Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1888-08-15
Av.y with tho Tsllsate.

~
euter this city upon every hand have done
vpry good service In the past and Will
continue to do 30 in the future; but the
time has come when they should be made
frce roads, and the cost Of their purchase
out Of the public treasury should not out
weigh the advantage Of making them 30.
The county II able to stand the expense,
and the benefit will be 30 general TO the
people Of the county as to amply JUSTIFY
it. A law has lately been passed which
provides the mode in which toll roads
may be made free, and this, as the rich
ct county In the state, should be the first
q avail itself OF 1t. The stockholders OF
the roads cannot complain IL they receive
fair price for their property the people
Of the county certainly will not do 30 II
they are relieved from the cost and the
annoyance Of tollgates; and the commu.
mites In the cities into which they lead
viii certainly be benefited by the taking
away Of the gates, which do much to
hamper their communication with the
country. A tax laid upon the whole
community for the purchase Of the turn.
pixies will DO for the benefit OF all the
people Of the county; and that Is the
function Of tax. We note that the
tnrnpikesin the populous portions Of New
Jersey are being made free. In Berks
ccanty q like movement has been started,
and 10 believe that Lancaster should
enter into 1t.
A great many people who use the turn.
pikes are loud In their condemnation Of
them, and do not stop to consider that
shey have afforded great facilities for
intw and to note that
taey have been and are still very benefi.
csns Institutions. They are annoyed at
bsing stopped by tollgates, and at the
charges made, which they consider high
comparing them with the cost Of railroad
travel. They are necessarily high be
cause OF the fact that the railroads hav'
absorbed their trade and required then
70 collect their cost Of working and thei
dividends from . comparatively small
tnfiic. The charges are not general!
unreasonable, and the fact that they ar
Nsde, should cause no denunciation @
tie toll road but it may REASONABLY
crrAts demand that they shall be mad
ms BY pulchase and we know no goo
xeasun Why this should not now be dom
n this rich County. which can afford th,
coss
some persons say that il made free the
rods will not be kept in good order by
the townships which they traverse and
they think, too, that the expenditure Of
the money needed to keep them in ordt
viii be likely to be accompanied by jot-
bery in the township officials. There may
be cause for these fears but II they are
found to he justified, the remedy will
be in the establishment Of county com
mission which will take charge Of them
We have long thought that there should
be such q bureau in charge Of all the
county roads, provided with an engineer
stan to supervise their construction and
repair. This duty is very unequally at
tended to by the township supervisors
and often very badly. They need to have
competent direction placed over them
And in fact we do not know whether
their work would not be better and NOR
economically done II they were abolished
and their duties transferred to a count,
engineer corps; the road taxes beinl
paid directly into the county treasury
We have outgrown the rude methods o
road supervision that we have. and arr
ready for q more systematic and genera
practice. We are ready at any rate fol
free roads and free communication, Tn,
toll-gate is relic of a public poverty
which Lancaster county at least has Ions
outgr0wn.