The Jamesburg record., 1901-08-17
Self-Imposed Taxes.

Among tne taxes WHICH, ahS Ae'AH -
ers pay there are some that are un-
avoidable, and these it is useless to
talk about. There are others which
farmers impose upon themselves,
which they hesitate to share with
Others, which they submit to without
protest, and even cling to when
they are being removed. These taxes
we cannot talk about too much.
These are taxes, too, which bring no
useful revenue, nor even support a
tax gatherer they are burdens as
needless as the traditional stone
which balanced the grist on the way
to mill.
Through the failure of the govern
ment in the original surveys OF the
public lands to lay out scientific
system of roads, and divide the lands
accordingly, farmers have been left
to lay out the roads for themselves,
and generally they have put them on
farm lines, going over all the hills
that come in their way. The result
of this is the hill-tax in hilly regions
and what may be called the square
corner tax on the prairies.
The amount of hill-tax have esti-
mated i'll one county in New Jersey,
and found that needless hills double
all the cost of hauling in the county,
making practically money tax of
$4,000 annually to the township.
The people have paid this tax for
one hundred years, and yet they
wonder why they are poor. In the
prairie regions, for want of the di-
agonal roads which the government
should have laid out, the farmer, to
reach point ten miles to the north
west, for instance, travels seven miles
north and seven miles west, adding
40 per cent. to his distance, or, for
the average of all travel, 20 per cent.
This is the square-corner tax.
The mud-tax is probably about
equal in total to the hill tax, and
this, again, doubles the cost of all
wagon transportation; yet many
farmers are opposed to stone roads.
However, the farmers themselves
are doing away in many places with
the enormous burden of the fence tax,
and with it will go the snowdrift tax
and the waste land on the roadside.
They are slowly abandoning narrow
tires and tracking wheels. More
over, many of them begin to realize
the enormity and absurdity of the
hill, mud and square corner taxes,
and we may yet hope in time to see
in this country, as we do in France,
beautiful hard roads everywhere,
winding through farms, with crops
growing close to the wagon tracks
and the roads serving perfectly every
purpose of public use and private
convenience.
You ask how all this can be ac-
complished without a burden of tax
alton which will neutralize its bene-
fits. I answer that it is all being
done to-day in hundred places in
the United States, and there are
farmers who acknowledge that they
are getting rich in these hard times
solely by reason of the improved
roads which have been forced upon
them, and are paying with perfect
ease any additional tax they impose.
These improved roads are being built
in many ways and in various forms
of construction, and every year S ex-
perience reduces the cost and brings
an easier providing of the necessary
means.
1t would be very long story to go
into the details in this direction, and
l would not be prepared to say which
IS the best of the many methods OF
construction and of payment. Both
need to be greatly varied to meet the
conditions in the various States, and
a careful study of local legislation is
necessary but the vital question is
for the farmers themselves to settle
generally whether they want good
roads, and whether they will accept
the help of those who are willing and
anxious to join in paying the cost OF
road Improvement If they will take
up the subject in all their organiza-
tions and appoint active working
committees to visit the nearest ac.
cessible localities where good roads
prevail, and to urge such legislation
as will make them attainable everv.
where, the work will soon reach a
point where its own momentum will
carry it forward.
The estimate of your able secretary
that 5000, 900, 900 is wasted annually