Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1908-07-31
Mistellaneous 8eaains.
THE NEW ROAD LAW.
Reasons For Its Enactment and Wis
dom Of Its Provisions.
Editor Ynrkuilla Ennuirar.

Reasons For Its Enactment and Wis
dom Of Its Provisions.
Editor Yorkville Enquirer:
On salesday in January, 1908. rep
Union from all sections Of York coun-
ty met in the York county court house
and passed resolutions censuring
their representatives in the general as
| political courage to pass a sensible,
prao tical, intelligent. systematic road
law and calling upon the present rep
lresentatives to pass such a law and
also declaring that they were ready
and willing to tax themselves from
half to million dollars for road pur-
Iposes.
Confronted with this resolution and
recallinc 20 mind that since the estab-
lishment of the chaingang in York
county some sixteen or more years
Eago, fully two hundred thousand dol
liars had been taken out Of the pock-
lets of the taxpayers of York county
for roads and bridges and that so far as
Visible results were concerned, the coun-
ty authorities might just as we'll have
collected one hundred and fifty thou
sand dollars Of that amount in front OF
York court house door and applied a
match to it and consumed 1t In smoke
land ashes-looking around them and
seeing that the farming lands were
being depopulated Of white people,
who were moving to the towns because
| the roads were so bad in winter they
were unable to convey their families
to church and school and the farms in
many places were being turned over
to negro renters, and, reasoning that
| IL the farms We're exhausted, city,
town and village alike would suffer-
recalling to mind that the United
States census of 1900 proved to the
world that there were fewer white
people in Bullock's Creek township
that year than there were in 1890, and,
seeing the country churches drained Of
their membership year by year, and,
Earnestly desiring to build up the coun-
| try and thus build up the whole coun-
ty and turn the tide Of white popula-
ton back again from the towns to the
country and make our waste places
bloom as the rose, one Of our repre-
sentatives did have the moral and po-
Iitical courage to frame road law
that will revolutionize road making ir
York county; and, the other members
of both branches having consented @
same, are equally responsible for the
passage of the said road law.
Let the old plan be contrasted with
the new system. Under the old plan
York county was spending from ten
to twelve thousand dollars year on
her roads and bridges and this amount
was increasing year by year. l ask
every intelligent taxpayer in York
county if that money was being spent
so as to finally result in a system Of
/ good roads and eventually reduce the
amount Of taxes collected for road
purposes? Under the old plan hum
dreds and hundreds Of dollars were be-
ing spent every year for tools for
| overseers and as the farms were be-
| ing turned over to negro renters the
day was not far distant when the coun-
| ty would have to supply every road
hand with a tool to work and this item
alone would run up into thousands.
Under the old plan it was part work
and part pay, and, the result was
neither work nor pay
Under the old plan, the overseer had
| to draw his Communication tax money
out during the fiscal year, or, it was
put into the general fund. This very
fact placed honest oyerseers under
the ban of suspicion and those who
were not honest could do as they
| pleased. 1 know when a charge was
made a few years ago that supplies
| had been bought with Communication
tax money and the charge was sus-
| tanned, while the matter was under
| going investigation, men from differ
ent sections Of the county remarked,
well, we could tell of other instances,
but we do not want to fall out with
our neighbors." ] know of my own
| knowledge of numerous complaints or
this kind from overseers. Il am
oyerseer of a certain section of such
and such q road. 1 have called out
my hands and put four days on my
section. There are several other sec
tions between mine and the court
house that have not been touched this
year and were not touched last year
and the hands belonging to those sec
tions have. escaped road work for two
years. My hands have rebelled ana
agree with them. 1t Is not fair to
make them work for the public when
others do not do so, and l tell you mere
and now l will do no more work on
nv section until these other sections
are worked" Result, no work on any
sections. And even If little work
was cone, would not the truth be
stretched to call it work? The hands
simply put in time. All our roads are
good now but if you wish to see what
a miserable failure the old plan. was,
| travel over those roads In January
and February when you have to mar
ket or warehouse your cotton and
haul out your heavy fertilizers, break
ing down your vehicles and wear OFT
your costly mules and horses. You
will then reach the conclusion that
some of our roads have not been
worked since the war and the kind or
work done on some Of them only
makes the mud deeper and stiffer. To
sum up results: The old plan was
failure. 1t has been tried for quar-
ter of a century and for all practical
| purposes, a whole century, and from
the very nature Of things, it could neV-
er result in a system Of good roads
The old plan was a costly plan. The
amount of money paid out under the
old system was increasing every year,
and l assert as a fact, fact that can
be proven and demonstrated, that the
taxpayers of York county will actual
ly spend more money under the old