The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-06-22
Judge Kelton Thinks Injus-
tice Was Done by Refer
ences of Highway En-
gireer's Scout Party
SAYS STATE SHOULD
WORK CONVICTS IN
VARIOUS COUNTIES
Though Not Rich County BlOunt Is
Spending $780, 900 on Highways
and Has Already Achieved
Some Fine Results
By ELLIS c. HOLLUMs

Judge John f. Kelton of Blount
county was in Birminham yesterday
and issued a statement in which he ad-
vocated the placing of state oonyicts
on the public roads and talked inter
estingly of road conditions in Blount
county.
Judge Kelton is the probate judge of
Blount county and is also chairman OF
the commission which has charge of all
road work in that county He is a
member of the executive committee of
the Alabama State Goodroads associa-
tion and is a member of the executive
committee of the organization which is
working to have the convicts removed
from the mines. Judge Kelton is an
enthusiastic promoter of good roads,
county, state and national.
Convicts in States Charge
He looks for the upbuilding of roads
in season and out of season and be-
lieves that the state should have charge
--t5f all the convicts and have them go
from one county to another, building
good roads He says that in his opin-
ion the state should receive applica-
tions from counties for as many con-
victs as the county could maintain long
enough to construct good roads in their
county, and after the roads have been
constructed the prisoners could go on TO
the next county.
Hard Task for Small Counties
"The one thing that is holding back
many people who would otherwise be
unreservedly in favor of working the
convicts on the public roads is the fact
that some of the smaller counties try
1t and fall" said Judge Kelton. 1T
is agreed by all that we need good
roads. From an economical standpoint.
there is no contention. That question
has been settled in the minds of the
people of, the state. We also have
skilled engineers with sufficient techni-
cal knowledge as well as practical road
builders throughout the state who are
= ready to do the work. But the one
great problem left unsolved is the ques-
tion of how best to proceed to raise
money with which to build these roads,
The placing of the state convicts on
the roads would, in my judgment, go
long way toward meeting this want
The tax rate of Blount county is s1.5o.
OF this amount the state gets 90 cents.
schools 10 cents, bridges 10 cents, roads
5 cents and so cents goes for general
purposes. Judge Kelton in speaking of
Blount county roads compared with
those of other counties in the state said !:
IN contrasting ROAD CONSTRUCTION In
the smaller counties, like Blount. with
that of Jefferson. Montgomery and
other wealthy counties, 1t would be
we'll for us to remember that the tax
values in a county furnish the basis
for road building and that Blount coun-
ty has only s4,250.000 on its tax books,
while jefferson has $125,000,o00 1t is
true that Jefferson county has about
1000 miles of roads and Blount about
1000 miles. Yet, it may be seen at a
glance that where Jefferson has $50 to
spend, the county of Blount has only 81.
In other words. jefferson county is at
least 20 times more able to construct
q mile of road than Blount.
Hardly Just to BlOunt
'"rhe reference that was made in last
Sundays Age-Herald to the Blount
county roads was true of the roads
Engineer w. S. Keller and his party
travelled over, but it not a fair
representation of road conditions in
the county. We have a number of
!. miles of as good roads as will be found
in any county in Alabama and are con-
tinuing to build the state road west
ward across the county from the county
seat. The Garden City and Blountsville
road runs through one of the best
farming sections of the county at and