The record-union., 1896-04-26
though it does not appear to have been
cipa rlv axnrpScad

|
be allowed to issue bonds to a certain
limit for road purposes on the ground
that the present benefit of the good
road far exceeds the interest and sink
| ing fund for redemption of the bonds.
That both State and county convicts
should be employed upon State and
county roads, a proposition full Of
doubt and objection. The maintenance
cannot fully concur. The maintenance
of convict camps for State Prison con-
victs, the cost of transportation, extra
guards and the like, would exceed the
cost of free labor and involve besides
political complications and jobbery. AS
to county prisoners there seems to be no
reason why they should not be made to
earn the cost of their maintenance by
working upon the public highways. But
they should not be worked to any
greater extent than that. Free labor is
more conserved by requiring County
Jail inmates to get work enough to pay
the cost of their maintenance, than by
permitting them to remain idle or in
employing them in unproductive ex-
| ercise.
The convention likewise adopted a
resolution calling for the creation of
State road fund by direct five-cent tax,
deeming it economic, and holding that
such a fund properly used will actually
save taxpayers money far in excess OF
the levy; that a Board of State High
way Commissioners be erected, to apply
the State fund, collate information, in
form the people, advise with county
officials, supervise State-aided roads,
ETC.; that all road work should be done
under supervision of an engineer skilled
in that vocation, as a means of econ
omy and to prevent waste and improper
uneconomic construction and repair
and to insure intelligent supervision.
The convention mapped out a plan
for the State aid referred to. The full
| details of this plan, which follows the
Massachusetts system pretty closely, it
is not necessary to present. 1t will suf-
| flee to say that it contemplates petit
| tion of owners of lands along the line of
the road to be aided and approval of
the plan by the Highway Commissioner
| Board. One-tenth the cost of the high
way is to be assessed against the prop
erty of the district found to be bene-
flied, and this tenth is payable within
five years, with interest at per cent.
on deferred payments. The State pays
| one-fourth of the remaining cost and
the county 50 per cent. In certain cases
it is provided that the State will pay
one-fourth and the county all the bal
ance of the total cost-as where it is
| impracticable to create beneficial dis
| trict.
| This plan for new road system in old
| Virginia meets with such favor that it
| is believed it will be adopted. The lead
ing journals of the State approve it, and
| it has quite the unanimous support of
the farmers. 1t calls for very little
criticism. In the main it is sound and
| follows the experience of other States
| where systems have been tried and
| failed that moved upon a narrower pol
icy, and in which States the need for
some such system as that proposed Is
| now conceded.
| The proposition that taxation for
main road purposes should be levied in
beneficial districts and according to
benefits conferred we believe to be
economic and strong. As it now stands
IN most States the cost of road construc-
ton and maintenance falls upon a single
class, while others, equally beneficiaries,
| escape the burden though they enjoy
the benefits of modern good roads fully.
sition so long held by farmers as a class
who have hung to the idea that country
| reads are the farmers roads, and that
he alone should pay the cost of building
and repairing them. This has been
| manifest in so radical case as this
that where a town community offered
to pay one-half the cost of building
trunk lines through county, the roads
to converge at the county seat, the
farmers were strong enough to secure
the rejection of the offer.
| 1t was shown in Virginia that a State
tax of five cents for trunk road promo
ton would raise about $231 900, and of
this amount towns, cities, railroads and
banks would pay $117,00 So far as
the bond issue proposition is concerned,
| it is shown that three-fifths of the cleo
tors must consent to it; and the debt is
to be limited so as not to exceed Is per
cent. of the taxable values. It is shown
| by the official reports that in Virginia
since the close of the war over S15, ,OOO,-
700 have been expended uopn the public
| roads, and that to-day the highways are
in worse condition than before the war,
and that they have reached the condi-
| ton by steady declination from year to
year. This should be conclusive proof
that the old system, with dts overseers.
country supervision and unscientifie
methods is failure, for there are other
States that by the application of skill,
| money and the wise methods of con-
struction and supervision have had
their roads grow steadily better at
steadily declining cost, while the bene-
fits have been from hundred to thou
sandfold greater than the cost of per-
manent and scientific construction.
As one Virginian, writing on the SUBJ
l nt,,- ,>Ia, yal,