The St. Mary banner. (Franklin, Parish of St. Mary, La.) 1889-1931, 1902-08-23
Farmere' Views Of Good Roads.
FArmere' Views OF Good ROads.
Y" LILLIAN T. GREASY, OF
N/ the Pennsylvania State
Nv u Y Grange. recently delivered
Il the following address.

The time to question whether good
roads are desirable has gone by. All
nre agreed on this point On the propo
, sition as to whether good roads the
year through are worth what they
would cost there is an honest difference
Of opinion.
=: Better roads are matter of evolution
and education on the enc 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 to get the means
to do 1t. The farmers Of the State
Justly feel that they should not be
forced to undergo any larger expendi.
ture under existing tax laws. Scarcely
one-ffth of the wealth of the State
Is 10 farm property, and this practically
pays all the taxes levied for road pur-
poses in the townships. Not only arc
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.
4 4, Conditions have changed; wealth has
shifted from the farm to the city in q
large degree. Fifty years ago there
was but little wealth in mining, manu-
featuring, and transportation. To-day
the money invested in these various
,~fe 90 xI,1
vested in farm property and. more
over, brings larger returns. The high
ways of the State like the public
schools, belong to all the people, and
I. all should be willing to contribute to
Z their maintenance. With the shifting
.sOf wealth in the State our tax laws
have not been materially changed, ex-
4.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 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 fits 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-
tion 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 ut this late day. when
primitive methods of road construction
! md primitive government Ghouid be
superseded by higher civilization and
more equitable laws in constructing
sard maintaining public highways. the
farmer finds himself confronted with 4
proposition to force upon him costly
Method OF State control, with eXpen-
siye county engineers, and scheme to
Hasten upon the farmers county. and
.4a7EUship bonds that would be bur-
Via Upon the agricultural class for The
\ next century. If public roads were
cnly, for the benefit of, the agricultural
dass there might be an excuse for this.
mt as they are used by all classes and
iSdtsties the first requisite in inl-
ayfOTed road construction should be
method OF raising the needed revenues
'thct would tax all classes OF corporate
and personal property as well rs real
estate. & e
At Its annual meeting, in December.
, 1889. the State Grange reiterated the
position It had taken at previous meet
quotation from the annual proceedings:
sit is a sine qua non with us that any
Hsad' law shall either provide for an
equal taxation Of all forms of property
Except that exempted blythe constitu-
n0n) for road purposes, or that 1T shall
contain as prerequisite an approprla-
ton BY thn1State under conditions es-
sentialiy. Similar to those governing the
Z public. school appropriation.
s,IHe latter method does not seem
very feasible in our State. for the rea-
son that the expenditure of our State
government will 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
hlatures which meets biennially. there
would be much uncertainty.
State control of the roads is opposed.
Nwould create horde of officials. and
~ many instances be turned into the
worst kind of 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.
: N conclusion, will reiterate that In
Pennsylvania the first requisite toward
gOod roads is corporate revenue
measure taxing all personal and cor
'pofate property for road purposes at
the same rate that real estate is taxed,
and am inclined to think that what
e true Of Pennsylvania is true of
nearly all the States in the Union.