The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1889-10-19
The Enormous Expense Of Bad Roads

A writer In Scribaer's Mdgdzin
l presents some facts on the subject o
public roads which strongly enforc
views heretofore expressed by tn
New DOMINION.
The writer ridicules what we hav
! called the s'corn husking" method o
making roads, as follows
''In most rural districts of tn
. United States the common roads ar
built and maintained in the most ig
norant and inefficient manner. Ii
no other phase of public duties doe
the American citizen appear to sucf
disadvantage as in the construction
of roads. The voting part Of tn,
population is summoned each yea
to give one or two days to working
out the road tax. The busy peopl,
and those who are forehanded may
, pay their assessment in money; bui
the most of the population finds il
more convenient to attend the annua
road making picnic in person. The
oretically the gangs of men are un
der the supervision of road master
More commonly some elder of the
multitude is by common consent alb
solved from personal labor and made
superintendent of operations.
Arriving on the ground long after
the usual time of beginning work
the road makers proceed to discuss
the general question of road making
and other matters of public concern,
until slow-a acting conscience con
vinces them that they should be
about their task. They then with
much deliberation take the mud out
of the roadside bitches, if, indeed,
the way is ditched at all, and plas-
ter the same on the centre of the
road. A plough is brought into re-
QUESTION, which destroys the best
part OF the road, that which is part
ly grassed and bush grown, and the
soft mass is heaped up in the central
parts of the way. The sloughs or
cradle holes are filled with this ma
terial, or perhaps little brush may
be cut and heaped in, making very
frail support for the wheels. An
hour or two is consumed at MONDAY
by lunch and further discussion OF
public and private affairs. A little
work is done in the afternoon, and at
the close of the day the road making
is abandoned until the next year"
Then, he has this to say about the
cost Of this method of maintaining
roads.
eff we take the misapplied expen-
ses of our country ways, If we count
at the same time the mere social dis
advantages which they bring to the
people, it is probable that the sum
of the road tax in this country is
greater than that of our ordinary
taxation. From some data which !
have gathered in my personal expe-
rience with roads l am inclined to
think that even in New England the
cost to the public arising from in
effective roadways as well as from
the waste of money expended on
them, amounts to not less than an
average of $40 year on each house
hold. In this reckoning l have in
cluded the loss of time and of trans
porting power of vehicles, the wear
and tear of wagons and carriages
and the beasts which draw them. 1t
is probable that the expenditure in
this direction is greater than that
which is incurred for schools or any
other single element of public inter
est. l am inclined to think that it
comes near the sum of all our state
and federal taxation together"
As the remedy for all this the
writer offers the same plan which
we have so often urged upon our
own people-that of employing one
competent man to lay out and super
wise the opening and repairing of all
the roads in the county. Says he:
1t would be greatly to the benefit
of our system of road management
if men could be thoroughly we'll ed
ucated for the duty of road masters.
A well-instructed expert could read
lily take charge Of all the roads in an
ordinary county. Bringing to bear
the experience which has been gained
in the art of road making, he could
greatly diminish the cost of con-
struction and maintenance, and,
without any addition to the present
expenditure of labor, secure good
and permanent ways. No other
step seems so likely to advance this
element in our policy SO effectively
as the institution of educated road
masters"
Ifin Monongalia we were to give
the $4,000 which we yearly pay to
incompetent supervisors, to an en-
gineer who would make it his sole
business to lay out and supervise
the repairs Of all the roads in the
county, it would come very near
solving our whole road problem.
Such man would not only save
the waste of crude and Improbable
repairs, but he would be able to
correct the lines and grades of many
old roads, and prevent mistakes in
making new ones, as to be worth five
times his salary to the county every
year. We regard mistake in lay
ing out the line of road as pnblic
calamity.
/, For example, look at the road be-
tween Morgantown and Granville
Would any engineer have made the
mistake of climbing over steep hills
and over longer route instead Of
following the natural grade over a
shorter route along the river between
, the two points?' No school boy
would have done that. And we ven
ture to say that that single mistake
has cost the people of this county Q
hundred thousand dollars in time
lost, and the wear of vehicles anc
horses,
But this is only one illustration
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