Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1900-02-03
INDEX OF PROGRESS.
GOOD ROADS ARE SIGNS OF AN INTEL
LIGENT PEOPLE.
Every Thoughtful Citizen Should
Put His Shoulder to the Wheel to
Help the Cause OF Highway Better
ment-Pay Taxes In Cash.


Put His Shoulder to the Wheel to
Help the Cause of Highway Better
ment-Pay Taxes In Cash.
T. c. Harper of burlington, president
of the Iowa Good Roads and Improve
ment association, recently sent out cir
cular letters to the vice presidents of
the various districts, making sugges-
tons regarding the lines upon which
local organization should be effected
and to officers and members of the
county institutes throughout the state,
giving an outline of e scope of the
work undertaken. In these letters
President Harper says:
"Our association feels this to be
movement entitled to the friendly sup
port and assistance of every taxpayer
in the state. he he Il farmer. merchant
or connected with any other honest
calling. Good roads must be the COM
mon desire of every thoughtful citizen.
An improved road is symbol of prog
reSS. Good roads are indexes cf good
men, good women, good homes, good
farms and good communities. We in
tend in the end to reduce the road tax.
When permanent roads are once eStab-
liShcd. the road tax will not be so great.
This movement is intended to put
stop to the building of patched up. tenn
porary roads and to inaugurate the
construction Of permanent roads. Find
out the amount of road tax your coun-
ty annually pays, and you will be sur
priScd that so large an amount of mon
cy can be disposed of, leaving behind
so slight an evidence of 1t. While hard
roads mean permanent roads, or
should mean that, yet permanent roads
can he constructed without the use of
broken rock gravel or sand. Pcrma-
nent roads. therefore. mean the best
roads that particular community can
construct with the use Of the means at
hand. Our road law, however, should
be so framed that all the money paid
as road tax shall be expended for that
purpose. That this is not now done
we have but to consider the vast
amount paid annually as road tax in
our state, while we observe what slight
evidence of this money manifcStS itself
upon our reads In Iowa we have over
this vast iutrrcSt-an interest that is
intimately connected with every citi
zen in our Statp-is without Il common
head. system or method.
as it not time we were giving this
important matter some careful CON
sideration? Some of our farmers re-
SiSt the move for the reason that they
think they will be obliged to construct
the permanent road should one be
made by their farm. They should
get this notion out of their heads at
once for. as a matter of fact, they will
build no more of that road than any
other citizen of the township.
"Our laws should be amended so as
to require the read tax to be paid in
money. Then this money should be
expended rs any other business ex-
ponds its funds. not paid to men and
teams to sit around in fence corners
and swap yarns all day, but to men
and teams that have given value re-
ceivcd by giving the township good,
square days work. The loafer and
yarn spinncr'S days ought to be num-
bcrcd and the road builder initiated.
Many of our counties have an album
dance of stone, gravel anu sand. all Of
which can be put in shape for improy-
ing our roads at Il small cost.
"The surface of the earth in some
of our counties is rough Is there a
hill between your home and your
town? 1t So that hill. and not the
strength of your team or wagon, limits
the load YOU draw to market. We
want n law that will remove that linn
itatiOn. We want that hill brought to
q reasonable grade. We want the road
tax paid in cash and expended on the
roads in the township that paid the
same"