The Marietta journal and courier. (Marietta, Ga.) 1909-1918, 1912-10-04

~ much uisCuSSioH mas DeSn QaQ
throughout Cobb County recently upon
the road question, and so many OBJ
jections have been raised to the ap-
parentIy slow way of building up the
roads, that ] have given the matter
some thought, and altogether the
question may be somewhat unpopular
among some of our people, / have
concluded to open the discussion with
some suggestions in the matter, and
to ask those interested to advance
their ideas SO that, If possible, all of
us may come together on some gen.
eral plan. whereby We may get what
we want in the cheapest and quick
est way.
think / may take it for granted
that every farmer, and every other
party who uses the public highways
to any extent. will agree that good
system of road ways is beneficial to
all the people Of the County land es-
pecially to the farmers) because it
brings the Country people into closer
relation with their customers in the
towns; tends toward bringing the
country people into closer communi-
cation with each other, thereby bring
ing about social and moral advance
ment; places the farmer where he can
deliver his products at a much less
freight rate than the farmers of Cobb
County are now paying; reduce the
wear and tear of his vehicles in trans
portation, as well as saves his stock;
in other words, it brings the farmer
closer to the merchant, and the mer-
chant closer to the farmer.
The experience of other Counties il
that good system of roadways is al
ways followed by better churches,
schools, societies, and homes; that
education and advancement morally
and socially follows right along; tina.
wherever good roadways are built,
the farmers take greater pride in
identifying their homes and building
up their farms, and real estate values
enhance and taxable values neces-
sarily and naturally increase.
1t seems to me that although the
County Commission is doing all it
can to get our public roads in good
condition, and are doing splendid work
and a great deal of 1t, yet for a
County the size OF Cobb which has
something like $50 miles OF public
roads, any one ought to be able to see
that 1t is matter of impossloility for
a convict system with only rs or 80
convicts to do the work, or should be
able to do all of this work at once, and
do the necessary grading like the peo-
pie demand
1t also seems to me that it is unfair
to the present generation that we
; should go down in our pockets by di
rect taxation and get up enough
money to grade our roads and put
them in good and passable condition,
when a part of this burden fairly and
justly belongs to those following after
us who are going to reap the same
benefits from II as we shall reap. |
think they ought to pay their part and
that they could well afford to pay q
part, for their lands will be worth
more than ours are now There Is
only one way to make the comins
generation pay their part of this ex.
pense and that is by an issue of bonds.
There rs scarcely a railroad built
in these days but what is built by
money secured by bond issue. A
railroad Company would not think OF
running their rails up and down the
hills like We farmers travel with our
wagons up and down the hills to the
market. They either go around the
hill or cut it down, and put it on g
fairly good grade so that they can pull
load
At the present time, although the
Powder Springs road and other graded
roads are not graded nor widened as
well as they should be, yet by having
had the work done upon them, and
and some of the hills cut down, it has
enabled the farmer to deliver from
con to one and one-half cords of wood
to town at ne load, where before, he
he could not haul over three-fourths
OF cord; in other words, it has about
cut his freight rate or freight expense
half in two He can double his loads
either to or from Marietta, and as
most frmers do large amount of
hauling in the course of year, Il
saves them a lot of money.
There are people in Cobb County
these hills, and who are wearing them
out and accomplishing little, So |
say that in my opinion, it would
pay us we'll to improve our roads.
How should we do it? We should
have a bond issue of not les than
100000. l do not think that we
would be extravagant or unwise ii
we made IL $500 000