The Brownsville daily herald. [volume] (Brownsville, Tex.) 1897-1910, 1909-06-21

in building roads which local condi-
lions made impracticable and out OF
all cost proportion to the countrys
revenue.
There are exceptions to all rules,
however, and Pike county, Alabama,
stands as a glittering exception to the
usual construction blunder. There the
county officials had planned to expend
a large sum in the building of gravel
roads.
w. L. Spoon, United States SUI
nerintendent of road construction, |
being sent to make an inspection OF |
the county's road possibilities, /
learned that 700 miles of important |
routes needed improvement. He hg-
ured that the cost of gravel roads |
would be $4,000 a mile-plainly a
sum greater than the county could De !
bonded for. Conditions, however
were ideal for sand-clay construction
and he strongly urged its adoption: /
Bv a legal proviso the county could /
be bonded for only u per centum
of the assessed value of the real and /
personal property The plan was de-
cided upon and an issue of $4,000 |
was voted. One hundred thousand
dollars worth of bonds were quickly
sold being disposed of in $4,000 al
lotments.
The first allotment brought prem
INN of 1928 and the second one of
SS25. Forty thousand dollars was
at once spent for mules and road
building machinery and work was
started.
With the sum remaining, lis miles
of the finest sand-clay roads in the
South had been built within two
wears from the date of the bond issue;
/ a generous sum was still on hand;
eight gangs were at work and the
people were so pleased that they
stood ready to take UP the remaining
issue of $43, 900 and expend it in the
same way
It is the belief of the director of
the Office of public roads that such
facts should be impressed upon the
DeoDle of all counties DESTROYS of eX-
tending and improving their high
ways before actual work IS under
way. When that has been done, he is
warmly in favor of raising of funds
by issuing county bonds with the
restrictions which Virginia highway
/ law imposes, viz: that all moneys so
raised shall be spent under the watch
full supervision of state highway
commissioner, because otherwise the
money may be wasted.
MANY farmers fear a bond issue as
they do the visit of the chinch bug
or the Kansas grasshopper, but the
benefits they derive from that method
of raising money for road improve
lment are far-reaching and immediate,
while the individual tax On each IS
so small that it is scarcely noticeable.
In reality, borrowing money through
1.-The sale of road bonds is like buying
a house. a farm or a business on the
linstallment plan. The purchaser re-
lceives the object at once and derives
the benefits from it while paying for
it. AS the benefits derived from per-
fected highways cover long periods OF
time. fairness and equity demand that
the rising generation should bear
norton of the cost and that the in
creased citizenship, always attracted
to the locality by a system of good
roads, should also aid in paying for
the added benefits.
, Besides that, there is a financial
} wisdom in floating county bonds for
: road Improvement. In many cases
: those bonds sell at a premium, and
5 everybody interested gains profit.
In some southern states good road
= bonds have brought a price so high
5 that the premium has wiped out two
2 or three years interest on the prln-
= cipal In Bradley county, Tennessee,
2 but a few years ago the supervisors
: voted a bond issue of $50, 600. Those
bonds bore interest at the rate of five
per cent. So enthusiastic were the
= citizens for road improvement, and
Y so much confidence did they have in
i the locality in which they lived, that
B, the premium was $4,000: the cash
t sales placing in the county treasury
$4,000.
: 1t has been ascertained by the
Office of public roads, the bureau OF
. the federal census, and the land and
industrial divisions of twelve great
: railroads, that the building of mod
; ern highways Immediately enhances
. the value of the property through
which they run to marked extent
;, This increase is estimated by the
Il most conservative at 50 an acre, and
. by the more enthusiastic at 50. AL
j.. concede. however, that the increase
: is immediate and inevitable. Place
:. the acreage of the rural portion of {
u county, Therefore, at 100000 acres anC
: the increased valuation due to the
= construction of better highways a
= but $3.50 an acre, and it will be seer
that the property holders whose lanC
( is to be thus benefited would gain no