Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-12-30
FOR GOOD ROADS.
Captain Ford's Philanthropy-He Offers q
Township Loan, but the Law Prevents
Its sAcceptance-The Mud Highways Al


Its Acceptance-Ths Mud Highways Al
mnst impossible Now.
| WITHIN the last few days complaint
OF bad roads in all parts of Allegheny
| county have been multiplying. The farm
ing element that is to be seen every day W
at the Court House give the most authentic
accounts of the effect of last weeks damp
weather upon the highways. They tel
about double teaminR already, while severa
were heard to declare that their horses had
| been out on tic road for the last time this
| winter.
Captain j. B. Ford the plate glass manu-
| fncturer, has offered to advance $1,000 tc
East Deer township, Allegheny county, tc
| be spent upon permanently repairing the
| lpain road that connects thevillage of Hite's
| with Tarentum. In probably one.half that
distance the road passes through Captain
Ford's manufacturing properly. and his
| taxes at present form a considerable portion
| of the townships revenue. However, the
| road is not much used by the big plate glass
works. The wealthy owners object is
solely to stimulate the inevitable growth OF
] sentiment for better roads all over the State
to assist in placing East Deer townships
roads in front rank, and at the same time to
| make things more pleasant for his employees
whose homes are scattered along the muddy
highway.
| The Law Prevents Progress.
SUPERVISOR EDMUNDsoN has been
compelled to decline the offer. Beyond a
certain indebtedness this and other town
ships are not permitted by law to borrow
money. When the Supervisor explained
| this to Captain Ford, the millionaire then
| put his offer in another form.
"Take this 81, 900 for the roads as my own
| taxes in advance" he said. "The township
| need not pay me back the monev, but
| simply Offset it from time to time with my
| assessments. Using it thus, without inter-
| est you will be enabled to put it to good ad-
vantage on extensive and permanent re-
| pairs of the road.''
There was a certain shrewdness in this
| latter proposition not stated by Captain
Ford, but which is embodied in principle
| well known to thinkers on the economic
side of thu country road problem, viz: To
| expend So. 600 in cash on permanent road re-
pairs would have actually reduced Captain
Ford's taxes in the future; but that would
have been blessing, for it would have re-
duced the taxes of every other man in the
township at the same time. A permanent
| road taxes comparatively nothing to keep
in repair from year to year, while the roads
as at present repaired, for each year at q
time, fairly eat up taxes.
This second offer, the township author
ities also declined. Mr.. Edmundson reasoned
truthfully enough that while he would be
glad to accept Ford's taxes in advance, and
expend them all at once in permanent re-
pairs, the successors who may hereafter be
elected in his place might not feel bound to
carry out the obligation which he had ac-
cepted for the township. 1t could only be
personal matter between himself and Cap
tain Ford, andhe could offer no assurance
4
Another Legislative Blunder.
TO reporter of THE DISPATCH, Road
Supervisor Edmundson said: "This shows
what might have been done by the last Leg
islature. Instead of setting up the costly
and complicated machinery proposed in the
general road law which the body tried to get
through, why did they not simply pass
bill authorizing townships to bor-
row money for road purposes?
There are plenty of townships
far enough advanced in road education
which would gladly do something more per-
manent than they do now, if they were
clothed with this legal power. If we had
had 1t here, We could have accepted Captain
Ford's offer in a certain and regular way. At
the same time by empowering townships to
borrow money for road purposes, the Legis-
1ature would not have been put in the posi-
element of Pennsylvania which they did not
want. 1t would, therefore, have encoun-
tered little, IL any. opposition, and would
have satisfied the sections of Pennsylvania
which are eager to make better roads. They
could then have done SO without inter-
fering with their neighbors. am heartily
in favor of some better system of main tain
ing the roads than we have at present, and :.
think you will find that sentiment is grow
ing very rapidly among agricultural people.
Let townships have authority to borrow
money for such purposes if they want, and
the result will be that tho townships that
have no ambition to better things need not
bother to borrow money. But the town.
ships which do. would gradually improve
their roads to such an extent that adjacent
districts would see the economic value of
good highways, and thus be gradually edu-
Gated up to the same view of the question"
Another farmer who was told what plan
Mr.. Edmundson proposed for the State Leg
islature remarked: "What grand policy
that would have been for the last Legisla-
ture to have adopted in dealing with this
problem, instead of attempting the very
radical step they did. This would have
stimulated the demand for good roads, ex-
tended the agitation Of the subject by COM
pelling one community of farmers to see
what another community to the east or west
of them was doing in the way of permanent
repairs, and, eventually, it would have
paved the way for something more general
and systematic next winter at Harrisburg"
The Farmers Should Wake Up.
PHILANTHROPY in the country road
dilemma, as suggested by the offer Of Cap
tain J. B. Ford, is nothing new. Yet it, like
the main question, is yet to be developed |
into anything like satisfactory condition. |
Captain Henry r. Rouse, who was burned to |
death at one of his celebrated oil wells near |
Housewife, Pa, bequeathed his fortune of !
$50, 900 to Warren county, Pa. several years |
ago. He directed that one-half the sum
should be invested in way that would |
furnish permanent fund to keep up the |
public roads of that county, and that the |
other half should go into the maintenance |
of the poor. Since that time the interest ac- |
cruing from the $40, COO has been divided |
among IS townships annually. in proportion |
to the amount of taxes raised in each town. |
ship. 1t practically amounts to very little |
for a township, and year or two ago when |
THE DISPATCH Country Road Exploring
Party passed through Warren county, ft was
found that the fund thus distributed worked |
rather to the disadvantage Of the roads than |
the opposite. 1t had a tendency to make |
farmers Indifferent: they knew they were
sure of SO much from the Rouse fund, and /
they proceeded to pare down their own
tribute proportionately. At any rate, the |
examples of both Captain Rouse and Captain
md thinking men stand ready to aid in this
great internal Improvement if they them
selves make the break by letting loose the
bu puhlic onipion-ond soo |