The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1901-02-08

You can hardly open n southern news
paper without seeing a good roads ar
ticle. They are urgent IL not inform
ing. The subject is surely an import
ant one and is specially worthy Of the
attention Of legislators Good roads in
some states have worked marvels.
Great Britain in 1901. is not at all what
it was seyenty-fve years ago. Then
the roads were wretched: now the best
macadam roads run in every direction.
We see it mentioned that a man who
died in Hartford county. Maryland, Mr..
William Woolsey. was so impressed
with the utility and necessity Of good
roads hat he had left in his will $3.50 o
to improve the roads of his county.
That indeed was most wisely done. 1t
is a bestowment that will accomplish
the best results If wisely used. Let
other practical b~enefactors follow this
progressive mans gift. The be-
quests of this kind should be multi
piled. 1t is very doubtful il the Mary
lander could have given s5S. 900 to any
cause or purpose that would gather in
return better results. A liberal, bust
ness like citizen, well supplied with an
extra amount of funds. could not help
his neighbors and friends and county in
a safer way than to contribute a good
sum for the constructor of substantial
roads. The saving is immense to a
country where there are macadam
roads instead of the old mud roads. A
horse can draw Is much On a irst-rate
macadam as our horses can draw on
a heavy sand-road or IN the counties
where black and red mud causes the
teams and wagons to sink deep.
There can be no objection to the leg
islature helping to build good roads
when it has the means to do so. 1t will
speed the enterprise. We do not know
how it can build roads in the counties
save by the use of the penitentiary con-
victs. The Charleston News and Cou-
rier considering the question h other
day old this. and if we'll based 1t is
news to US:
''Self-help in roa improvement is
better than legislation and gets there
much earlier. as York. Darlington and
IklCIlIdIu HdNC BIoN0us liz
hundreds and hundreds of miles of ex-
cellent roads, all new. n much the
greater part of them less than five
years old. of their own making, with
out so much as the help of a resolution
by the legislature. Only a very few
miles of these roads IT York, are mac
adamized-the rest are clay-sand or
sand-clay roads. ana Darlington and
Richland together have nearly a thou
sand miles of them. Macadam is costly
its cost ranges from 1900 to $1,000 a
mile. The clay-sand road cost from
$50 to $500 a mile, and is as good as
macadam, for all practical purposes, in
a thinly settled district where traffic
is light"
Our road builders might learn a les
son of advantage from the South Car
DINA way. But will not the macadam
if properly constructed last ten or
twenty times longer than the clay-sand
roads, and are they not better all the
time. The Roman were great road
builders, and some of their work done
before julius Caesar had a great name,
or later in the time of the Antonines,
are today in existence. more or less.
We notice that State Geologist
1OlHlSS d. Capital dulhOillS SLdlSS lhCiS
are fifteen counties in North Carolina
now building improved roads, and that
most of them are the enduring macad-
am. England will have no other. The
whole country there is covered with net
works of this kind.
We learn from the Raleigh News and
Observer this of a bill to be introduced
by Senator Alexander. of Mecklenburg:
He says it will be ready next We'd
nesday, and that it will fit every coun-
ey. 1t is based on the law he prepared
in 1879, but has improvements Sug-
gested by the laws of various states; 1t
fixes the minimum of labor at four days
annually; the present maximum being
six days: it divides roads into two
classes, the public Dad in charge of
townships and highways in charge of a
highway commission; this commission
is to be composed of two county COM
miSsioners and the county surveyor;
highways are to be declared to be such
public roads as shall be from time to
time improved: to be built at the ex-
pense of the county by taxation of the
whole county, and to be- kept in repair
by the taxation of the townships they
traverse, but always under the control
of the highway commission. The bill
will alter the law as TO bridges, especi-
ally those across streams which divide
counties"