The leader., 1903-04-22
THE ROAD QUESTION.
Contractor "gake" Smith Presents Some
Views From The Contractors
Standpoint.

ago and had a friendly chat on the
public road question and present
ed some of the difficulties, with
which he, as contractor, has to
deal.
Said Mr.. Smith: If anybody
thinks that road contractor in
this county has picnic in this
business at the rate ] am getting
fol the work, he ought to be
at my end of the gun for a while.
The work is so difficult to keep
up and the compensation SO small
under my present contract, that |
have been sorely tempted
several times to throw up the
whole thing. Under my first con-
tract when l worked only first
class roads the pay amounted to
about $4,000 per mile; now, when
all of the second class roads east
of the I. G. R. R. as we'll as the
firts class roads in that part of the
county, are included in my con.
tract, my pay amounts to from
$1S to $40 per mile.
Il entered into this contract
against my better Judgment and
ought not to have done so. Be
fore the contracts were let the last
time there were good many small
bidders, and it was found by the
Board of Supervisors that, averag-
ing the lowest of these bids the
one-mill road levy and the eommu-
tation tax of S3 from each hand
liable to road duty, would only be
sufficient to work two-t thirds of the
roads of the county. Under this
state of affairs | allowed myself to
be over persuaded by some mem
bers of the board to make lump
ing contract for all roads on the
east side of the railroad for the
Communication money and half of
the one mill tax collected for use
outside of the towns; and this
amounts to about the figure I
stated, Yiz' s1s or $40 per mile.
1t was understood, as regards the
second-class roads (Which had not
been worked under contract at all
when l entered into my present
contract(, that I was to have "a
reasonable time in which to bring
these roads up to the required
specifications. 1t was not long,
however, before | found that the
road commissioner and the Board
of Supervisors differed with me
as to what was to be considered
"a reasonable time, and payment
| for work that | had actually done
was deferred on this account from
time to time and | was often seri
ously embarrassed by such disap-
pointments about meeting my obi
cations to others. Sometimes I
was actually compelled to switch
off and do work for the railroad
companies in order to realize
money enough to feed my teams
and maintain my credit, because
the county work was not paying
me enough to be self-sustaining.
"One thing has worked loss to
me Of from $500 to $4,000 a year
since my last contract begun, that
| could not anticipate, viz: The
incorporation of Pearlhaven by
the Pearl River Lumber Co., and
the consequent exemption of
several hundred employees of that
company from the road tax of So
per annum, and at the same time
giving that incorporation it's pro
rata Of the one mill road levy. 1t
is easy enough for the people to
complain and kick, but they
should remember that there are
two sides to this road business and
| have done the very best
[ could do under the difficulties l
have had to contend with.
CAS- to my running off and do
ing railroad work, l want to say
that | was in the..railroad construc-
ton business before | ever took
public road contract in the coun-
ty, and / would be better off today
if | had stuck to it and never taken
one.
Another thing: There has
been great improvement in all of
the first class roads of the county
under the contract system and in
most, if not all, the second class
roads. Roots and stumps have
been gotten out of these roads that
people have jolted over for years
and years, and they are in a better
general condition and have actual
ly cost the people less than the
same amount of improvements
could have been secured under the
old overseer system.
think, too, that the contract
system is a great improvement on
the old way of working roads, so
far as the travelling public is CON
cerned, and whether I ever have
another road contract or not, /
favor the contract system in pre-
ference to the old way.
Please say this much for me
to the people through The Leader,
whether they quit abusing the
road contractors or not. ;"