The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1901-08-29
sELF-IMposED TAXES.
Hills, Corners, Mud and Fences Cost
the Farmers Hundreds of Mil
lions Every Year.

Among the taxes which the farmers
pay there are some that are unavoid-
able, and these it is useless to talk
about. There are others which farm
ers impose upon themselves, which
they hesitate to share with others,
which they submit to without a pro-
test, and even cling TO when they are
being removed. These taxes we can.
not talk about too much. These are
taxes, too, which bring no useful rev.
enue, nor even support tax gatherer;
they are burdens as needless as the
traditional stone which balanced the
grist on the way to mill.
Through the failure of the govern
ment in the original surveys on the
public lands to lay out scientific sys-
tenn of roads, and divide the lands ac-
cordingly, farmers have been left to
| lay out the roads for themselves, and
! generally they have put them on farm
lines, going over all the hills that come
/ in their way. The result of this is the
hill tax in billy regions and what may
be called the square corner tax on the
| prairies.
The amount of hill tax I have este
mated in one county in New JERSEY,
and found that needless hills double
all the cost of hauling in the county,
making practically a money tax of
$4,000 annually to the township. The
people have paid this tax for 100 years,
and yet they wonder why they are
/ poor. In the prairie regions, for want
/ Of ha n1 l.,
| eminent should have laid out. the
farmer, to reach a point ten miles to
the northwest, for instance, travels
! seven miles north and seven miles
west, adding 40 per cent. to his dis
! lance, or, for the average of all travel,
! 20 per cent. This is the square corner
| tax.
The mud tax is probably about equal
/ in total to the hill tax, and this, again,
doubles the cost of all wagon trans
portation; yet many farmers are op-
posed to stone roads.
| However, the farmers themselves
are doing away in many places with
the enormous burden of the fence tax,
and with it will go the snowdrift tax
and the waste land on the roadside.
They are slowly abandoning narrow
tires and tracking wheels. Moreover,
many of them begin to realize the
! enormity and absurdity of the hill,
/ MUD and square corner taxes, and we
may yet hope in time to see in this
country, as we do in France, beautiful
hard roads everywhere, winding
through farms, with crops growing
close to the wagon tracks and the
roads serving perfectly every purpose
/ of public use and private convenience.
You ask how all this can be accom-
| plished without burden of taxation
/ which viii neutralize its benefits.
| answer that it is all being done to-day
| in hundred places in the United
! States, and there are farmers who ac-
knowledge that they are getting rich
in these hard times solely by reason
of the improved roads which have
been forced upon them, and are pay
ing with perfect ease any additional
tax they impose. These improved
roads are being built in many ways
and in various forms of construction,
and every years experience reduces
the cost and brings about an easier
providing of the necessary means.
1t would be very long story to go
into the details in this direction, and
I would not be prepared to say which
is the best of the many methods of
| construction and of payment. Both
need to be greatly varied to meet the
conditions in the various states, and
careful study of local legislation is
necessary; but the vital question is
| for the farmers themselves to settle
| generally whether they want good
roads, and whether they will accept
| the help of those who are willing and
anxious to join in paying the cost of
road improvement. If they will take
| up the subject in all their oroaniza-
tions and appoint active working COM
mittees to visit the nearest accessible
! localities where good roads prevail,
and to urge such legislation as will
| make them attainable everywhere,
| the work will soon reach a point where
| its own momentum will carry it for
ward.
The estimate of your able secretary
that $600,000000 is wasted annually
in this country through bad roads is
supported by that of other statisti-
| clans, and from this it appears that the
| tax they impose takes one-quarter of
| the whole value of all farm products
in the United States. To abolish this
tax is reform great enough to en-
gage the best attention of this con-
gress. 1t is a practical and practic-
able field for its energies. What the
congress says on this subject will be
| listened to everywhere, while what it
says on other subjects may fall on
deaf ears.-Gen. Roy Stone, at Park
| ersburg, W. Va.
| Growing of Forest Trees.