The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1902-03-14
Friday. March Ia, 1902
The Roads.

We go to press this week before we are
able to get a report from the meeting
at Elkton, called for the discussion of the
road question, and although the meeting
may not result i'll the development of
plan whereby present conditions will be
remedied, yet is it a step in the right
direction if nothing further than an ex-
change of views is had as these views
will all tend to one unanimous conclusion,
that our roads were never in worse condi-
ton than they have been the past few
weeks, and that there is a crying need for
breaking away from the present time
honored, haphazard method of tempo,
rary patching and tinkering and the
substitution of system whereby we may
derive some lasting benefit. That the
time for action along this line is ripe is
apparent, as if no effort is made to arouse
the farmers and others while the high
ways are in the condition which shows
the merits ~ Of the present slip-shod
methods in their true light, surely moth
ing can be said or done to move the
people to action if the effort is postponed
until the roads have dried up, in degree,
when the need may not force itself so
strongly upon those who should be most
vitality interested.
Since the initiative has been taken let
matters be pushed to some practical end
which will give us at least one or two
roads in each District which can be trav-
eled all the year round, in place of the
innumerable byways, which are turned
into rivers Of mud regularly with the
coming of each winter and spring. Better
one good, permanent road that will stand
travel in all seasons than the dozens of
dry weather ones which interlace each
other and are examples of the ineffic-
lent system which prevails-at present
made so noticeably apparent.
The Baltimore Sun of the 10th inst,
makes some timely observations on the
subject, under the caption of ga Wall
from the Counties of Maryland" from
which we take the liberty of making the
following extracts
Nearly every newspaper published in
the counties of Maryland came to us last
week with wall over the bad condition
of the roads. The winter just breaking
up has left all country roads except the
turnpikes in wretched condition.
''Now, whose fault is it that in State
where material for good roads is so abun-
dant as in Maryland the conditions COM
planned of exist? Neither the press nor
the people can lay the blame wholly upon
the mismanagement of the public officers
they have chosen, bad as that nisman-
agemeut has been. The truth is, the sys-
tenn is bad. In fact, there is no system,
but slip shod method in which there
has been scarcely any improvement since
the county governments were formed.
Year after year the people have submitted
10 road taxation. the funds from which
have been literally squandered by incom.
petent and irresponsible agents under
party auspices of one kind or another,
leaving the roads just as bad after every
hard winter as they were before dollar
was spent on them. But the blame is to
be shared equally by the people and the
lEcompetents they have chosen to devise
and direct our internal policy. Waste
fulness of resources, ignorance of the first
principles of construction, have undoubt.
eddy characterized the management OF
the roads everywhere, and the country
people are literally today stalled in the
mud-sitting down on their immovable
vehicles and railing against their county
commissioners and road supervisors. Blu,
when the SHOWS melt and the surplus
waters run off, and the sun and winds dry
up the roads, and the road scrapers issue
forth from their winter quarters, and the
highways become easier again, all will be
forgotten, or, if not forgotten, overlooked.
"Up to this time the roads have been
everybody's business, and therefore they
are neglected, because what is every
oOAS . DuShiSSS 10 hOuOuy dudlI. Inc
lesson of the roads today should appeal
to the intelligence of every community
and excite determination to get what is
needed to end the trouble. The Legisa-
ture is in session There is proposition
before it which if adopted would supply
money from hitherto undeveloped re-
sources to relieve the people from some
of the burden of local taxation and make
a basis for State control of roads. This
proposition is linked 20 the Oyster
Planting bill. But it is not the only
way out of the difficulty. The State
Geologist and the admirable work of
the Geological Survey with its roadway
section would clear up the situation
quickly enough if the men who are sent
to the General Assembly at Annapolis
could get themselves out of their political
ruts. il which they seem stuck deeper
than the wagons of thetfarmers on the
miserable roads that political mislnan-
agement and corruption have entailed
upon this generation from preceding ages.
There are movements all along the
line, however, from which inspiring rays
of hope giimmer. The farmers clubs in
many counties are insisting that roads
are an economic, not political matter.
Cecil county is among the most recent of
the rural communities showing signs of a
To lob he hill Nf a.