Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1909-09-17

average would likely be better than
this, but that estimate will do for a
comparison. Then the same mules,
wagon, harness and driver have accom-
plished twice as much in the same time
as with the mud road. When the days
work was done the team would be in
better condition, the wagon not broken,
the harness whole and the man less
tired and in much better humor.
The means for creating sentiment that
insures better roads is education. Men
will favor the tax if they can be shown
that it will bring results. Convince him
that an expenditure of ten dollars in
the way of taxes will save three times
that amount in the ways already emu
merated, and you have made of him a
road improvement enthusiast. Educa-
ton in this case does not mean that he
must go to a school and digest text
books, but that he must be shown to his
satisfaction that dollar expended wise
" in road building will save him more
than that amount. He may be given
this education and at the same time not
! know how to find the greatest common
divisOr.
Experience is an effective means OF
teaching, and if it were possible for the
people to Use good roads for a period
there would be no trouble whatever in
securing the money necessary for con-
struction and maintenance. If each SUI
pervisor in Mississippi could make use
of the roads in Colbert county, Ala, for
time, few if any would oppose the
proposition to build roads in their coun-
ties. On the other hand, if the people
could spend month or so in Madison
county, Tenn, and drive over the roads
around Jackson, there would not be a
corporal's guard to oppose movement
by their supervisors to build similar
roads in Mississippi. 1t is not contended
that all would be convinced, but that a
great majority would.
A resolution passed by the Mississippi
Supervisors Association in their meeting
last fall. memoralizing the Legislature
to appropriate sum of money to be
duplicated by the various counties, and
for the purpose of building a stretch of
model road III each county taking ad-
vantage of the opportunity, was for the
purpose of providing just such an object
lesson. The man who never knew any
thing better than mud roads could not
appreciate the value of good roads. If
in using the road he drove five miles
through the mud and slush and then
came to a few miles of good road, its
value would be impressed upon him to
an extent that could never be attained
by writer's or speakers. Experience is
the best school, although some of the
instruction thus secured may be paid for
dearly.
This movement by the supervisors has
been endorsed by a number of other
organizations that are interested in i'm
proving the condition of our roads. 1t
will 90 to the lawmakers with strong
endorsement from several influential or
CARNATIONS.
The Mississippi Department of Agri-
culture has devoted considerable time
and attention to the subject, and has
used every means at its command to
/ give publicity to the question, sending
broadcast the result of efforts in a num-
Der of counties that are trying improved
methods for road building. In conjunc-
ton with the State Fair, demonstrations
of road building machinery are made
each year. so that not only the super
visors attending the association may see
+! What is offered. but that the thousands