The Donaldsonville chief., 1913-01-04
DoNALDsoNVILLE La, SATURDAY, JANUARY l. 1918
Set ~ %1on1 &G1re31 dee page
GRAVEL ROAD SUGGESTED.

|
Movement for an improved Thorough
| fare to Connect Port Allen and
DonaIdsonville.
From the P1aquemine Daily Cham
| pion of December 81 we copy the fol
lowing timely article from the pen
of Hon. Chas. E. Schwing, one Of the
representatives of IberVille parish in
the lower house of the general as
sembly, and we commend it's sugges-
tions to the police jury and people of
Ascension as well deserving of their
attention and approbation:
At no other time can our people
really appreciate the great value of
our gravel roads more than now.
Right in the midst of a bad spell Of
weather, continuing over a period of
several weeks, all the roadWays lead
ing out of Plaquemine are being tra-
yersed as in dry weather. A year
ago scarcely anyone would undertake
to come to Plaquemine from seven
or eight miles down Bayou Plaque
mine. Today, since this stretch has
been graveled,, travel over it is con-
stant. And the more the people see
and realize the great value and bene-
fits of such roads, the more deter
mined do they become to have them,
because, in building such roads as
these, they are not spending their
money idly, but are making an invest
ment that has proven beneficial to
n11 Sr,fo Il - u1I nj r11rs
have access to them.
Today it would be impossible to
get to Port Allen over the roads, SO
bad is their condition. Communica-
ton, therefore, is shut off to a great
extent. But it is not altogether un-
certain that another year will see
change, for the members of the po-
lice jury there, like those Of Ascen-
sion, are looking carefully into the
matter and will, it appears, take soms
early action that will place these two
splendid parishes to the forefront
among those that have already ac-
complished something worth while
along this line. It is reported that
the Ascension police jury, backed
up by a healthy public sentiment
cIAns@tlC4 DNCp1GZ yWhO1G#1CSOGA11LI
the benefits OF good, permanent
Toads--WHl take up this matter at its
IN ;rN
IA ii inv itatian come IDeTVilae
from the police Jury Of Ascension to
meet with kour good ne1ghbors to- the
south of us and discuss orr method.
plans, and cost of road building at
that time, and it would be a nice
thing if a number of our people
should go along just to- show that
we feel a keen interest, though not
a meddlesome one, in their affairs
as well as our own. To do SO would
be to manifest the proper public splr-
it. To enlist in this matter of giving
whatever of information we might
possess as to what we have done
to our neighbors and 10 this section
of the state, and every good citizen
must be willing to do his share. The
selfish politician who never budges
an inch unless he sees where he
comes in, who never assists in a
movement for the public good unless
he is directly concerned, is not the
right kind of a man. Sacrifices are
oftentimes necessary to promote the.
general wellbeing, and it-ought to
be a source of deep satisfaction to
our people to see men such as we
have on our police Jury standing out
for progressive ideas and putting
those ideas into practical operation.
No work that has been done in this.
parish means more for Its future up
building than the construction of our
gravel roads, and the extension of
this work should go on as rapidly as
possible. If we don't watch out our
neighbors, seeing and realizing the
great benefits to be derived from
having such roads, will not only catck
up with us, but will oVertake us, Al
ready it is understood that some of
our friends in Ascension are hoping
for the construction of fifty miles of
such roads in that parish, and surely
We must keep up the pace now that
we have set the example, partic ularr
ly since the example is SO good and
generally acknowledged to be well
worth emulating,
Let us all pull down the same road
in 1913 and let the slogan be Gravel
Road from Port Allen to Donaldson-
vile by 1914.
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