The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-09-29
ALL SHOULD SHARE IN ROAD EXPENSE Benefit City Man as Well as
 Farmer A UNIQUE COMPLAINT City Man Protests Against Bearing His PrOpOrtionate Share of the
 Cost of Issuing Bonds
 for Roads
A UNIQUE COMPLAINT
BY WALTER HARPER


 Washington, September &-(Speeiai)- The office of public roads of the United States recently received a letter from citizen of a southern state in which com plaint was made that county bond issues for road building purposes levies unequal burdens on taxpayers. .-
 The letter complained that people in in corporated towns should not be taxed to build roads in the country and that the building of main thoroughfares in the country could not be made to touch all the property that would be taxed. Com plaint is also made that the issue of bonds places a tax on future genera tions.
 These are complaints that are heard in every community where attempt is made to issue bonds for such purposes.
 One of the officials of the office of public roads made reply to this letter He consumed about 40 pages of typewrit- ten paper. It is one of the meatiest doc uments of the kind l have ever seen, but it has not been made public. On account of it's personal nature it may never be given to the public in it's present form, though the main facts and statements may some day be issued for the benefit of the public.
 I have the official carbon copy of this letter before me and have permission to copy some of the statements without giving names.
 Here is what the official writes on tho subject of taxation:
 Because improved roads benefit all in- terests in the county, all interests should help to pay their cost. A county bond issue levies the cost upon the towns as well as the farms, and thus relieves the farmer of part of the burden which he now bears under the old district road tax system. A bond issue is not an unjust burden on posterity, because through the increase in the value of land, the develop ment of agricultural resources-and con sequently the general prosperity-poster- ity is benefited; therefore the son who inherits the wealth thus produced by the preceding generation should certainly help to pay the cost of the factors which are instrumental in bringing about this prosperity.
 You state that it would not be just or equitable for the county to vote bonds on which the entire population would have to pay interest, while only few of the localities would receive the benefits. You might just as equitably claim that the national government should not improve the harbors of Boston and New York and New Orleans because some of the people in the United States live elsewhere. You might just as well say that the people of the county should not be taxed to build the county courthouse because all of the people do not engage in litigation; or that the only residents of cities who should be taxed for a fire department are those whose houses catch on fire. of the bond issue were sufficient to inn | prove the main roads of the county, he people who live on those roads would pay approximately much larger percen tage of the tax, because their property would increase in value to a far greater degree than the property of the people who live remote from the improved roads and thus the burden would be automati- cally adjusted. The people who live a few miles from the main roads could
 
 pay less proportion of the tax because their property would increase in corres- pondngly lower degree.
 'It Is impossible to devise any system which may be considered absolutely per feet, but the greatest good to the great est number is a safe plan of procedure to follow. Further, as only the heavy traffic roads would be improved they would necessarily serve the most thiclSly populated parts of the county and reach the majority of the people The indirect benefits to the incorporated towns with in the county are such through increased agricultural production and increased traffic that it is certainly equitable for the business interests of those towns 10 help pay for the bond issues. The rail- roads would correspondingly increase their traffic, and they should also be willing to pay their share of the increased tax.
 ''The increase in farm values as the re- suit of road improvement is so great that the tax rate is frequently lower than be- fore the issuance of bonds. I
 Further on the letter explains that the saving In wear and tear. of vehicles and the increased loads that may be carried more than makes up the increase in tax assessment.
 Here is another significant parag graph in the letter: France has spent about $6l3OOo,OOo in building its road sytem, and is spending sS0,000,c00 a year in the main tenance of the roads. England, with only about 150,00o miles of road, Is spending about GOO a year. The French peas ants last year purchased $20,000,000 worth of the New York Central and Hudson River railroad bonds, which could not be placed in this country. It is a well known fact that the French nation is the credi- GOT nation of the world
 R. G. Dunn & Co. of New York in a ! Iecent review of the condition of trade, said that the stringency in the money market here and at some other points bs more largely due to slow collections, which seem to be due to severe weather and impossible roads, rather than to any | men had been shipping potatoes all the