Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1902-03-12
AWFUL TAX ON BAD ROADS.
Prof. Massey Shows Why Il Is Cheaper 10
T.. 20 Good Roads than Bad Ones.


roads, was written by Prof. w. f.
Massey of the A. and nj. College,
for the good roads edition of the
Charlotte News and Observer
1t would seem that no argument
would be necessary to convince any
one of the great benefit to be secured
to the whole community, and espe-
oially to the farmers from the con-
struction of good roads. And yet
there is no class of the community
that more quickly opposes any special
tax for the making of such roads
than the farmers. The fact is that
the farmers of the whole country
are paying more tax for keeping the
roads bad than would be required to
make the best macadam roads every
where. The taxes that are worked
out in mending the roads and gene
rally making them worse, are but a
small part of the tax. The great
tax that the bad roads impose on the
farmer are the wrecking of wagons,
the wearing out of teams before their
time, the awful waste of time in
hauling half or fourth of a load
when full load could be hauled
more easily on good road. Add to
this the loss of value on the farm be-
cause of the often inpassable state
of the roads. A farm on a good
smooth road may not be worth a
cent more for the production of
crops than the one on bad roa d..
But the one on the good road will
bring several dollars more per acre
if sold, and is really worth more by
reason of the less tax on it as shown
above. Wagons break down, teams
are worn out, time and temper are
lost and the money value of these is
hard to estimate. We once drove
from Raleigh to Durham across Cab
tree east of Morrisville. For miles
the road was broad trench of red
clay, and the road members had just
been along as usual throwing more
red mud in the middle of the road
until it finally got 80 heavy that our
team pulled the doubletree in two,
and we had to cut sapling to mend
it.. On both sides of this red mud
trench the fields were macadamized
with broken rocks ready for road,
and in some places the small rock
were piled up along the roadside.
And yet the road members threw clay
in the middle of the road while
there were rock enough to fill the
whole road two feet deep and to
have made it good for life time.
The mending was tax simply
thrown away, for it made the road
worse and increased the taxes the
users were paying in wagons and
team and time.
There is another matter connected
with good roads, and this is the get
ting free mail delivery. One of the
greatest obstacles to the develop
ment of the free mail delivery is the
condition of most of our country
roads during larger part of the
year. The free delivery of the mail
daily would put the farmer in touch
with the world, would enable him to
have his daily paper and to mail let
ters more frequently. But he lives
on such miserable trail called
road that the route cannot be estab-
lished, since no one would undertake
it for the small pay allowed for such
routes. Then, too, there are plenty
of business men in all our towns
who would like to have homes in tie
country to which they could drive in
the evening, but the roads in most
places are 80 bad that they stay in
town and the lands remain unsold
and unimproved as tho town mer-
chant would improve his home. Far
mers from off the improved roads of
Raleigh township come into Raleigh
with a quarter or half cord of
wood on wagon, when on the hard
roads they could easily haul cord,
and / have often wondered if the
time of these men is worth anything
to them.
In the city VIC see the draymen
trotting about with -four bales of
cotton on one horse wagon, and the
horse pulls them easily. Then we
see the farmer coming in with sin.
gle bale on one horse wagon or two
bales on two horse wagon. 1t
takes the time of one man to haul
a bale where the city drayman hauls
four, and the farmer could haul four
if the roads were good. All this tax
of wear and tear of team and waste
of time has to be paid for out of the