Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-07-28

and with some degree of certainty. Our
railroads have multiplied those who travel
for pleasure and for business and the traffic
transported from the country to the great
centers OF trade hundred-fold within the
last 80 years.
The Present Condition OF Our Roads.
The present condition of our roads
and the palpable defecss in
their location and construction afS usually
laid to faulty or deficient laws upon the
subject. There may be vast improvement
without material change in present legisla-
tion, but if we are to secure the best results
it is undoubtedly true that we must change
the laws enacted 80 or 100 years ago so as to
meet present needs and conditions.
One of the difficulties in securing change
in our present laws is found in the import
ance of the subject, which has attracted so
much attention that many of our law
makers have plans and codes of their own
which they are unwilling to exchange for
those of another. ANY simple plan which
will secure the location OF a road by q COM
petent engineer and its construction BY
man vino is familiar with the principles OF
road making, and Is able to give to the
community 100 cents of value for every
dollar expended will reach the results at
present desirable and, d,attainable.
With us in Pennsy kvania the fundamental
defect in our law is the right which is given
to the taxpayer to workout his road tax. :"
The result of this system is that repairs are
made when they are least needed, and the
smallest amount of work for the largest
amount of pay possibleis secured.
Worse Than No Work at All.
The ordinary mode of operations Is to
piow up the sides of the road in the spring,
throw the dirt thus loosened into the Center
and allow the rains and travel to force it
back in the remainder of the season, so as
to be available for the same purpose the
next year. Some one, commenting upon
this mode of road making, has we'll said
that we might as we'll construct our roads
with ice in midwinter and expect to secure
substantial resuAs as to follow this absurd
and unsatisfactory practice.
In general our roads are located by those
who have no enlarged experience in engi-
neering and who prefer to accommodate
their neighbors by following the property
lines between them. or making the road
near or distant as may suit their convent
ence, rather than to consult the general good
of the public
A Good Location IL Necessary.
Those who must use our common roads
for heavy hauling do not seem to under
stand that the size of the loud which they
can transport to market is measured, not by
the 9sz miles of level road VIII ich separates
them from their destination, but by the
other quarter, which is hilly. We must
have, first of all, therefore, in the construc-
ton of our roads good location; we must
next have a solid foundation.
If the objection be made that such
l. af dc
will involve the expenditure of large
amount of money, the answer is, Eyes, but
it is Just such an expenditure as any pru-
dent business man would make in his bust
ness in order to secure permanency and
satisfactory results in management and
economy in future repair" It may, and
probably will, be necessary for the friends
of road reform to content themselves with
securing slight amendment of our present
road laws rather than to attempt to secure
the enactment of a perfect system which
would revolutionize present conditions
One Amendment Is Suggested.
If in Pennsylvania and elsewhere where
the system of working out the road tax
prevails we could secure a simple amend
ment which would compel all taxes for road
purposes to be paid in money, as other
taxes are paid, and it that money tax were
eApeuucu III cdCu ny OuC
of good common sense, we could in a very
few years prepare our people for another
step forward. If investments such as are
made out of poor and school funds for per-
manent improvements were put into the
of our roads, the returns would
be much greater, more direct and more
satisfying.
The Most Useful of Monuments.
If good road, thoroughly constructed,
will endure for a thousand years, with ordi- |
nary repairs, what better monument can q |
man who wishes to benefit his kind raise to !
his memory, how can he contribute to the |
welfare of his fellows more fully and for |
longer period, and how better perpetuate |
his memory than by contributing to the |
of such road?
know of no law which prevents the en-
terprising citizen from building or repair |
ing the roads in front of his own property,
and there would be undoubted acquiescence |
on the part of the public in work of this |
kind. 1t is not possible, therefore; for a |
single enterprising citizen in any given |
to show by practical illustra-
ton, at his own expense, the difference be-
tween good road, properly constructed,
and those which are ordinarily travelled in
our country communities; and will not such |
an illustration be productive of better prac-
tical results than any amount Of argument
Or effort to secure better laws?