The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1912-03-15
Proposed Amendments to Wells Road
Law
Mr.. EEITOR.

Mr.. EEITOR:
shall appreciate If you shall give
space in the next issue of your paper to
the following expression of my views
on the amendments to the Wells Road
Law of our County. introduced in the
House of Delegates last week by my
Democratic colleague, Ogle Marbury,
ESQ. These amendments were care
fu ~ prepared by Mr.. Marbury aud my
self and, when understood, will. | be-
lieve, commend themselves to the maj
GRITTY of the citizens and tax payers of
the county, regardless of party or fac
tional ffiliations or Sympathies.
In the first place, | desire to state
that during the campaign last fall [ was
questioned by number of our fellow
citizens belonging to the several parties
or factions, as to my position with re-
gard to the possible repeal of our pres
ent road law (the Wells road law and
my uniform reply to such queries was
that would be opposed to such repeal;
that I was in favor of giving the law a
fair working trial, and that furthermore
[ was firmly opposed to returning to
the system or plan of road construction
and supervision that prevailed before
the passage of the Vel law in 1910.
Regarded, and still regard. the Wells
law as an Improvement over the law
existing before its passage However,
did state, unequivocally. that would
be in favor or any amendment or
amendments to the Wells law thai
would still further perfect it, believing
that it could be amended so as to i'm
prove our system of permanent road
construction and remove some of the
criticism directed at the law in its pres
ent form.
The chief criticism seems to have
been that under the operation of the
Wells road law during the past two
years. while excellent work has been
done in Certain ele districts of the
several road districts; in certain other
election districts practically no work
has been done. AS remedy for this
condition we have first created fifth
road district, unde rstanding that the
County already owns sufficient road
machinery and animals to fully equip
an additional district without further
expense; and secondly, We have pro-
vided that the money to be expended
on actual road construction shall be
divided among the several election dis
tricts of the County 10 proportion to
the county road mileage of the said
districts. This will insure to each dis
trict permanent road improvement and
construction with the road machinery
in the possession of the county, and
will result in the district having large
amount of road mileage obtaining pro-
portionate amount of money This
system of distribution is the same as
that adopted among the several coun-
ties of the State in the construction Of
| state roads and is, manifestly, the most
fair and equitable distribution of the
road money. Should the money be
distributed among the election districts
according to the taxable assessment of
each district it would result in a thick
ly settled and more wealthy district
with small road mileage obtaining a
large proportion of the county road
fund, while a larger but more sparsely
settled district with correspondingly
| Increased mileage of roads, needing
much work, would receive a smaller
| proportion of the fund.
| Bearing in mind, therefore, that the
people in each district. while more dir
ectly interested in the roads of their
Immediate vicinity or district, are, new
ertheless. compelled to use the roads OF
other districts, and that the crunty as
a whole is concerned in securing good
roads throughout the county, the road
mileage basis of distribution seems, and
to my mind. unquestionably is, the
the most equitable method.
Another criticism of the present law
has been that the constant employment
of county road engineer, at salary
that enables the County to secure 8
competent engineer, is an unnecessary
expense. Unless We can have com
petent engineer, such as our presen
one, it would DO poor economy; but i
the services of an engineer be only re
} quired at certain times or in certain
EMERGENCIES, then it would seem tina
, proper economy would require that w
. abolish the Office of County Enginee
and provide that the Boar havin!
supervision of road construction b.
. empowered to employ an engineer
whenever necessary This we have dom
in the proposed amendments.
A further economy has been secured
by reducing the salary of the roa'
managers for each road district from
. $40 per annum, under the present law
to $500 per annum. When it is recall
cd tQat tncSe TOdu ududSeis arc uudpl
to work during a part Of the white
months it will be seen that the $50
/ per annum actually amounts to NOR
than $50 a month for the time the
actually work Taking into consider
alton the creation of an additional, O
| fifth, road district, the saving annual
in salaries of the five present roa
, managers over five road directors undo