St. Landry clarion. (Opelousas, La.) 1890-1921, 1913-05-24
Against Good Roads.

Sunset, La. May 18th, 1913.
MI. Editor:
With your permission | would
like to say a word to the tax
PAYERS of the parish on the sub
ject of the proposed road tax and
bond issue.
To begin with: | have served
the people of the parish, as well
as my ward, conscientiously and
faithfully, for the past nine
years, and would not, at this late
lday. have them to misunder-
stand my position on any ques-
ton, especially on a proposition
that is as serious as this one.
Right here | want to say that |
am earnestly and seriously OPP
posed to the tax proposition and
bond issue.
To begin with: we have 700
or 300 miles of public roads in
the parish, and they are all i'm
portant and have to be worked
and bridged. Now it doesn't
take much of a mathematician
to see that after you figure out
the interest on a forty year bond
issue, a large per cent of your
money is lost. Then, when you
go to work to put down sand and
gravel 1.-THE cheapest materially
and not very thick. as we want
it to GO as far as possible, and as
this work is always costly, and
more so to beginners; and after
you figure out a lot of salaries,
I am confident that it will not
90 near as far as the most en-
thusiastic advocate of the scheme
believes.
Well, in two or three years you
will have spent your money
then what? | will answer that
you will have to go to work fill
ing ruts and holes on the roads
you have spent this money on,
and the balance of roads requir-
ing more and more work each
year on account of the increased
traction. Where is the money
looming from? I guess you
would have to vote more taxes.
But you have saddled a tax on
yourself for the balance of your
life, and a part of your child
ren's life, and not much to show
for it. Our children would be
blaming us and wanting to know
where the money was spent,
anyway, as the sand and gravel
would have long since been sunk
and buried in the ground. But
they would still be paying the
tax!
I will say here that the only
money we would have to work
roads and keep bridges would be
what we could spare annually
from parish taxes, and I am in
a position to know that we could
not spare enough to do much, if
any more, than buy lumber and
keep up bridges-do no road
work nor drainage.
Now, reader, / have not
painted this picture too dark.
4 could make it darker, and be
nearer the truth. Oh, yes, I
am in favor of good roads-that
is why | am writing this. The
difference between me and the
other fellow is that | work at it
all the time, and he does all the
talking.
Now, dear reader, / never op-
pose any proposition unless I am
ready to offer something that is
better. If the people are not
satisfied with our present road
ordinance or road tax land it
does not seem entirely satisfac-
tory), let the members of each
police jury ward get together,
take the assessment of their
ward and figure out the needs or
wants of their people; let it be
2, 3 or A mills, and call an cleo
ton by wards, and if they vote
it they know it will be spent in
their W~ard-without any bicker-
ing, Wrangling or strife. as
there would be under the other
plan.
In conclusion / would like to
say a word in defence of what
has been done in the past eight
years. When we began we had
there were compare
few bridges, and they
were old and in bad shape: and
very little drainage, and no ma
chine work had been done.
These roads have been graded
. number of times; hills and
torn away: roads widened
and drains widened and made
deeper, and a great number of
canals and bitches dug, where
there was no drain-and the
nilage nearly doubled, and good
bridges built on that. All of
his, and more that I could men
ion, has been done, with six
years of the heaviest rain fall in
he history of the state: