Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-05-31

Lne amount required to construct the roads.
and il they be longtime bonds doubtless no
more than to per cent interest need be paid.
Inc oept thus incurred must be liQuidated by
rate of interest paid on the bonds by creating
SINKING fund OF per cent at compound in
terest the entire principal may be paid off in
ABOUT % years, and the county will have en-
loyeo the dement, of the roads in the meantime.
The county will thus pay but per cent Oil the
capital invested, which would incur but SLIGHT
increase in taxation.
BY our present wasteful system we are nav
ing heavy road tax without receiving in re-
turn any improvements in our highways
Doubtless in 35 years more than enough will be
paid in taxes to construct good macadamized
roads, and at the end Of that time the roads
Will be IN no better condition than at the
present time.
Whether such plan would be practical
BILE or not, there is not a farmer whom 1
talked to in the entire western half of the
State but who did not admit that his money
in the past years had been wasted on re-
pairing the roads. One gentleman in par
ticular who had read Mr.. Howe's communi-
cation pointed to the clause about enough
money being spent in 35 years to more than
pay off bonds. He added that had the
money he alone paid in the last 35 years
been expended in a scientific manner on the
roads of his township, he could have pointed
TO three miles of the finest driveway in the
world, and said that he had paid for it. but
now he can show nothing for his money.
COUNTIES WITHOUT LIMESTONE.
Individual counties do not want to bear
the expense of any extensive road improve
ment. To some of them, the citizens claim,
it would mean bankruptcy. Limestone is
abundant in the southern and central tiers
of counties of this State, but in the north
ern and western tiers there is none. Nearly
everybody agrees that limestone is about
the only stone hard enough for road pur-
poses, yet there are several counties where
it is not to be found. To first ship it to
such counties by rail, and then cart it in
small wagon loads through the interior,
would certainly be very expensive. We
mango county, for instance, has no lime
stone. Her citizens argue that it would be
unjust to pass general road law requiring
limestone as the standard material, and then
make every county bear the expense OF the
improvement herself. There would not be
money enough in Venango county to do it
unless the railroads would haul the lime
stone nearly 80 miles for nothing, and con-
victs from the prisons do the work of max
ing the roads. And in some few counties,
such as Erie, there is
NO STONE OF ANY KIND
Speaking to me of such counties, recently,
Hannibal K. Sloan, of Indiana, member
OF the Road Commission, said: SIN such
cases we might as well think of hauling
cobble-stones there, and making a regular
pavement. 1t would be as cheap to ship
train load after train load of one stone there
as another"
So, tomake summary of all the senti-
ment, it simply remains to be said that the
people favor the plan for the State to make
the initiative move, so far as financial aid is
concerned. OF course it remains to be seen
what ways and means the State Commission
will recommend to the Legislature before
the farming element will give their whole
support and countenance to even that. If
the money comes from any other source
than direct taxation on land or agricultural
interests, it can be depended upon that
every member of the Legislature from a
country district will go to Harrisburg next
winter with Instructions to vote tor the i'm
provement, or if cities and corporations
bear their share, then the majority OF the
agriculturists would not object to a new
taxation.
AFRAID OF CORRUPTION.
But beyond the matter of financial help
individual counties would still prefer to
have the control of the roads within them
selves. Farmers in some places say they
are afraid that if the State were to create an
army of Office holders to manage and work
upon the roads, as much as so per cent
of every appropriation made by the Legis-
lature for improvement of the roads would
never reach the roads-that it would be re-
quired to pay salaries. This leads to a sug-
gestion that the State appropriation be d.
vided and distributed among the counties
in the same way that the State
school appropriation is now distrib-
uted; that the county engineers be
constituted the agents of the State in each
county, and that road supervisors in the dlf-
ferent townships act under his supervision.
Supervisors now receive the minimum of sal
ary, and it is contended that if they were
under the eye of an engineer who understood
scientific road-making, there would be better
results from their work than now. Yet this
would scarcely answer in a work of such
magnitude as rebuilding a system of roads
complete. 1t might do in simply keeping
the roads in repair. Again the objection is
found that if the work were given out by
contract there would be afforded opportuni-
ties for corruption or costly work. At this
point convict labor on the roads might help
to solve the problem of cost and simple ad-
ministration.
OF that phase of the question, and OF some
suggestions as to proper road building,
another article hereafter will treat.
L. E. STOFIEL