The suburban citizen., 1902-06-14
Fariners' Views of Good Roads.

roads are desirable has gone by. All
are agreed on this point. On the propo'
sition as 10 whether good roads the
year through are worth what they
would cost there is an honest difference
Of opinion.
Better roads are q matter of evolution
and education on the one hand, and OF
getting all wealth to contribute to
such Improvement on the other, How
to make good roads with the different
kinds Of material available is not so
much the question as 10 get the means
to do II. The farmers Of the State
Justly feel that they should not be
forced to undergo any larger expendi-
ture under existing tax laws. Scarely
one-tifth of the wealth Of the State
is in farm property, and this practically
pays all the taxes levied for road pur'
poses in the townships. Not only are
farmers almost exclusively taxed for
road maintenance, but they are COM
PEELED to furnish the land for roads,
for merely nominal damages, if any,
and are obliged to pay taxes on land
set apart for public use.
Conditions have changed; wealth has
shifted from the farm TO the city in a
large degree Fifty years ago there
wes but little wealth in mining, manu-
featuring. and transportation. To-day
the money invested in these various
enterprises far exceeds the money in
vested in farm property and, more
over, brings larger returns. The high
ways Of the State, like the public
Cchools, belong to all the people, and
oil should be willing to contribute to
their maintenance. With the shifting
of wealth in the State our tax laws
have not been materially changed, eX.
cept in so far as real estate is exempt
from State taxation. Farmers be-
lieve, and very justly, that wealth
other than the wealth in farms should
be taxed to support a thing in which
all are equally interested.
The maxim, You cannot get some
thing for nothing is as true Of road
building as it is of anything else. The
farmers take this view of it, and our
organization at its last annual gather
ing, in December, 1900 had the fol
lowing to say on this question:
The burden of road construction has
been on the farmer since the founda'
zion Of the government; in fact, the
farmer has been the pioneer in the
construction of roads. While he has
borne the burden OF constructing and
maintaining highways other classes
have been equally benefited and have
contributed little or nothing to their
support. Even at this late day, when
primitive methods Of road construction
and primitive government should be
superseded by 4 higher civilization and
more equitable laws in constructing
ard maintaining public highways, the
farmer finds himself confronted with
proposition 10 force upon him q costly
method of State control, with eXpen'
sive county engineers, and scheme to
fasten upon the farmers county and
township bonds that would be a bur.
den upon the agricultural class for the
next century. If public roads were
only for the benefit Of the agricultural
class there might be an excuse for this,
but as they are used by all classes and
Industries the first requisite in lm'
proved road construction should be q
method Of raising the needed revenues
that would tax all classes Of corporate
and personal property rs well as real
estate.
At its annual meeting, in December,
1899, the State Grange reiterated the
position it had taken at previous meet
ings, as is shown by the following
quotation from the annual proceedings:
1t is a sine qua non with us that any
road law shall either provide for an
equal taxation Of all forms Of property
Except that exempted by the constitu'
tion) for road purposes, or that 1t shall
contain as a prerequisite an appropria.
tion by the State under conditions es'
sentially similar to those governing the
public school appropriation.
The latter method does not seem
very feasible in our State, for the rea'
son that the expenditure of our state
government viii equal the receipts for
some years to come; then, again, as the
appropriation would have to be made
at every succeeding session of the leg
islature, which meets biennially there
would be much uncertainty.
State control Of the roads is opposed
It would create horde Of officials, and
in many instances be turned into the
worst kind OF a political machine. The
control of the public roads, as well as
other matters, should be as near the
people as possible. 1t is essential to
good citizenship,
In conclusion, I will reiterate that in
Pennsylvania the first requisite toward
good roads is a corporate revenue
measure taxing all personal and cor
porate property for road purposes at
the same rate that real estate is taxed,
| and / am inclined to think that what
Is true Of Pennsylvania is true OF
nearly all the States in the Union.
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