The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1890-05-01
HIGHWAY REFORM.
What Rhode Island is Doing to Advance
this Excellent Work


this Excellent Work.
The present movement for changed
system of highway administration and
control is gratifying, if for no other rea-
son than that it betokens an awakening
OF the public mind to the larger needs Of
to-day.
For purposes of intercommunication
the State must necessarily be kept as a
unit-a principle already recognized in
our almost obsolete laws concerning
State highways. 1t is little more reason
able to suppose that any adequate sys-
tenn of roadways can be acquired or
maintained in our State without rea-
sonably comprehensive plan and through
manifold independent agencies than to
look for good railway, say, that is
built and repaired by the towns through
which it runs, and according to their own
Judgment. Undeniably, our highways
suffer through this multiplication of au-
thority and minute parcelling out of re-
sponsibility. Whereas, in the town of
Scituate the work of highway mainte-
nance is distributed among something
like 10 men, each responsible to nobody
but himself and under no obligation to
work in cooperation with his neighbors,
there can, in the nature of things, be no
certainty of satisfactory results. Econ
, omy of effort, wisdom of direction, adj
equacy of workmanship and uniformity
of aim must inevitably in such cases de-
pend, if they are reached at all, upon the
, chance of individual intelligence re-
lance which, as shown in the results,
but too often proves broken reed.
/ The special virtues of the measures
now presented to the consideration OF
J the General Assembly by the State Roads
J Improvement Association and kindred
organizations is that, without too violent
4 rupture of the existing system they give
J direction and aim to highway admins
T tration, and upon present structure OF
q multiplied control erect superstructure
of definite authority and responsibility
= The radical departure is this, that it
r while enforcing the responsibility of the
D individual community to the whole
s State, and the responsibility of the State
: in turn, to the individual community
: for local purposes it makes the town the
unit and not the district, and does away
e with the other of the two vicious prac
h tees from which our gravest evils arise
/ work out" his tax in any fashion, how
r slipshod.
= The suggested system is, in a word
/ this: The State shall construct anC
i maintain such highways as are, by vir
tue of their location, means of cOmmu
q nication for the whole commonwealth
4 The towns, as such, shall construct anC
e maintain such other thoroughfares as arr
{ in their nature local, seeing to it, through
$ the employment of single cOmpeten
: agent, that the work is well done, anC
h uniformly, and in recognition of tn,
{ common right of the whole communit!
. in every portion of the public domain
$ The remaining provisions of the meas
: ures are designed merely to give efficacy
: and point to their broader purpose, anC
they will be found admirably adapted t,
8 the end in view, and with the incest adj
{ justment of means to the mutual respOn
8 sibility. Thus the provision concerning
{ the width of wagon tires, which
e disturbs the souls of certain farmers anC
n which gives fitting expression to thi
i central fact, is so guarded by circum
{ stance as to present no hardship save al
: some persons may consider it hardship
= to be restricted in the enjoyment of TIN
e thought that they are law unto them
!. selves.
+ Let the farmer once see that his re
spOnsibility to the community and Il
g himself is not ended necessarily whei
o he has thrown shovelfuls enough of eartl
: upon the roadbed in front of his propert,
o to satisfy his own conscience, and he il
:. likely soon to see, also, individual anC
common profit in enactments which
/ while it adds to his material comfort
q also make available to the local cOmmu
: nifty, practically without cost, the edu
Gated professional skill which only til,
q cities now enjOy.-PrOridence Journal.