The leader., 1901-06-26
THE COUNTY ROADS.

HE COCNI Il hOdDO.
The policy of having the principal
public roads worked by contract
which was inaugurated by the Board
of Supervisors of Lincoln county four
years ago, has been amply vindicated
by the results attained under the new
system, imperfect as it has been in
some respects; and the general awak-
ening throughout the State a nd coun-
try on the subject of improved public
highways, as evidenced by the numer-
GUS good roads conventions lately held,
still further emphasizes the wisdom
and foresight of Lincoln's Board of
Supervisors in becoming the pioneers
in movement that is soon to become
State wide and all-pervasive. 1t has
become notorious fact that the pub
lie roads of Lincoln are by far the
best in South Mississippi. So self -evi-
dent has been the improvement over
the old method in this county, that
the opposition which, at first, was
strong and formidable, has been COM
pletely won over or silenced for lack of
plausible arguments to sustain their
contention, and the Board of Super
visors has felt warranted in view of
the changed public sentiment on the
subject, not only to relet, for four
years, all the first class public high
ways of the county, but the second
class roads also. This, as previously
advertised, is to be done at the regu-
lar meeting of the Board on next Mon
day.
The Board, however, in its good work
for better public roads, is about to en-
counter an unexpected and serious
difficulty in perpetuating the policy it
has inaugurated, and one which it may
require new legislation to remove. The
road law, under which the Board has
hitherto been operating, exempts all
persons living within incorporated
towns and villages from road duty out
side of their respective corporate linn
its; and also provides that where
special tax levy is made for working
the public roads, so per cent. of this
tax may be retained in the corporation
from which it is collected for its own
use. Taking advantage of provision
of the chapter of the Code of 1892 on
municipalities, all of the principal saw
mill towns of this county have recent
ly procured charters of incorporation,
or are preparing to do SO, which, if
carried into effect, will exempt the
road hands living within their limits
from public road duty outside, and en-
title them to appropriate to their own
use one-half of the one-mill road levy
collected from them
The practical effect of this on the
good roads policy the Board desires to
follow, can readily be seen, when it is
understood that this will deprive the
country roads of the service of about
1000 road hands or the Communication
money of that number, amounting to
about $1,000 annually, and in addition
to this, half of the one mill tax money
which has hitherto been collected on
the property in these small corpora
tions.
If there is no legal way out of the
difficulty before the Legislature meets
next January, that body should set
about affording it, and it is hoped that
Gov. Longino, who is a wise and en-
thusiastic advocate of the good roads
movement, will call the Legislatures
special attention to this serious obsta
Gle in the way of public road improve
ment all over the State.
In this county the small saw mill
corporations, which in this way will es-
cape maintaining the county roads,
have no streets of their own to keep up
which are worthy the name; while it is
a notorious fact that the lumber and
logging wagons of the saw mills cut up
and are more destructive to the public
highways than any other use to which
they are subjected.
But besides being a hindrance and
serious obstacle to the introduction
and maintenance of an improved pub
lie road system, the way now open to
small municipalities to escape their
fair share of the expense of maintain
ing such a system, carries with it an
element of injustice to the the country
people which ought to be removed
AS Mississippi is distinctively an agri-
cultural State-all of her cities and
towns of any size being supported di
rectly by the agricultural classes; and,
as the small saw mill towns of which
we have been speaking, make rough
and extensive use of the common high
ways, THE LEADER thinks it would be
nothing more than simple fairness aud
justice if the entire amount of the
levy made by Boards of Supervisors
for road purposes we're turned into a
common road fund to be used on the
public highways outside of all munich
pal limits, small or great.
1t is said that few days ago, some
one lined the water in the west fork
of the Bogue Chitto, north of the road