The weekly register. [volume] (Point Pleasant, Va. [W. Va.]) 1862-1909, 1902-02-19
FEBRUARY 10, 1902.
Good Roads and How to Get
Them.

good roads the year through are
worth what they would cost, there
is an honest difference of opinion.
Better roads are matter of eyo-
luton 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 how to get the
means to do it. The farmers of
the state justl. feel that they
should not be forced to undergo
any larger expenditure under ex.
listing tax laws. Scarcely one fifth
of the wealth of the state is in farm
property, and this practically pays
all the taxes levied for road pur-
poses in the district. Not only are
farmers almost exclusively taxed
for road maintenance, but they are
compelled to furnish the land for
roads at 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 large degree. Fifty years
ago there was but little wealth in
mining, manufacturing and trans
portation. To-day the money in
vested in these various enterprises
far exceeds the money invested in
farm property, and moreover,
brings larger returns. The high.
ways of the state, like the public
schools, belong to all the people,
and all should be willing to con-
tribute to their maintenance.
With the shifting of wealth in
the state, our tax laws have not
been materially changed, except so
far as real estate is exempt from
state taxation. Farmers believe,
and very justly, that wealth, other
than wealth in farms, should be
taxed to support thing in which
all are equally interested.
The maxim, you cannot get
something for nothing" is the
view the farmers take of it.
The burden of road construction
has.been on the government-in
fact the farmer has been the pion-
eer in the construction of roads
While he has borne the burden of
constructing and maintaining high
ways, other classes have been equal
ly benefited, and have contributed
little or nothing to their support,
even at this late day when print
tive methods of road construction
and primitive government should
be superseded by higher civiliza-
ton and more equitable laws in
constructing and maintaining high
ways. The farmer finds himself
confronted with a proposition to
force on him a costly method of
state control, with expensive coun-
ty engineers and a scheme to fast
On upon the farmers county and
district bonds that would be bur-
den. upon the agricultural class for
the next century. If public roads
were only for the benefit of the ag.
ricultural GLASS there might be an
excuse for this, but as they are
used by all GLASSES and industries,
the first requisition in improved
road construction should be a
method of raising the needed reve.
nues that would tax all classes of
corporate and personal property, as
well as real estate. The idea
of constructing public roads
and maintaining them by taxation
on real estate alone, is fallaoious.
We, therefore, insist that if any
road legislation is to be enacted,
all personal and corporate property
should be taxed alike with real es-
tate for this support. We dot not
wish to exclude real estate for this
support. We do not wish to be
understood as opposing good roads,
but We are emphatically opposed
to any system of road construction
that will increase the burdens of
the already overtaxed farmer.
We want good roads, will well
come better roads than we have.
but insist that as better roads are
mainly question of more dollars.
the law which may provide for
them shall also provide for equal
taxation for that purpose of all
kinds of property.
It is a sine qua non with us that
any road law shall either provide
for an equal taxation of all forms
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