Milford chronicle., 1909-07-02

| learned tllat 100 miles oil import
ant routes needed improvement
He figured that the cost of grave
roads would be $4,000 a mile
plainly a sum greater than the
county could be bonded for. Con
ditions, however. were ideal for
sand-clay construction and he
strongly urged IFS adoption. BY a
legal proviso the county could be
bonded for only 81 per centum OF
the assessed value Of the real and
| personal property The plan was
decided upon and an issue OF
! ISI43,ooo was voted. One hun
dred thousand dollars worth of the
bonds were quickly sold, being dis
| posed of in $50, 900 allotments.
The first allotment brought a
premium OF S625 and the second
one of SS25 Forty thousand dol
lars was at once spent for mules
and oad-building machinery and
work was Stated
With the sum remaining IFS
miles of the finest sand clay roads
in the South had been built within
two years from the date on the
bond issue; a generous sum was
still on hand eight gangs were at
work, and the people were SO pleas
ed that they stood ready to take up
the remaining issue of $4,000 and
spend it in the same way.
1t is the belief of the Director of
the Office of Public Roads that such
facts should be impressed upon the
people of all counties desirous Of
extending and improving their
highways before actual work is un-
der way. When that has been
done, he is warmly in favor of the
raising Of funds by issuing county
bonds with the restrictions which
the Virginia Highway Law impos-
Is, viz that all moneys SO raised
shall be spent under the watchtul
supervision Of a 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
improvement are lar-reaching and
while the individual
tax on each is So small that ii is
scarcely noticeable In reality
money through the sale
of road bonds is like buying house
a farm, or a business on the INSTALL !
meut plan The purchaser receives |
The object at once and derives the /
benefits from it while paying for it. |
AS the benefits derived from per |
ected highways cover long periods /
Of time, fairness and equity demand |
That the rising generation should |
bear a portion of the cost and that
The increased citizenship, always .
attracted TO the locality by a svs
em of good roads, should also aid |
IN paying for the added benefits
Besides that, there Is a financial
wisdom in floating county bonds
or road improvement. In many
asses those bonds sell at premium
md everybody interested gains a
1enelit. In some Southern States
,ood road. bonds have brought a
,rice so high that the premium has
wiped out two or three years in
crest on the principal. In Bradley
county, Tennessee, but a few years
go the supervisors voted a bond
5sue of 100000. Those bonds
,are interest at the rate of five per
ent. So enthusiastic were the cit
zens for road improvement, and SO
much confidence did they have in
he locality in which they lived
hat the premium was SEQ, 600 the
ash sales placing in the county
reasury $4,000.
It has been ascertained by the
hice OF Public Roads, the Bureau
the Federal Census, and the land
nd industrial divisions of twelve
reat railroads, that the building
f modern highways Immediately
nhances the value of the property
trough which they run to a mark
1 extent. This increase is esG-
Idted by the most conservative at
? an acre, and by the more enthu
astic at So. All concede, how
7er, that the increase is immediate
nd inevitable Place the acreage
the rural portion of a county,
Ieretore, at 200, 600 acres and the
creased valuation due to the con
ruction of better highways at but
i. so an acre, and it will be seen
at the property holders whose
nd is to be thus benefited would
lin not less than 5000 600. SO
eat an increase in the assessed
I1uatiou of a county wot1ld GER