The Opelousas courier., 1901-11-02
The Road Question.

Mr.. Editor:-I understand that q move
ia on foot to have the recently adopted
| road ordinance repealed at the Decem-
Der meeting of the police jury. AS |
have been an ardent advocate and sup
porter Of this measure, | beg to be al
lowed space in your columns for. u few
thoughts on the subject. When the
present system of working the roads
was adopted the country was sparsely
settled, but few roads were required,
and these needed but little labor to
keep them in passable ORDER Now,
however, the vast pralries as we'll as
the swamps and marshes having been
converted into fields, many new roads
this matter in charge, is being blamed
on every hand for not making turnpikes
out of all of them. Road ]overseers, too,
come in for their share of blame, and it
has got so that it is a very difficult mat
ter to find q good man WHO will accept
the position. Occasionally, an o%verseer
who is VIGOROUSLY derelict is prosecuted;
bond Is furnished, and that. is the last
of it. The people are tired of the an
tiquated system, and we'll they may be.
Under that system the man who owns
one cart, one gig, or II buggy, and the
man who owns none at all, are both re-
Quired to work twelve days on the
roads. Their neighb0rs, who may own
two or three buggies or carriages and
ten or twelve carts or wagons, are also
required to furnish twelve days labor
no more, although they may have from
two to ten times as much use for the
roads. Under the new system, the man
who owns no vehicle, the one-gig man
and the ten-WagOn man all pay $1.OO
per annum as a road tax. In addition
to this the ten wagon man pays $40 as a
license for his wagons to use the roads
and the one gig mar pays 30 cents for
the same privilege; but the man who
owns no vehicle pays nothing more.
And.yet | am told that the poor igno-
rant man who owns no vehicle and he
who own one, two, three or four are
being misled by the cry that this is ar
imposition, an extra tax, when the poor
are already overburdeMed with taxes!
Why, there is lot a poor man in the
parish but would prefer to pay two Or
three times the. amount he will be called
upon to pay under the new system,
rather than work twelve days on the
roads, and that frequently at a time
when his crop demands his immediate
attention.
I sincerely hope that the members
of the police jury who voted to adopt
this measure will remain firm aud allow
it to be tried for a year or two at least.
Some of the members, | know not
whom, have already been criticised as
dumps ON logs" and should they now
go back on this measure somebody
might with at least equal propriety call
them "juinping-jacks." as a similar or
dinance has already once before been
adopted and repealed.
Under the old law, the inhabitants of
Incorporated towns paid no road tax,
being taxed for the maintenance of their
own streets and bridges. Under the new
law, they will be required to pay a Ii
cense for everyone of their vehicles that
ventures outside of their corporate linn
its-and nearly every one of them will
at n time or another do that. This
means that an additional tax
will be levied upon these towns-and
yet / have heard no complaint from
them. Evidently, they realize the me-
cessity for good roads, and they under
stand fully that these cannot be had
without money, and a good deal of it.
j. KOSSUTH SANDOZ,
Member Police Jury. 1st Ward.
Opelousas, La, Oct. both. 1901,