The Opelousas courier., 1892-08-27

Let us see what this sum of $4,000 would do? ?
1t would buy
Broad Machines at $3.50 48O 0O
6 Steel Plows at $l5 W w
6 ScraperS at So 3U w
80 Sets harness at S. $50 00
3wagons at 500 lou w $o'ou "
Three complete road working outfits, andS
leave $4,000 for operating expenses, whieh
Operating expenses" bear in mind, would
| only be, feed for teams and blacksmith work
on blows and machines since the above men
toned expenditure of $4,000 does not coniem-
plate the release" OF any one from road du-
ty, but 'rather" "a closer attendance therdo.
Certainly no sane man, unblinded elthei by
prejudice or the desire to be on some pay rpll,
but will admit that these three road working
outfits wonld, IN the four years, accomplish
more than eight paid" 'Superintendents" of
UNPAID" labor.
This thing of Superintendents is but work
ing III "a circle, anyway twenty years ago
we had a road superintendent, and the office
was abolished for what reason ? not that
the roads were perfect" but because the
office was like the Indians gun, sit cost more
than it come to-" A very few years agp, it
was again tried, and again abolished. And
here we are to have another trial of the anne
old twice abolished system, only eight flld !:
"a waste Of valuable time and valuable money,
both.
Lafayette pays for road work St. Nary
pays for road work and now comes Acadia,
a parish yet in knickerbockers, the "chilf' of
st. Landry, and proposes to levy u special"
tax of : | mills for road Improvement. hey
have recognized the fact that for Hnothiig,"
you get nothing and here we are atteIpt-
ing to get something for nothing" md
are even going to pay like the deuce for he
experiment" besides.
fapt.inIN fho ranp1a of tlio r,auialara in~
suffering, and as patient as Balaam's sted
Anything more unjust than our preant
road system is hardly imaginable and / il
certainly impossible to point out a more Eer-
feet failure than it has demonstrated itelf
to be.
The non owners of property, and the Hry
little fellows, compose by far the bulk of he
road hands what does the holder of thu
sands OF acres contribute to keep up the pb-
lie roads ! not a days work, and not a cnt
of money and the nonresident Ownes 2
precisely the same amount! And the genie
men lover fifty" whose old bones shouldpe
transported over smooth highways to avid
shaking ? a like sum! And the doctor, ho
wears his soul case ont for the insignificant
'~triffe" of fifty cents per mile 2 not a Get
and the livery man who has hundreds Of oil.
lars worth of teams and vehicles on he
road every day ? not subject to road dut
Where is the justice of such n law |
All workers of land pay rent thereto |
then they are to work public roads that's
increase the value of the property they te
renting, free, and what is the logical resuI?
increased rent, of course, as property easy |
reached By good roads, is much more val
able than that situated i'll "inaccessib"
wilds, as are many sections of our parish I'll
day. Is there any justice i'll such a systet2
The people themselves are heartily tired i
it, and are ready to adopt more modern met |
DDS all they want is that a chance be giva
them to do so. To prove this, it is only b |
cessary to give them an opportunity to VOC
on the question. They will levy, and wi
iugly, any kind of an equal bearing tax. fI
course they do not propose that the tax
so imposed as to bear entirely on them,
does the road work now but adjust
amongst all nonresident property owners an
users of public roads.
A vehicle tax Of fifty cents per whe,
would be acceptable and colleetable. Thitl
with a three mill road tax on the property Il
non-residents, would give from fifteen I'll
twenty thousand dollars per year and th3
amount, properly expended, for three yearsd
would give us practically turn pixies; any
the money would still remain in the parish
and principally in the hands of iabOrers, I'D
sides.
A vehicle tax would be very nearly equG
bearing, since the mai without wheels hal
uneuestionably less use for roads, than onI
who has half q dozen vehicles going all TIL
time. The tax paid to-day to keep bad
roads in bad" order, amounts To many timej
the above mentioned sum but, since it is an
indirect tax, it is not SO looked upon.
If on the present roads, a wagon and team
can haul five hundred feet of lumber at $2,5l
per thousand, and on good roads, the sam
wagon and team can haul u thousand feet
then the owner is actually paying a tax Of
81 .25 q t'loda" to our bad roads
All who have studied the question, agree
that the life of q vehicle on good roads is
twice what it is on bad ones; if "a buggy
worth 500 lasts five years now, aud on good
roads last ten years, then the owner is paying
a yearly tax of $40 on that buggy and to
Northern manufacturers, too, mind you The
same calculation is applieable to wagons, hart
ness and teams.
The indirect tax that the Parish of st. Lam
dry is paying to keep her present bad roads,
is one of the most potent factors in causing
the present .hard times" cry heard so much
on all Enthusiastically aided and abetted by
that other relic of the dark ages, field
fences. of which hereafter-
And absolutely nothing is being done for
the appointing of ''Snperintendents' is $2400
a year less than nothing, as is proved by the
following Section 25 ofthe Road ordinance,
adopted 18th April, 1890, reads as follows
B it ordained, etc, That members of the
Police Jury are hereby constituted Inspect
ors of the Public Roads in their respective
Wards as to the manner of working said
roads, and shall have supervisory direction
over the construction of all bridges in their
respective wards
Here is the nothing :" their pay now, is
the $1,000 ''less" than nothing
Well, well, we'll here we hayeit The Jury
adopts an ordinance defining their own dn-
ties, and then fails to comply with it, as there
was no pay attached What do they now
Attach pay. Let them follow out the same
line Of reasoning, and pay the overseers and
road hands, and the problem is at once
solved. They publicly admit that they have
less patriotism than the common clay' and
must be paid for what they expect the ''com-
mon clay to do for nothing. II money can
be found to pay Superintendent money
can be found to pay "Laborers.a
JNo. H. HUMBLE.