Daily tobacco leaf-chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1890-1895, 1891-04-15
PUBLIC ROADS.

would make the most possible Of the
new road law, and take some action
looking to progress, but every one
who INDUCED this hope is sadly dis
appointed. In fact the law is dead
failure, worse than the old one. 1t
grants power for the indulgence OF
extravaganza, and enforces uOthing
but the payment of salaries and the
requirement of certain amount of
labor, and yet live business men
might take advantage of some of its
provisions to carry into effect a good
road system, and this we notice, no
county, except Knox, is doing.
The Montgomery court followed
the idea of making every civil dis
trict a road district, the magistrates
electing each other commissioners,
instead Of dividing the county into
three or four road districts, with a
good board Of commissioners, con-
centrating the road fund, and Coop
Grating with the work house system,
and working to some purposes. We
have a small fund divided out in a
way to be spent without accomplish
ing any good, and have tWenty-one
salaried commissioners to absorb the
road fund and do no good. 1t is
really doubtful if the road tax will
| will pay the salaries of the commits
sioners, who are allowed one dollar
per day for all the time they think
proper to put in experimenting the
road work, and that may be fifty or
100 days in the year, according to cir.
cumstances and the necessities of the
case 1t may suit to fix various days
for different men in different parts of
the district, to work, which will re-
quire the commissioners attention.
Then he may lay out new roads,
assess damages, ETC., and draw on
the county treasury for the money.
1t required two-thirds of the
road fund Is cents levey) under
the old road law, to pay the
overseers who were required to work
four days, and we are unable to see
how any portion of the road fund
(still a cents levy can be devoted
to work or repairs on the roads; nor
do we see how it is possible for 50
many commissioners to cooperate
with the wOrk-house system, Utilizing
the prison labor to any extent all
over the county. Each district is left
to itself, dependent on itself except
for the privilege of drawing on the
county treasury at will, for no one
district can raise a sufficient fund
within itself to accomplish any good
while the outlay for road tools, teams,
etc, will he four times greater if suit
able tools are supplied.
Another Objectionable feature in
the plan adopted is in the way the
burden of the whole system is placed
upon the poor or laboring classes.
This they would no doubt willingly
bear if there was any hope of max
ing good roads and lessening the
service in the future, but there is no
such promise. Where the roads are
good they will be kept in good fix,
but where they are very bad the
work will amount simply to patch
ing or a lick and a promise. Last
year, or under the old law, the labor
service required was four days in the
year, and the tax five cents on the
hundred dollars, The court refused
to increase this tax to 10 cents, thus
creating a fund that would accom-
plish some good, but increased the
la Dor service to six days in the year.
This is unjust to the laboring people,
especially the poor. They are not
the ones to be benefited by good
roads, nor can they so well afford it.
Their labor is their money, their cap
ital. For instance, farm worth
SIS, 600 will pay $3.50 road tax, while
the poor men who labor on that farm
for not exceeding $3.50 year are re-
quired to put in six days labor,
worth at least $3.50.
But the great reproach about this
matter is the act Of the magistrates |
IN elccting themselves to the several
positions of district commissioners /; |
nineteen out of the twenty-one are
members of the court; 'Squires Cor
ban and Smith refused to serve, or |
the whole board would have been |
composed of magistrates. Surely
our worshipful magistrates never
the effect Of this result on
them as members of the court, or
they would not have done it. We
wish again to refer to the example o!
Knox county. Fifteen years ago
Knoxville was a town claiming 49,
poo population; now she has $4,000,
and the county has increased in
wealth in proportion to the city,
The county has board of three road
commissioners, has bought out all of
he turnpikes and toll bridges and
The commissioners are instructed to