The Cairo bulletin., 1904-02-13

! towns and counties liable To damages
at impossible mud.holes and prevent
ed that rapid settlement which was
so desirable. An Illustration Of what
might have happened on large scale
was given Ii Jefferson county, WiscOn-
sin, when Wisconsin was territory in
1916. A wholesale peddler with
valuable load Of goods was mired in
swamp. and suffered a loss which
he finally offered to settle for 5000
TAls was refused and a resort had to
the courts, and the case was settled
about tweny years after in the United
States supreme court and settled &C
cording to the town laws of some
eastern state which were legally APP
picable TO Wisconsin, while it was a
territory, and by this time the dam
age and costs had run up to about
81 600. which was paid by the then
innocent township by an issue of town
ship long time bonds.
Our early laws made it easy to
construct bridges by procuring bridge
timber from government land, and also
by condemnation at nominal figure
when the land happened to belong to
nonresident spectators or others
I IA har
his wagon or anything else in a mud
hole, it was his bad luck. If he COM
planned that the eastern township
laws in such cases made and provided
would have fully remunerated him for
ais loss, his only consolation was to
be told that he was not living in an
eastern state. Our road laws today
very properly allow the sufferer no
damages in similar cases, or from
broken bridges. Some OF our most
fortunate towns, where road materials
are handy, are constructing such good
roads and bridges that they may all be
ready for laws as rigid as those of
New England and New York, or as
stringent as those we have ourselves
provided for the government Of cities
md villages where sufferers from
broken sidewalks or impossible roads
have ample means of redress, but for
the general run of our prairie town
ships we still need the happF-go
lucky imprcgident road and bridge
laws which are still in force.
But loose as We consider ouf lass,
there il more in them tA2n Is general
" believed as for instance, the ley
which provides that highway cormis
inocra may l2yy a tax Of iotY c2aG
II the one hundred dollars, or sa &
eats in certain cases, for roads aal
niagee, and il frequently happens
IA. commissioners IN oriaf % koa
'eTn tle taxes Of t1cit constituents,
syy 2 nuch liglter tax iaaa the iaa
lllowG This happened clco i 5acl- !
county and was followed by a suit
o compel the commissioners to make
ertain road improvements fer which
hey had 30 money TAcir G1.en4a
;as tAe.r Hght and very economic
! tax levy, but the iudg2 shaved them
that as they admitted they know that
The taxes levied would and could not
make the movements desired, they
rad neglected their duty and wefa
7 liable TO a fine of City dollars c1aA
lad the case been carried to lie ~
1remo court and this decision sus
aimed, we would have been seeing th
/ maximum road and bridge tax as
iessed In nearly every township in tha
tate, instead of the very light tax
ayios very often assessed. and per
/ laps not ono highway commissioner
| a hundred is aware of the real
meaning of this feature of the road
md bridge law, which is, that in case
'oads and bridges need II, the com
! nissiOners must levy the maximum al
! lowed by law, and in case more money
Is needed, the tax payers have the
| option through other features of the
| same law to raise as much higher
axes, within certain limits, as they
choose. or at their option. to supple
nent the levy by an issue of town
ship bonds
Before 1S4S, at which time a new
state Constitution was adopted all Of
he counties of the state were under
boards of county commissioners or
county judges. Township organiza-
ion came in after the adoption of
his constitution and very soon there
litter nearly every county in Northern
illinois where New Englanders and
New Workers we're in the majority,
passed under the township organiza-
lion system by voting in the manner
| prescribed by law and the change
has progressed till now there are but
nineteen G9) counties under the cOun-
y commissioner system. The road
and bridge laws we're Immediately
modified so as to fit the new town