The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1907-12-31
FOR BETTER ROADS.
to be Submitted to Meet
ing Of Rural Letter Carriers in
the Court House Tomorrow.

intend to submit TO the rural carriers
meeting I'M the court house here to-
morrow and. respectfully ask that
you publish them SO that the ear
ri"rS over the county may read them
and have their minds made up with
regard to them when they arrive
Wednesday morning. In this conncc-
tion, | want every rural carrier in
the county who is interested in the
bcttcrmcni of the roads to be present
and help us to set on foot some
scheme that will Improve the col
dition Of the roads. This is getting
TO be a serious question and demands
of us all of the consideration tnat
we can give it.
Here s my scheme for roads cover
ed by rural routes:
Whereas, we believe the present
system of working the public nigh
ways is failure, and, whereas, we
as rural letter carriers. are the great
est sufferers from bad roads, we feel
it eacumbcnt upon us to suggest re-
mcdics looking to the improvement
Of the public roads covered by our
routes; therefore be it,
Resolved, LIST, That we petition our
representatives in the general as
sembly to alter or amend our pres
ent road law with regard to the op-
tional feature of the law which al
lows person subject to road duty to
work number of days or pay a
communication tax, and require the pay
ment of such communication tax with
out any other option whatever.
Resolved, 2nd, That in case our
representatives should fail or refuse
to abolish this optional feature Of
the law, that we do hereby request
our patrons. as a special favor to us
and as benefit to themselves, to
pay the communication tar in lieu OF
working the required number OF days
on the roads.
Resolved, Bird, That we do hereby
request the county supervisor to re-
serve the money collected as commu-
talinA tax and apply such money to
the improvement Of chat section OF
road from which i; was collected.
Resolved, 4th, That wherever prac-
ticablc and wherever so much as ten
miles of a public road is covered by
rural route that We request the
county supervisor to hire an able
bodied man--white or colorcd-to
work daily upon these ten miles at
specified wage per month to be paid
out of the communication tax fund col
lected from this road until such fund
is exhausted.
Resolved, 9TH, That the laborer so
employed be required to report daily
to the carrier aad that The carrier be
allowed to direct the movement of
such laborer showing him where to
wcrk and what kind Of work it Is
most desired to be done.
Resolved, 9th, That wherever a sec
tion of road is thickly populated ana
large communication tax fund ac-
crues tnerefrom, that two laborers
be employed to work together, in
stead Of one.
And, now, little amplitude with
regard to the these resolutions. I am
aware that this scheme is an expert
mcnt and like all other experiments it
must run the gauntlet Of the critic
and the slleptic. If it should fail,
we will have lost nothing more than
we are losing already by our present
system. because it also is failure
a most lamcntablc failure; and, if it
should prove a success. then we have
certainly profited by the experiment.
Now. let's briefly review our pres
emf system Of road working. The first
stumbling block is the option Of
working six days on the public roads
or of paying a communication tax Of
three dollars. In a great many cases
a person subject to road duty does
neither one. Hc does not pay the tax
in the hope that he may not be warn
ed ont to work, or, if he should be, it
NAV be for only v one or two days and
he thereby figures on savin" couple
dollars. This is unfair and an injus-
tico to his neighbor who has paid the
tax in full.
Again, wnen working the road the
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