The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1905-08-26
GOOD ROADS MOVEMENT EXPLAINED


movement anywhere. The bill presented by
Representative Brownlow, Republican, Of Ten
nessee. and the one offered later in the Senate
by Hon. A. G.. Latimer, Democrat, Of South
Carolina, are almost identical in every provi-
sion. and bill which is going to be passed
sooner or later will be made up Of the two bills
referred to that is. by reconciIing the little
difference in the bills. Neither bill proposes
any interference in State or county plans for
road Improvement neither proposes to force
National aid on any State or community; both
provide that no State or subdivision of State
can have any part Of the aid contemplated
without that State or subdivision first agrees
to furnish sum equal to the sum apportioDed
by the Government in the specific case. The
purpose of neither of the bills can by any
stretch be construed to take road making and
road improvement out of the hands of the
States or counties; they provide simply for
cooperation Of the Government with the States
and counties where the States and counties
wish to take advantage Of the law and ask for
that cooperation. The purpose Of both bills
is to aid in and encourage the establishment of
something like uniform system of scientific
cally constructed roads in the country. The
movement does not contemplate any sort of
interference in State or county plans.
Under the proposed bills the States and coun-
ties can have help if they want it /; if they
don't want it they don't have to take it.
The proposition is not new one. Govern
ment aid to highway improvement had its
origin under Thomas jefferson. President
Madison endorsed it in one of his later mes
sages to Congress. Henry Clay contended for
it in a speech in Congress in 1878. John C.
Calhoun, while Secretary of War, in 1919,
strongly endorsed it in a report to Congress on
roads and canals. The great Webster declaim-
ed for it in a speech in the United States SEN
ate in 1880. At st. Louis, in 1908 President
Roosevelt declared that the people had a right
to demand this help from the general Govern
ment, and on the same occasion, from the
same platform, VIM. Jennings Bryan declared
that IT was justifable ON half dozen or more
safe grounds, which be stated These were
and are all great and eminent men. Moreover,
in January last the Senate committee made a
favorable report on the measure and it would
have passed but for want of time.
Akdlus Tue OlOWulOW-A hllllcI Oillo dDpIOpfldtc
$24, 900 to be used at the rate of $4,000, 900
year for three years. No suggestion of bonds
about it, but the money is to come directly out
Of the Treasury. The revenues of the Govern
ment are largely raised by duties on consump-
ton, to which all the people contribute. 1t is
believed that, to the extent Of the appropria-
ton, this proposition would equally distribute
the burden of road improvement. We all
know that the very well-to-do do not always
pay fair share of taxes; they have way in
instances of concealing certain things from as
sessment. Everything taxable in the hands
Of the common people is always in sight and
in this way those least able to bear it are made
to pay more than fair share of the burdens
of local government-road working as well as
other things.
Let us repeat The question involved in
the Brownlow-Latimer bill is nation wide. It
is proposed to assist each State accepting it, in
its prescribed proportion. in building a system
of improved highways throughout the entire
country and thus save to the jewellers in towns
and cities the tax that bad roads inevitably
put on their breakfast and dinner tables, and
save to the country folk the mud tax which
reduces farm incomes and limits school, church
and social advantages. 1t is for the benefit of
all the people more directly than the appro-
priation for any one item included in the long
list of expenditures passed by each successive
Congress. Care of roads has been recognized
function of government from the beginning
of organized civilization, and the proprety of
the National Government undertaking such
work has been repeatedly sustained by the de-
cisions Of our highest courts and by the advo-
cacy of some of our greatest constitutional
lawyers.
Much valuable matter on the subject will be
found in Senate Document No. 204 Fifty
Eighth Congress, I'd Session, which any reader
can get by writing to his U. s. Senator.
THE REPUBLICANS of Anne Arundel county,
in their convention at Annapolis on Wednes-
day. passed the following resolution: I'VE
record with unfeigned appreciation the public
spirit and acts of the Governor of Maryland in
what we believe to be his sincere intent to
purify political conditions in this State in
order that our elections may become an honest
record of the will of the people. We declare
the disfranchising amendment to the Constitu-
ton OF Maryland to be a most outrageous
effort of the Democratic managers to throttle
the power and influence of their antagonists,
of all nations and creeds, against the spirit and
letter of our laws and institutions, an insult to
the intelligence of free people and scheme
of self-perpetuation and personal greed. We
call upon the manhood of our State to resent
this latest insult and by their vote to consign
it to the Oblivion it deserves"
THE GREAT yellow fever epidemics in the
United States were 1793 1898, 1902, 1858, 1867
1878 and 1873. The last was the most extended
It invaded 1872 towns and wiped GU: Is 1874 hui
man lives out of total number of cases exceed
ing 74,0O0 The first great epidemic of yellow
fever started in the Northern city of Philadel-
phia in 1T93 although, Of course its seeds
were imported from the South. Philadelphia
was the capital of the Republic in 1897, and
when yellow fever reappeared there in August
of that year there was general scattering of
the departments of the Government. Presi.
dent Adams took refuge at Braintree, Mass ;
the War Office was removed to the Falls of
Schuylkill; the Treasury to Gray's Ferry, and
the general postofice to Dunlap's stables. The
office of the Secretary of State was transferred
to Trenton, N. J., and the heads of the State
and Postofice Departments went to the same
town. The Secretary of War took up lodging
near Downingtown, Pa, and the Attorney
General sought refuge in Virginia.
The PULLMAN COMPANY has just turned out
for the Pennsylvania Railroad some splendidly
equipped cars for the 1S-hour flyer between
New York and Chicago. These combine a
number of features not heretofore seen in Pull
man cars. The deliberately carved berth fronts
and interior fittings of the composite and OBJ
servation cars have given away to the use of
highly polished woods treated in inlay work
with chaste but artistic designs. There are no
corners in the sleeping cars to catch dust, and
the general impression of the car is one of
great cleanliness. Each of the new sleepers is
finished in vermilion wood which is suscepti-
BILE of a high polish. A delicate tracery of in
lay work is the sole ornament to the beautiful
granting of the wood, which shines like mir
ror's face.