The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-05-25
LADIES PROPOol MEMORIAL HIGHWAY Good Roads Congress In-
 dorses Plan PRESIDES s. N. MacCallie Tells How Georgia Works Convicts on Roads-Dr.
 Eaves, JesseTaylor and
 Others Speak

The third session of the Fourth Ma
 tional Good Roads congress was con-
 vened at the Jefferson theatre yesterday
 morning at 10 o'clock with the gather
 ing somewhat increased over the previous
 day. The meeting indorsed proposal
 on the part of the Daughters or the
 American Revolution, made through Mrs. A. O. Lane for the building of Jack
 son Memorial Highway"
 The route of the highway lies from the
 old home of Andrew Jackson in Tennes-
 see on down through Huntsville, Bir-
 mingham, Tuscaloosa, Mobile and thence
 on to New Orleans. Obviously this na-
 tional thoroughfare is intended to con | meet with the Davis-Lincoln Memorial
 highway in Kentucky and thence with
 a public highway to be extended to Chi
 cago. The support of the congress was
 unanimously pledged the ladies Tn the
 building of memorial highways and they
 were granted the privilege of naming all
 of such roads that may ever be built.
 The third meeting of the congress was called to order promptly at 10 o'clock by President Arthur c. Jackson, who asked that the Rev George Eaves open the session with invocation.
 Following the invocation Dr. Eaves made few remarks with reference to the effect that the building of good roads | would have$ on the church as well as on the state. Tt is the will of the Lord, he said, that the child born in the hills should have the same opportunity with the child born in the city. You are building today for future generations" The talk of Dr. Eaves was followed by an instructive and well delivered ad- dress on "Convicts on Roads in Geor- gia.n by s. W. MacCallie, state geolo- gist of Georgia. He said:
 Georgia Convict System
 "The commencement of the use of con- victs in the improvement of the public roads of Georgia may be said to have had it's beginning in an act often referred to as the New Road Law passed by the legislature in 1891. The act here re- ferred to authorized the commissioners of roads and revenue of each county, upon the recommendation of the grand jury. to fix and levy a special road tax z also to exact of each male inhabitant communication tax not to exceed 50 cents per day for the number of days that work was required. Furthermore, this law authorized the road authorities to organize chain gangs of misdemeanor convicts or to hire free labor for the lm- provement and mainteance of the public l highways, the expenses being met by the special road and communication taxes. Briefly stated, the law governing the distribution of convicts to the sev- eral counties of the state is as Follows: On or before the tenth day of February of each year, the prison commission communicates with the county author ities of the state and ascertains those counties desiring to use conyicts and the number of the same The propor- fion of conyicts which each county IS entitled to is prorated in accofdance with the population of the counties Should any county desire 10 Work more than Its proportion of conVicts upon it's roads, the county authorlues make a acquisition upon the prison commission for the number wanted in excess of their proportion, which ev- cess will be furnished by the prison commission provided that all conyicts are not disposed of, in which case the prison commission Is authorized to nlace convicts in counties desiring to use them in excess of their quota, on the condition that the county so &C., credited with an excess of convicts shall pay back in convicts the county from which the convicts were received whenever the said county desires to use convicts in working its roads.
 Ohio Roads
 Jesse Taylor, secretary of the Ohio Good Roads federation, who was ap- pointed by Governor Judson Harmon to represent that state at the congress, followed Dr. MacCallie with an enthu- siastic address on "The Roads Sys- tems of the State of Ohio"
 "It is absolutely wrong," he said, ito assess the property holders for the roads to be built along their land when the general commonwealth profits by the construction of public highways" He stated that the state of Ohio within the last 10 years had appropriated through the state legislature more than S4,000, 900 for the building of good roads He said, however, that the building of good roads would prove futile in the end unless to the road building fund there was made an ad- dition of a road maintenance fund. He maintained that the nation has been spending hundreds of millions of dollars building locks and dams on rivers that were already navigable and | on streams that could not be made navigable He held further that Con- gress had spent millions on roads in | the Philippines and in Porto Rico to | beautifuy and make picturesque the l landscapes, and that in Alaska the building of roads had been carried on | to help the mine owners in getting | out their gold.
 "Then if if is right that these roads should be built" he said, 'it is time l for the people to demand that these l Appropriations be withdrawn from 1 those places and directed to the ad-