Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1888-12-10
TEXAS ROADS.
The Present Road Law OF Texas Discussed and
a General Demand for Better System
Than the Existing Law.

u Uenerdl DPllilnu TOT II DbJieF
Than the Existing Law
Ballinger Leader: 1t is to be hoped
| that among the first things our next leg
islature will take into consideration will
be the present Internal ,goOd-for- nothing,
worse than bad road law. 1t imposes a
tax on Il few and permits the majority
who are interested in good roads to es-
cape without the payment of 4 cent.
| Levy a road tax and let every property
owner bear his part of the burden, and
we will nave better roads at less cost to
the people.
San Antonio Times: The road law of
! Texas is Il failure and deIusion. Citizens
| are required to work the roads certain
number of days each year, and the av-
erage citizen shirks as much road work
as possible. The only sensible ana
feasible plan by which good roads
may be secured and kept up is to levy Il
| tax and pay men to work them. The
next legislature viii not do its duty unless
| it radically changes the Texas road laws
Sherman Herald: The Collin county
papers are clamoring for good roads. We
| happen to know that old Collin has the
| best roads pOSsible-in dry weather. We
have been there and know what we are
talking about.
Waco News: Given four roads running
i'll four radi from the city, each way.
| fifteen miles long, would give four great
arteries of travel which would go a long
way towards system of roads draining
the products of the county. Such HoadS
would be supplemented by the country
10 Nr-it .l,,,,.f Tl,n+
would make sixty miles of road for Waco
to see to. The state road law would put
these roads in coed order once a year and
the county cOnvicts could keep them in
repair. That would be starter while
more permanent system could be per-
fected.
San Antonio Times: The complaint of
bad roads is nearly universal in Texas.
The Sherman Register says:
The country roads are in very bad
shape, and Will continue to be so as long
as they can I have work put in on them.
Texas could spend millions profitably
on the Improvement of public roads, 1t
paid the people OF Kentucky to construct
turnpikes.
Waco News: The use of county con-
victs to repair county roads seems to
strike every one as 4 sort of poetic jus
tice. 1t would make Jordan a hard road
to travel for the cOuyicts, and the Tehua-
ia and McGregor roads easy ones TO travol
for the honest man, thus making u stand
of.
Dallas Times-Heraid: Macadamized
public roads are an absolute necessity i'll
Dallas county. The farmer cannot mar
ket his produce to advantage during such
Il winter as the last. The commissioners
court should meet the demand with road
and bridge hands, and have the in
creased land values of the future to help
pay the cost.
Wichita Light: 1t would seem that
argument is unnecessary, for every day
we hear OF numbeIiess wagons miTed
down and unable to reach market with
the produce of the country; wholesale
and retail merchants complain of stag
nation III every branch of business on ac-
count of the inability of freighters and
farmers to reach the city; the entire
business of the town is dependent solely
upon what little local trade the people of
our own county are absolutely unable to
do without, for its sustenance-and what |
more is necessary to convince the man of |
business that good roads are u public |
necessity. i
Cuero Star: This writer has not at !
tempted to get out of town by dirt, or
rather mud road, but we hear that the |
roads leading out of or into town are al |
most impossible. Our county commits |
sOners should begin to look after the
public roads some, instead of building so |
many free bridges. If we had more and |
better roads perhaps there would be less
need of so many bridges. But what's
the good of bridges, anyhow, without
roads?
Terrell Times: The Times would call
the attention of road overseers to the fact
that many bridges are out of repair and
it is necessary that they should be put in
shape at once while the weather and roads
are still passably good. In and about
Terrell the roads and bridges need repair
ing as much as anywhere else, and those
whose duty it is to attend to it should do
so at once. One gentleman tells us that
one day he counted thirty bridges and
only two of them were III good shape.
Dallas Journal: The work of improv-
ing the county roads is an imperative
one, and is pressing one, and should be
commenced at once. Dallas county is
able to do this, and she has
no other interest of more moment to her.
Gatesyille Star: We need better roads,
Straighter roads and wider roads. These
things have been delayed too long. And
the longer we neglect looking after them 4
the more difficult it viii become and will Il
also be more expensive to obtain them.
Good roads can be had, and to make
them will injure no one but will be bene- Y
fetal to the whole people, both town and
Every public interest as welP
as private viii be promoted by having
good roads. This is a problem soon to be
solved, and if not attended to right, busi-N
ness will go down. We cannot expect
people to bring produce to Gatesville un7