Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-05-06

working the stone. The sandstone being
soft and porous, has resulted largely as in
other counties-either being powdered into
sand by heavy hauling or making the road
| way rough and uneven. Such a thing as
using limestone and using it in a scientific
manner has apparently never been thought
of by supervisors.
Farmer Fleming, in Cowanshannock
township, says he doesn't think limestone is
necessary for all roads. He believes sand
stone will do, but admits that it is not
rightly used now. He thinks it should be
steadily filled in, year after year, until the
roads are from one to two feet deep with it.
One or two layers of the sandstone, he
admits is useless because it will soon mix
with the earth in every way but the proper
way.
A Poor Policy.
Farmer Joseph McCsughey, of the same
township, says one of the great evils is in
| eleeting road supervisors who have no fitness
| for the position and who know little about
the first principles of road building. In
Armstrong county the custom, he says is
usually to elect one of the heaviest taxpay-
ers supervisor. This is for the reason that
the supervisor, receiving no more than a
road worker, practically pays his own salary
through the road taxes on his property. In
this case cost, and not fitness. is the argu-
ment used in selecting a supervisor. The
result is seen in poorly-made roads.
Joseph Graf, one of the wealthy farmers
of Armstrong county, is strongly in favor of
reform in every particular of road building.
He has for years paid his road taxes in
money rather than work them out. Even in
that way, he says, road repairing is failure,
because under the present system young
boys and old men are sent out to work on the
roads who know nothing whatever about
good workmanship. Mr.. Graf wants to see
the principal roads macadamized with lime
stone, and says the large majority of farmers
would be easily satisfied on the score of ex-
pense if the State Commission recommends
an equitable financial plan.
Paying the Road Taxes.
If the movement now set on foot by the
Governor fails, then he thinks capable en-
giDeers or contractors should be employed
as supervisors, and that every farmer should
be compelled to pay his taxes instead of
working them out Mr.. Graf lives in
Manor township.
Ex-County Commissioner Thomas Mont
gomery farms a beautiful tract of land in
Manor township a short distance east of
Kittanning He said to me: "Manor is one
of the smallest townships in this county,
being only six miles long and two miles
broad. Yet within these narrow
limits there are AZ miles of roads.
If you were to macadamize these
roads with limestone the work would cost
more than all the farms in Manor township
are worth. To even do anything more on
these roads than level up the dirt would be
financially impracticable. 1t reminds me
very much OF applications to build some
roads in this county in and around certain
farms. The farms were worth S. 900, and
the roads could not have been built for less
than $4,000. 1 advised in favor of the
county buying the farms, thus saving the
taxpayers s., 900.
A Modest Request.
"a farmer down here asked the county to
brild a bridge over a creek on the road
through his property. The bridge would
have cost $1,000. His farm was worth
$1,000. 1t would have been cheaper to buy
the farm.
''Of course these were only township
roads. But, aside from cost, the scheme
contemplated by the State Commits
sion of macadamizing the princi- ]
pal roads at an annual expenditure of |
from $1,000 600 to $4,000, 900, is open to
objections. 1t would create an army Of |
officeholders, because engineers and con- |
tractors would have to be employed. That |
sort of political patronage always breeds ex- |
traVaganee. And may | ask what would |
put from 81, ,000, 900 to $1,000, 600 into the |
State Treasury every year it not the taxes, |
and who would have to pay much Of those |
taxes il not the farmer? With salaries of |
civil engineers and con-
tractors to be paid, I'm afraid only about 80 |
per cent of appropriation would actually |
reach the road.
Way to Reform.
II am heartily in favor of permanently
improving the highways. 1 would say raise /
The township road taxes some, compel their
payment in money, employ able-bodied |
Iaoorers instead of young boys and aged |
persons, place these in charge OF some per-
son with some degree of engineering knowl-
e1ge instead of the supervisors as we now
erect them. You would find this would re.
suit IN good dirt roads. / mean by this
tnat where necessary stone would be used in
systematic way, the road would be we'll
graoea win view to draining, and there
would ne that general evidence about them
OF lnVelIigent construction"
asked Agent W. Reynolds. of the A. v.
X. A' at hlttanning, about the cost OF
limestone In Armstrong county. He said
that the Kittanning Iron Works get it from
q Co. at probably IS cents a ton
at the quarry and 80 cefs& freight rates
This is quarried in Armstrong county bv
drifting the hills. This is a lower cost
than found at the Clarion county ouarries.
where drifting" has not been tried
In Favor of Macndnm.
Mr.. Reynolds says that he has conversed !