Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1902-01-25
JANUARY y, 1902
Roads.

In a county-fair address not long ago
the governor of South Carolina told MS
auditors that it
costs more to carry bale of cotton ten
miles by county road in this State to rail-
road station than to transport 1t thence Il
thousand miles by rail and water.
Yet the general government seems TO
strain every nerve to develop, quicken
and cheaper rail and water carriage
the one by paying exorbitant rates for
mail transportation, the other directly
by subsidy.
Meanwhile the poor country people,
upon whose labor all business depends
and who at last pay all taxes and subsl-
dies, seen and unseen, are left to pro-
vide their own means of transportation
to shipping points.
Indeed, government appears to regard
with much greater paternal interest ana
concern the internal development OF
Cuba, Porto Rico and the Philippines
than of our own country. There seems
to be "lots of money" for benevolent
exploit alton in "our island possessions,
but the irrigatiOnists must fight against
great odds for means to make fruitful
the arid lands which lie this side of the
Rocky Mountains.
But as to roads-it really seems that
those who have direct use for them would
fare better if all States and counties
would transfer them to private hands,
provided government will then subsidize
the owners as lavishly as it now favors
the captains of industry" who COM
mand locomotion on rail and water.
Indeed, almost any new or novel admin
istration of highway affairs would be
better than that now current-in Mary
land as in South Carolina.
But if government will leave the pro-
posed ownership of telegraph, telephone,
railroad and ocean highway lines alone
until it has taken possession Of the
country roads and made them solid as
adamant and durable as time itself, it
will have already conferred a blessing
upon the country beside which all other
paternal benedictions will dwindle to
nothingness.
Let rOad-renewal and building enjoy
the same non partisan promotion and
the same generous financial backing that
prevail under other auspices of govern
mental development, and the road prob
lem, if problem, will be solved.
Since the above was written far
cry comes from a Frostburg "Taxpaycr'
ria the Homecoming STIR, complaining
that the JOURNAL should have furnished
a remedy after diagnosing the disease, if
he knows what that means.
The grand jury report was not seen
here until Friday morning after 10
o'clock-too late to write prescription
that would fit Taxpayers" under
standing.
But to all others enough was stated in
the six lines to show that to take money
out of one party pocket and put it in
another party pocket is no cure for bad
roads.
The reader, therefore, who didn't want
to be captious or fiippant, could easily
infer that the money should not be en-
trusted to party at all.
The editorial which precedes this post
script is along that line, as have been
other references to the matter, as Tax
payer will remember if he be not an
unfair or forgetful reader
But to make sure that "Taxpayer"
catches the full drift of what is designed
we will say this-let government take as
full control of the public roads as it has
of the army and navy, for instance;
apply the same educational training for
the work, employ the best graduates,
and commence the greatest reform
of the age by renewing the roads Sue
cessively where most needed, beginning
with the streets of FrOstburg