The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1899-03-17
WORKING ROAD TAXES.
An IOwa Farmer Calls the system
Now In General Vogue a Gil
gantic Cancer.

At the Farmers institute which re-
Gently met in Marshailtown, Ia, a pa
per was read by }. Ii. Jayne, on Good
Roads, Touching on the results OF
working out road taxes, he said:
IL believe the most important funds
in the country are the school and road
funds, because the schools and roads
are the most extensive aud cost the
most money. But what vast difference
In the management OF these two affairs.
Your schools are second to none in
the country, while your roads are be-
bow the average suppose you levied
three-mil school fund in every town
ship, one mill to be paid in cash and
two mills to be worked out and YOU
compelled every taxpayer in the dis
trict 10 teach III, school in his turn
until his school tax was worked out,
and supply no other teachers. After a
lapse of Is years YOU would find your
schoolhouses delapidated, plastering
of, stoves down, seats and windows
broken, etc. DO you think your schools
would be up to the standard and your
children properly educated? Your
roads are In a like condition to-day, be-
Ing worked by men who do not follow
1t as a business, and Furthermore have
no time outside of other duties to at
tend TO il.
Nov, the principal point l wish to
bring before You is money for road pur-
poses. | do not mean by this that we
need more money, that the county
should be bonded, or 1t heavy county
road-fuud levy made, but that the
money now raised every year for road
purposes should he raised and handled
differently. The bulk of that money
can be derived from that mirror, as it
were-that shadow which skips here
and there over the county roads every
summer and cuts off the grass and
makes the roads look level and smooth
Tin places district road super
visor and his grader.
"Now, do you think 1t pays for John
Smith to be a road supervisor this year
and grade up the road-fill up the hol-
lows and round them up nicely in the
center-and next year put in William
Jones, and allow him to pillow the roads
clear across for miles and harrow them
down fat, and the next year put in an
other man who will round them up
again; one undoing the others work
year after year?
40 You think it pays for the road SUI
pervisor In No / to go over in No. and
spend a day dragging a grader over to
his district? Do YOU think it pays to
have him put on John Smiths team to-
day, Bill Browns team to morrow, Tom
Clark's team the next day, and have
them 60 Eehawing here and there, and
make your road look like a worm fence
when finished? Who is to blame? The
horses? No; they were never on
grader before and are not accustomed
to climbing up banks and going down
into bitches. The drivers to blame?
No; they did the best they could with
green horse The supervisor to blame?
No; he held the blade where the ma
chine was driven. Where, then, is the
blame? 1t is in your system
do you think It pays TO compel the
poor road supervisor TO try to fill up n
hole, or round up road, or cut down a
hill with a slip scraper when he could
carry 1t almost in a dishpan? Do your
think 1t pays him to work without
toolsP Does 1t pay him to buy six or
eight pieces Of tile, and pay four prices
for them, when Marshall county could
buy a carload at the lowest rates and
give him the benefit? Does it pay for
him to buy lumber for culverts under
the same circumstances Who is to
blame9 The road supervisor? No; II
Is your system. I regard this
road system as huge cancer, continual
ly eating, and the money you have APP
piled, as prescribed by some physicians,
and according to directions, has APP
Parently been Of very little benefit to
The patient"