Lower coast gazette., 1909-04-10
SATURDAY APRIL lord, 1909.
Good Roads For Plaquemines Parish.

- h VIII roads wherever thew went. Some of the Roman roads ca
remain to this day, %evidencing the broad and COMPREHENSIVE m ,s"s oV
that the Romans had as to how to build up a country , ~ TO
Indian, on the other hand, built no roads, but preferred ue Ut
h,ffolo +roIs al the country, these animals having learned -
the hest routes over the country just as have also the migratory
birds. D
There is no parish in Louisiana where good roads, or reasona' R
ably good roads can be had as cheaply as IN fiaquennnsS pais"' k
and vet the complaint is now made that for miles and miles we t.
have practically no roads at all; that we are going backward per '
hans to the condition of the primitive indian who wanted no ,oaus n
If he had to build them. Good roads cost some money anu ~ e =
trouble in our parish is that in its ]utung o' '"o we ~ nas ~
docs. it forms a double peninsula and with our parish one hunoieo I
miles lonq we must have that much road on each slde OF the lve.'
or two hundred miles of road in all, two hundred miles OF pupne
road for IL, 900 people means a mile OF road Tor ever y" eop""
Now in our level country where we have no expensive Dr'oges
t, build, road building can be reduced TO Simplest : e IT, "" w
NAV in time have graded or Macadamized roads, out JUST 10 ~
first inst get some sort of roads and then improve them Is we .'
It doesn't seem any great hardship to ask sixty people I" " s""n.
one mile of road. Sixty people would furnish II men or ua y
and under existing law we collect from them o snouu sone .h y.
from each or s12 per mile. This is not enough. Apart no"' "A'
tax we should collect all the c%ontributory taxes for road purposes,
Int outside the per capita tax such collections would not amount
to much. No.
In some of the parishes, ST. Mary is one of them we peheVe'
T. hos heen found that when a road is once placeo i"
mood ordor + can he kept in order for SIS per mile per year. Inc
trouble with US is to get eur roads in good order Tor the nrst tme'
As we all know there should be a shallow ditch at the base OF tMe
~1evee. a rounded up road bed of 20 to Is feet next, ana III a
TRANSFORMATION ditch some three feet wilma proper II no' wv.
0nkQf All OW DI6CCS VIII lC1uAV NAV Va -.
All this could be done under $50 per mile and the NW miles "ouAa
require $4,000 to place them in order, some costing more n
some less. o.,a
We may remember that much Of this work IS ALREADY zone anu
the rest can he done gradually. We are endeavorng TO snow that
we can readily have good dirt roads but that we are not trying Ia
oornost n secure them. Last year it was proposed at one time not
ovon tn collect the per capita tax which yielded a few hundred o@-
lars could be made to yield 81, 400 if every good citizen would q
his hest to promote its collection, but we need taxation eqoal )"
COX nr mile front annually for road purposes and special appro-
pratons to put good roads where there are none now or where
the roads need practical reconstruction.
If a campaign of education be carried on, the friends OF gooo
roads would see to it that $1,000 should be realized from te per
canita tax. Now we need one and one-fourth mills for road WORK
~ the discretion of the Police Jury. This would give us $2oOW ao.
ditional fund for good roads and if the Police Jury would stano
firm and saw they can only help those who help themselves anu
that the appropriations out of this S. 500 can only go to the wares
in the proportion to the per capita taxes that the wards conect
strenuous efforts would develope all along the line to collect the
nor canita taxes. We should then have about $1,000 annually fl
the maintenance Of our 200 miles Of road, and we should gradually
oet them into good shape, just as has been done with the puoh'
levees. Travel throughout the parish would become easy, neagh
hors could more easily visit each other and everyone would d
benefited.
We hardly need here discuss the economic side OF the goo
roads question. It is now admitted everywhere that good ROAD
ane essential to modern life. In the country one break down some
times costs as much as would maintain a mile of road in goo
order. The damage done by bad roads is said by some OF gu
statisricians to cost the people Of the United States hve hundre
millions of dollars yearly. No wonder then that we are now a
r;v;nu at the conclusion that it is time to stop this Waste.
Our ~neighboring parish of St Bernard is setting an exampl
for all the parishes of the state Her people have LEVIED specl
toxes To nav for roads and the river front of that parish is pra
t;cally a shell road from the Jackson barracks to Poydras plant
t;on Her roads command the admiration OF everyone WI
travels on them. Can't we do equally well in our progressN
Plaquemines Parish?