The Green Forest tribune., 1901-03-02
THE NEW ROAD LAW.
Much Benefit Derived from It
 in Only Two Months.

every cltlzen or Carroll county to note that the new road law, with all it's defects, has given to the county in less than two months in which it has been in operation, better public roads than it has ever before had in it's history. A drive from Carrollton to Eureka Springs, or from any town along the line to country point, re- veals the fact that since the first of January when they took charge of their respective road districts, the various overseers throughout the county have not been idle. Instead of the stone- poking and hoe-hacking road work of year ago and before which lasted only until the next rain, there have been built many miles of well raised and well drained road. For the most part the selections of overseers have been wise ones, though in a very few instances the appointment seems probably to have been a matter of guess work or personal favoritism, if one judge from the efficiency of the overseer from the work he has done. Under a system such as the old one was, there was little to bring out ones capability for directing work of this kind, and with the meager means at hand for judging of individual capacity, the appoint ments of overseers were fortunate in that so many of them are proving worthy of the trust. There should be a real superin- tendence, too, of the work over the country, some real system about it, such that the edges of road districts may not be ascer- tained by the inferiorty of a strip of road as is still the case at the present time. The supervisor should be in touch with every overseer in the county and have the real charge of road-work un- der the overseer just as fully as a general has command of his army.
 The tax levied by the law is small compared with the benefits that are coming, and will come from it. It places the burden of of road construction and road work where it properly be- longs, upon those who most use the roads and derive the great est benefit from them. Nothing about the old system was more unfair and negotiable than a re- quirement that the man who was not worth ten dollars and never used the road except to trudge along it on foot, had to contribute as much to maintain the public roads as the independent farmer with his dozen teams, or the business man with his thousand customers. The present law equalizes the load by saying that every citizen must pay four days work, and in addition to that, sum of money in proportion to his wealth.
 There are pending before the general assembly a number of measures looking to change the present law, and some for it's re- peal. Itis to be hoped that the latter class may not receive seri- ous consideration. In many re- spects the law could be amended to good purpose, and for the good of the system it will be well if it is. The age for road work should be from 21 to 45 instead of the way it is now.
 The section regul ating super vising should make it mandatory upon the supervisor to go over every public road in the county once every two months, at least. With a capable and efficient sup ervisor such a requirement would, of course, be unnecessary ,- and we are fortunate in having such in our county-but such a provision would insure such an acquaintance with the conditions of the road in any part of the county, and it's needs, as would enable the supervisor in- telligently to Superintend it's pro-