Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1901-02-15
Communicated
BETTER ROAD SYSTEM.
EDITOR VIRGINIA CITIZEN:

AS your journal and others recent
ly have editorially written up the
road question, and have called for an
expression of views from others,
viii take advantage of your request
and give my views on the all-impor-
tsnt question-to country people, at
least-of how to improve our roads.
ln our present financial condition
the question resolves itself into this:
how can the greatest improvement be
gotten for the least cost? The solv-
ing of this question will, believe,
give us better roads and lower taxes.
During the past FIVE years, 1896 to
1901, there has been raised, and /
presume expended, for road purposes
S9,336.97. While l have not the
amount at hand that was spent
prior to 1896, | think, however,
the sum total expended on the
roads since the present system of
working has been in vogue will
amount to not less than $4,000.
This does not include the cost of
bridges, simply the cost of working
the roads. Do our roads show Sl2,-
0OO, improvement? Do they show
$4,000, $4,000 or even So, 900 i'm.
provement? A negative answeri is the
only one that can be given by prac-
teal man who traverses our highways.
During the month of December, af
ter an unprecented good winter and
week after slight shower, 1 had
occasion TO travel over perhaps Ole
fourth of the road mileage in the
county. From the inuumerable ruts
and mud holes into which the yehi.
Gle was constantly running | was
induced to count the mud holes ex-
tending over a space of two and one
half miles, and found eighteen. The
ruts were too numerous to count.
This piece of road is in charge of one
OF the best road contractors in the
county, and is a fair sample of
the roads that l travel through
the different districts. Perhaps
the roads that | have not been
over are in irst class cond dition,
| sincerely hope they are. Now,
1T | have not overdrawn the ex-
listing conditions, we are pay
ibg over nineteen hundred dollars
per year for road purposes without
receiving anything like an adequate
return. If this be the case-aud il
can not be disproyed-our present
system of working the roads is either
not enforced as it should be or il is
failure. | have experienced some of
the difficulties that beset the path
way of the supervisor and know
that it is well nigh impossible
for any Supervisor TO so enforce
the contract system that the
county will get anything like IA
just return for the money paid out.
1t is wasteful expenditure of taxes
to pay out nineteen hundred dollars
aud receive only five hundred-yet
five hundred would easily pay for all
work performed on the roads last
year. | believe the contract system
is failure and for this reason the
contractor takes the contract for the
money that can be gotten out of it.
The more he can get, the better he
likes it; therefore he intends to put
as little work on the roads as possible,
just sufficient to allow him to collect
his money. He is farmer and only
does shat little work at time that is
not suitable for teamwork, and often
1T is the wrong time for the roads and
does more harm than good. The
present law should be so amended as
to empower the Supervisors to en-
ploy two men by the year, to purchase
two large yoke of oxen and such ap-
purtenanccs as may be required for
good work. To superintend these
men and this work, some thoroughly
competent man should be employed
-one who has practical knowledge
of road improvement-this man to re-
ceiye two dollars per day and not over
sixty dollars year. After the pur-
chase of oxen, wagon, tent. etc., the
roads could be worked at less than
one-half the present cost and receive
ten times the work that is now being
performed.
With the perintendent overlook
ing the two men, the supervisor over
looking the superintendent, and the
taxpayers overlooking the super
visor, we will have, at minimum
cost, as near an ideal road system as
we will be likely to get in the next
fifty years.
Respectfully yours,
EDWIN BRoUN, JR.