The Robesonian. [volume] (Lumberton, N.C.) 1870-current, 1897-03-31
ROAD MAKING BY CONVEYS
Washington Post.

Our esteemed contemporary, the
New York Tribune, thus moraliz.s
upon one of the most important
:ques lions of the day:
bad roads, as We have said are
IN evil all the year round. TIE
remedy for them must be applied
III greater Or less degree, all the
year round. Coed ro;tds that is to
say, need constant ATTENTION to
keep them good. But the making
them good is the task that can
best Ee performed at certain fixed
seasons, and those are exactly the
seasons at which the average far
mer can least we'll. arrange to DO
the work. They are the eea,ons
lWhen he Is busiest on his farm.
and when for him even to go out
with pillow and scraper and work
| out his road tax n1eans to neglect
his crops. But all the blowing
and scraping in tie world cannot
make a good road, and TO ask the
farmer to do more, to enter upon
the work of grading and draining
and macadamizing, is to ask
practical impossibility.
just here however, l.; where one
great advantage Of convict labor
] on the roads becomes evident.
The inmates of the State prison
have 40 other duties to perform
than those they nay. be set al.
They can be put TO wori3zz upon tho
roads at just. tie bot time po.>i-
hlo for road building,and 20 can do
tho work to the best possible ed
vantage. They can also be sot at
work on them at any time, to re-
pair them, and be kept at it. as
nay be necessary, without iii .tha
slightest degree interfering with
ordinary, agricultural or other in
ctlistry. When to this it is added
that. road making is work Which
all able bodied men can do.
whether skilled Or unskilled, and
that..it IS just such wholesome va.
rleggated, out of doors work as pris.
on.rs most need for mental anG
! physical health, the argument fol
thus employing convicts seeias
well nigh unanswcrablc.
For years past We have been in
dustrlously advocating this idea
1t has always seemed to us thai
State convicts could in 10 otlel
way be employed 20 usefully as il
road making. We have no
} thought it quite fsi: to hons9t IL
boringsalen to subject them to II,
competition OF conyicts ncitE},.
has it seemed morciful 10 In
CONFLICTS Themselves to refuse t
tEen the opportunity Of whole
sonle e-exarcise and occupation
Read building, therefore has sug
: gested itself to us as being in ever
: way the best solution Of the diff
r Guilty. In this way convicts cal
: be made to render the most valua
a bic possible service to the State
in this way their welfare, physic,'
e and moral will be most etfectuall
= promoted; i'll this way honest l.;
Dor will be protected against a
injurious and unfair coEzp2tition
Whatever may be said III fave
. Of making and keeping in rclai
4 the roads in Northern States ca
be said with infinite ely moro fore
= touching roads in the SoIii he,
i Skates. With the exception K
Tennessee and Kentucky asld col
:. tain scattering districts in Ii
il richer planting State, it may !
safely asserted that really 900
: reads are unknown in the SoutI
y To this fact We ascribc the lo
II price of South ern agriculture
lands, the tendency Of inteliecl
,. and cultivated people to the c iti'
and the practical abandonment {
y. the farms to the negrvGs.. Z !:
gregaxicus instinct is strong in
Iii IRAN and he rctsol-; against Il
xlteary winter nlcnth rs Of iEipriso,
II ment by mud, inehis total SEP,
:. ration from al human synp.tl
and intercourse. 30. where i'll Il
:. world are good roads laa<eia-d mo
g than at. the South. NowEe
~ -
i would the construction and ettcc
i've maintenance Of good roads G
lr crs SO beneficial FIN influence upe
t tie moral. and material welfare.
!; the people: Every word he e. T ri
une says concerning the Nor
o in this connection applies vi
&c tnnfold eloGuence"to the Soul
c. If the States IN that. section wou
.. employ their eonvicts to bull IL
ct keep III repair the public roads, /
r, sid of LEASING them to- contrat
rs ers to work in competition Wi
free labor, it would be better f
MT the taxpayers, the canE,cts 81