Barre evening telegram. (Barre, Vt.) 1898-19??, 1900-02-02
INDEX OF PROGRESS.
GOOD ROADS ARE SIGNS OF AN INTEL
llGENT PEOPLE.

Every Thoughtful Citizen Should
Put His Shoulder to the Wheel to
Help the Cause of Highway Better.
ment-Pay Taxes In Cash.
I. G. 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 the 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 be he 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 of 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 q
stop to the building CT patched up, tenn
porary roads and to naugurate the
construction Of permanent roads. Find
out the amount Of road tax your coun-
ty annually pays, and you will be sur
prised that so large an amount Of mon
ey 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 be constructed without the use OF
broken rock, gravel or sand. Perma-
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 manifests itself
upon our roads. In Iowa we have over
100000 miles of public highway, and
this vast interest-an interest that is
intimately connected with every citi-
zen in our state-is without common
head, system or method.
SIS 1t 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 road tax to be paid in
Then this money should be
as 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-
ceived by giving the township good
square days work. The loafer and
yarn spnners days ought to be num-
bered and the road builder initiated
Many of our counties have an abun.
dance of stone, gravel and sand. all Of |
which can be put in shape for improv.
ing our roads at small cost
The sur1aSe of the earth in some
Of our counties is rough. Is there q
hill between your home and your
town? If SO, that hill, and not the
strength of your team or wagon. limits
the load you draw to market. We |
want a law that will remove that linn.
tation. We want that hill brought to
4 reasonable grade. We want the road |
tax paid in cash and expended on the
roads In the township that paid the
same"