The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1908-09-16
Road Building in the South.

Road BUILDING IN the Soutn.
In discussing editorially the con-
Wet leasing system in Georgia In The
Sun of August 8 you express your be-
lief that the best employment for
prisoners is road making. 1t may In
terest your readers to know that the
authorities OF Fulton County, in
which Atlanta Is situated, take the
same view. For several years Fulton
| County has kept its prisoners at road
making, and it now has $50 miles of
we'll built m~acadamized roads, which
centre at Atlanta like the spokes of
a wheel in the hub. General Clifford
Anderson, a leading business man of
Atlanta, who is officially connected
with the great road building work of
Fulton County, recently told me that
this work had in every way proved
the best for the prisoners as we'll as
for the county. Most of these prison
ers are negroes accustomed to out
door life. Imprisonment within
brick walls tends to ruin their health,
while the outdoor life Of road build
ing under official control and main
tenance is beneficial to them. The
county owns it's rock quarries, its
stone crushing plants and its road
making machinery. 1t therefore does
not have to buy anything from out
side. About 400 prisoners are kept
at work and the cost of good roads
is about $500 a mile, which in
cludes much heavy grading.
1t is proposed to continue this
work by cross roads connecting the
lines radiating from Atlanta until
Fulton County shall have 500 miles
of thoroughly good roads. Many OF
the leading people of the South, men
who have given years Of study to h
subject, believe that every Southern
State should put its convicts to work
in building a great system OF pubic
highways. A number of counties in
other States have been doing the
same work which Fulton County Is
pressing with such vigor. Through
out the South there is a great awak-
ening to the need Of good roads, and
millions are being expended IN THIS
work, but so great is the area Of that
section that road building is a more
serious problem than in more dense
ly settled sections.
One a advanced by some adj
vocates of using convicts In road
building is that this avoids any posi-
Bile injury to labor by prison made
goods. Moreover, the scarcity of Ia
Dor in the South in times Of ordinary
prosperity would make it very diff
cult to find men for road building
without drawing them by higher
wages from the farms and industrial
interests where they are so badly
needed.
So great is the interest throughout
the South in road building, street I'M
provements and municipal undertak.
ines that the work now under way
and that which is being planned will
represent an outlay of probably
500, 900, 900. In this work Mary
land leads with a recent bond issue
of SIS, 600, 900 for the building OF 8OO
to 1000 miles of main lines of roads
through the State, while the city OF
Baltimore is spending and preparing
to spend s25,oOO,OO0 or more on
docks, sewers, street paving, etc. The
whole South has caught the spirit OF
municipal improvements such as sew.
erage- systems, water works, street
paving and schools and other pubic
buildings, while State and county au'
thorities are vigorously working for
better roads. This is simply the nat.
ural result of increasing wealth. and
II is the best indication of how rapid
~ the South's wealth is growing
Richard H. Edmonds, Editor Manu-
facturers' Record, in the New YORK
Sun.