Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-04-12
DIRT ROADS.
The Convention Thing Of the Past
the Solution Thing OF the Future.
They Made Believe They Would Solve the Per
picking Problem, but Gracefully
Let Ii Slide.
snecial oorresnondenoe of the Gazette.

|
| DALLAS, Ten, April lO.-The dirt
road convention is now q thing of the
| past, but the solution of the dirt road
| question is still a thing of the future.
The county judges and county commits
| sioners who came here to consider upon
| the best method for solving it have de-
parted for their homes, leaving it the
| same perplexing conundrum that it has
been all along. They debated ard dis
! cussed it, and the fired off broadside ct
resolutions concerning it. but they dtan
| solve it. And yet there were among
! them many able and intelligent men,
county judges who are lawyers and who
| would not object to wear the ermine of
| the district court bench, and who would,
doubtless, wear it worthily; county COM
missioners who think themselves as
| thoroughly qualified for county
or legislative, not to say state,
| Offices, as any who are now
| filing or are anxious to fill the various
places at the disposal of the sovereign
! people of the state
| To such a body of men one might,
| with every show of reason, look for
some acceptable solution of question
| so thoroughly discussed, in all its bear
| ings, as has been the dirt road question.
Perhaps if they had not all been Office
| holders, and anxious, with but few
| exceptions, to be continued in
| office, they would not have been afraid
! to have taken good square fall out of
| the question and throw it or be thrown
| by it. Many of them would, had they
dared to do so, have urged the issuance
81 nj Cp
method OF dealing with the question was
so strongly voiced on the part of the tax
| payers in advance of the meeting OF the
convention, that those who framed it,
and who came really, under proper en-
couragement to urge it, were deterrea&
| therefrom by fear lest in doing so they
would be sounding the knell OF their
own am bitions, and arousing storm
! that would result in the wreck of all their
hopes of future political preferment.
They looked the question fairly in the
face, sized up its John L. Sullivan pro-
portions and concluding that discretion
was the better part of valor, decided that
they would not undertake to take it
away from the people, who are the
proper ones to be entrusted with its solu-
ton. They had to blow either hot or
cold, and they really didn't like to do
either. Having made believe that they
were going to tackle and solve the per-
picking problem, they wanted to let go of
it and give it up as gracefully as posi-
BILE. 1t was not an easy thing to do since
even a county commissioner hates totravels
300 miles to a convention and traReE
300 miles home again, and when asked
by his people what was accomplished,
to be compelled to answer, "NOthing. -
To accomplish nothing, however, is
better than to work mischief. Insofar
as the convention did the former, and
refrained from doing the latter, it was a
success. By recommending the Kim
brough amendment to the people it put
itself on record as against the issuing of
bonds and in favor of an advalorem tax
of fifteen cents on the 500 for road i'm
provement purposes, and of such a
such a change in the constitution and
such legislation as will enable the people
of any county who are willing to do SOC
to levy such tax.
The best methods of constructing roads
so as to derive the greatest benefits from
the money expended, the kinds of roads
suited to the different parts of the state,
how road taxes should be levied, COL
lected and expended, whether a county
should have large number of bad roads
or a limited number of good ones, are a
few of the questions the convention
did not even have brought before it.
Yet, they are ali questions of vital in
terest to the people of the state, and a
free discussion of them might well claim
the time and attention Of body Of men
embracing the ability and intelligence Of
this gathering of county judges and
county commissioners.
Perhaps the new association of county
judges, who, by the way, are inclined TO
be rather exclusive, inasmuch as they
refused to make the county commission
ers joint members of the organization,
may, at their meeting in June in Calves
ton, take up these questions and give
the people clear solution of them. If
they do, their disposition to criticise the
road convention for not voting to issue
bonds will be forgiven them, and they
VIII be regarded as meriting the ap-
prevail at least of their own conscienees.