The Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1???-1928, 1912-07-22
Urges Connected Highwa Us.


the building of roads by FURNISHING
stone TO the different communities
but this is entirely inadequate. Wha
is needed is direct financial sSis
lance on the main roads. The road
should be the ones over which tn,
farm produce must be hauled 4
reach a central market. They
should also connect the main traYe
roads of other counties. so as TO gF1'
continuous improved highways acres:
the state and joining the main roads
of other states, and would comprise
about 20. per cent of the total road
mileage of the state.
Townships are generally of the
same size and have on an average
about seventy-five miles OF county
roads. Under our present road laws
each town is Obliged TO build its own
roads regardless of its population or
taxible property, /. E., whether a
town has 200 inhabitants or 20,O0e,
whether it has 100000 of taXibla
property or 800, 600, goo, it has prac-
tically the same amount of roads TO
build, and for whom?
Law Unfair to Rural Township
IF the inhabitants of each town
II sed its own roads and no others,
then the present law might be con
sfdered just one; but such is not
the case. 1t must be remembered
that the inhabitants of the townships
having the larger assessed valuation
are without question larger users,
for both business and pleasure, OF the
roads in the adjoining townships
than are the residents of these same
townships themselves.
Again whenever the residents OF
these rural townships use their roads
it is generally for the purpose of haul
ing farm produce to the city which
It's people must have, or for carry
ing home with them such articles as
the city merchants have for sale,
and very often both in the same trip,
The fact is, that the townships in
which the cities are located are being
built up and supported in large de
gree by the trade and commerce OF
the rural townships
Recommends State and County Aid.
LAS has already been said, it is
an impossibility for the rural town
ships ITO assume unassisted the bur-
den of permanent road improvement,
and. in view of the above, it is mani
testify unfaff that they should be ex-
pected to do so, but if the state and
county will give them the necessary
assistance in building and maintain
ing the main roads, it will serve TO
arouse them to the advantages TO
be derived from good roads and give
them the courage to undertake the
raising of the necessary funds for
gradually improving the connecting
roads.
"The City Of Chicago, paying one
third of our state taxes, bears no
part of the tax burden of the county
roads. The State of Illinois is
Chicago's largest commercial feeder.
The citizens Of Chicago are the large
users of the county roads, and if by
reason of better roads the farmer is
able to make saving in delivering
his farm produce to the shipping
point, her citizens will surely get
their sharee of the benefits. Chica-
go can properly assist, the country
towns in this road Improvement only
through a state tax.
One Commissioner for Each Town
Under the present law the high
way comissioners receive 50 per day
for the time actually at work on the
roads. If they are farmers and
most of them are they cannot as-
ford to leave their seeding or their
harvesting or any other important
work, to look after the roads, And
if.some Of them would make the asc-