The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1902-03-14
| VAIL FROM THE COUN-
TIES OF MARYLAD.

Nearly every newspaper published in
the counties of Maryland came to us last
week with a wall over the bad condition
of the roads, says the Baltimore SIM. The
winter Just breaking up has left all
country roads except the turnpikes in
wrctched condition, and the turnpikes are
nothing to brag about, though they con-
tinue to exact tolls as usual. Mudd up to
the hubs of the wheels, holes in which
horses and mules splash about like frogs
in pond, stalled teams unable to draw
| farm produce to market, mail communica-
ton DELAYED and other ills form the bur-
den of the song which is sung by the
rural press from Allegany to Worcester,
through the length and breadth of the
| land.
Now, whose fault is it that in a State
where material for good roads is so album
dant as in Maryland the condition COM
planned of exist? Neither the press nor
| the people can lay the blame wholly up
| on the mismanagement of the public
| officers they have chosen, bad as that mis-
| management has been. The truth is, the
system is bad In fact, there is no sys-
TEN, but slipshod method in which
there has been scarcely any improve
ment since the county governments were
formed. Year after year the people have
submitted to road taxation, the funds
from which have been literally squander
ed by incompetent and irresponsible
agents under party auspices of one kind
or another, leaving the roads just as bad
after every hard winter as they were be-
fore dollar was spent on them. But the
| blame is to be shared equally by the peo
pie and the incompetents they have chosen
to devise and direct our internal
policy Wastefulness of resources,
ignorance of the first principles Of
construction, have undoubtedly charac-
terized the management of the roads
everywhere, and the country people are
literally today stalled in the mud-sitting
down on their immorable vehicles and
railing against their county commissioners
and road supervisors. But 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 quarter
and the highways become easier again,
all will be forgotten, or, if not for
gotten, over looked. The local politicians
will trot out their ready excuses and find
some individual scape goat to punish and
some equally incompetent goat to put in
his place, thus making an endless chain
of mismanagement, like the brook MUIR
muring over the pebbles, to go on for
ever.
Up to this time the roads have been
everybody's business, and therefore they
are neglected, because what is everybody's
business is nobody's affair. The lesson
of the roads today should appeal to the
intelligence of every community and ex-
cite determination to get what is needed
to end the trouble. The Legislature is in
session. There is proposition before it
which if adopted would supply money
relieve the people from some of the bur-
den of local taxation and make basis for
State control of roads. This proposition
is linked to 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 situa-
ton quickly enough if the men who are
sent to the General Assembly at Annapolis
could get themselves out of their politi-
teal ruts, in which they seem to be struck
deeper than the wagons of the farmers on
the miserable roads that political mis-
management and corruption have entail
ed upon this generation from preceding
ages.
There are movements all along the line,
however, from which inspiring rays Of
hope glimmer. The farmers clubs in
many counties are insisting that roads
are all economic, not political, matter,
just as oyster planting is an industrial,
not a political, question. Both vitality
affect the prosperity of the whole people
and are the property of no party, and
should not be handled from the narrow
point of view Of politicians. Cecil county
is among the most recent of the rural
communities showing signs of DISPOSE
ton to take the bull of the roads by the
horns, and we trust they will do it with
all the power at their command. They
have called a mass meeting at Elkton
March 13 in response to an appeal by DR..
Charles NJ. Ellis a progressive and public
spirited citizen, medical Practitioner and
landed proprietor. He graphically pic
lures the road conditions in Cecil, which
are so bad that 1.-The sick must suffer for
relief and the dead lie unburied" He
also SAYS: after a settlement by an
intelligent citizenship for more than $50
years and the expenditure of over two
millions of dollars on road construction
we still find our public highways in
| condition worse than the trails through
the primeval forests" He directs at
tention to the deprecated land values,
due in great part to the miserable roads
which disagreement has entailed. He
says there is no system, that "our impera-
| tive and crying need is public road sys
| tem," and that there is no difficulty about
having a system with abundant material
for constructing good and durable roads
if the people would take hold of the mat
| ter earnestly. The time, too, is opportune,
he says, because the Legislature is now in
session. The matter should not be de-
ferred either by Cecil or any other coun-
| ty, for if there is anything in Maryland
the people should rise up in their might
to revolutionize it is the road methods as
they are practiced by local authorities,
| for lack of an intelligent and comprehen-
sive system.
STATE OF OHIO, CITY OF TOLEDO,