The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-07-26

1 ton recognizing that the much neg
 lected roads of the state should be im-
 proved by business methods, as the
 present system that is now in vogue
 is wasteful. For the large sum of
 money expended and statute lab or
 called out by the counties of Alabama
 is about $2,000000 annually, and for
 that vast sum of money and labor not
 one mile of finished road is constructed.
 However a few counties in the state
 are issuing bonds and with a very few exceptions of those counties there are
 no good hard roads.
 l The cotton crop of 1906 and 1907 was
 about 1,250, 900 bales. In order to mova
 this crop so that the farmers could get ] their cotton to the markets, the aver i age haul is eight miles. It costs the 1 farmers 25 cents a ton a mile to haul ] their cotton over the bad roads of Ala
 rama, but if the roads were made gooG
 that could be reduced to 10 cents
 ton mile. This shows absolute ] loss of S4 cents on each bale of cot 1 ton, grand total of $425,000 being tn
 absolute loss that went in the bad
 roads and for one years crop, the 1 farmer, or the people of Alabama could
 never get back. Had we good roads
 that s425, 900 would have been in the 1 farmers, pockets instead of being stucF in the mud.
 Another example to move a product
 of the farms of Alabama. The farmer
 has about 500O00 tons of cotton see
 to sell and in order to get his cotton
 seed to the oil mills, steam boat land | ings or railroad stations it has to be hauled over our bad roads and the average haul from the farms is abouz | 10 miles. It costs per ton a mile over
 our bad roads 20 cent, for 10 miles
 which is $2.50. If we had good roa it would only be 10 cents ton a mile-.- ! $1 for the 10 mile This shows loss l of $1.50 per ton on 500,00 tons a1d
 shows loss of s750000
 Let us take another item of product
 that the farmers are required to have l to raise their crops. I believe it is esti-
 mated that about 300, 900 tons of commer- l cial fertilizer or more are used year | to raise the average crop in Alabama. l Take this item to haul the fertilizer from ! the merchants, railroad stations or steam 1 boat landings, the average haul of ten miles costs 25 cents d ton mile to haul over the bad roads. If the roads were
 made good the cost would be reduced to
 10 cents ton a mile, an absolute loss of $1.50 a ton on every ton of fertilizer
 that Is hauled over the bad roads of
 Alabama. This shows an absolute loss
 to the farmers of $425000.
 Let us add up these four items: Take first, $2,000000 that the various counties, the county commissioners courts are ex- pending in their road construction and
 maintenance because the average county
 commissioners courts road supervisors and overseers are unskiled in road build ing and maintenance. Building roads and bridges requires trained and experienced men.
 The second item; The cost to haul the crop of 1906 and 1907 was 1,250,0OO bales of cotton, the loss is s425,0O0
 The third item: The loss on the 800 900 tons of cotton seed is s75O,OO0.
 The fourth item: The cost and loss of transporting So0OOO tons of fertilizer is s45O0OO.
 These four items alone show an abso- lute and direct loss to the people of Ala bama of $2,625000 annually. This is only a portion of the loss that Is charged to bad roads.
 The Alabama Good Roads association held a meeting in Birmingham, Ala De- cember 20, 1906, prepared bill to pro- vide for state highway commission The opJect was to create a highway commits slon and have state aid, so that the construction and maintaining of roads could be done by practical business meth ods that this dreadful loss that is the heaviest subject of taxation that the peo pie of Alabama have to bear should be stopped.
 The Alabama Good Roads association appointed committee to present the bill to the legislature and appear before the proper committee to advocate it's adop- ton.
 Senator John W. Overton presented the bill in the senate of Alabama and said bill was referred to the committee of the senate. Commerce and common car riers good roads committee appeared be- fore the committee of commerce and com mon carriers at the adjourned session of the legislature and advocated the adop- tion of the bill to create highway com- mission whereby roads would be built along practical business methods, and with trained and efficient supervision.
 The object was to stop the dreadful waste of money. Hon. John A. Lusk and the majority of his committee and the governor opposed the bill for the highway commission and state aid, giving the reason 1t was in violation to the con stitution of the state of Alabama to ap- propriate any money or loan its credit for internal improvements. ]
 Then the committee of the Alabama Good Roads association ad Senator John w. Overton to introduce bill to amend the constitution whereby the legislature, if they wished. could create a highway | commission should the constitution be l amended The benefits in having a h.gh- | way commission is the best kind of sex- | pert advice, skilled supervision economic. | practical methods will be the result in | establishing a commission for state su- | pervision, whereby material, trained road ! engineers will be In charge, and each | county will gets its part of the money | and advice, should we erer have state aid and a highway commission. The | judges of probate, county commissioners will have the benefit of trained advice. |
 The object is not to create an army 1 of officeholders. I have no doubt that three patriotic men can be found in Ala bama that will give their est service to | the state just like the colleges and other institutions are supervised by true pa1 triotic men without pay.
 The enormous burden that the people nave to sustain due to the unbusiness- llhe methods of the present law, as H. | ustrated by the four items. is a greater i lak than the entire amount of tax that IS pelng paid into the state by the peonIe pr Alabama to run the government.
 1nis can be relieved by the amend ment to the constitution, and as a tax payer and the man who loves his | state, not seeking a. state office don't | want any, deny the aspersion that I | 'm adVocating the amendment to the | for the purpose of creating | O1ncers- Nor do I wish to deny or de- | prlVe any old soldier or his widow of i a"S pehsloh' or take anything from | me conlihon schools. My record in tho lesislature Will show that I advocated hperal pension and a liberal appro-