage to provide it for them
from those who have experienced It's bene.
fits. 1t seems to us plan by which every
objection that has been urged against
those that have been proposed heretofore
in Augusta is met; by which the men who
pay their money get the first results of its
expenditure, and in which there is the
greatest amount of fairness that can be
secured to ALL We think pretty nearly
every landholder in the county is agreed
that something ought to be done in the
matter of roads. Perhaps this may turn out
to be the something that we have all been
waiting for.
1t is not very probable that had Presi-
dent Lincoln lived, the N orthern States,
which then composed the Nation, would
ever have agreed after success on the
field, to pay for the slaves at the South.
Nevertheless it is very pleasant to read
the plan that was in the mind of that
great and good man as told by Col. Nc
Clure of Pennsylvania, in his recent ad-
dress before the students of Washington
& Lee University. He said
There was not day, from the date of
until February 8. 1866, when Stephens,
Hunter and Campbell, the Confederate