Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1914-05-15

tanning the good roads. If the
roads are maintained by contract
section IS of the law, which is
unchanged, applies and this Sec
ton does not provide for teams
being called out by the contractor.
AS all of the good roads in NOxu.
bee are being maintained by con.
tract, this new law has no appli.
cation here as yet.
Section II of the law of 1910,
which is unchanged, starts out
with these words: "NOthing In this
act shall be taken to repeal any
road laws of the state"
Section II of the new law ap-
plies only to ~''persons, teams and
implements liable to road duty
under the laws of Mississippi"
Persons living on or near dirt
roads are liable, with their teams,
to road duty, and persons living
on or near good roads are liable,
with their teams, to road duty.
They we're so liable before my
amended law was passed, and are
so liable now. And this is fair
and right and just.
Concrete examples, better than
abstract reasoning, show the just
ness of the law. Take Mr.. Muir.
ray Robertson and Mr.. J. q. Poin.
dexter, In District No. 1. Both
are paying a seven mill road tax
on their property in the district.
The hands and teams of both are
subject to 10 days road duty each
year. Both can commute their
own and their laborers' road duty
by paying a Communication fee of
S3 for each man liable. When
Mr.. Poindexter's teams are sum.
moned he must send them; Mr..
Robertson, when his teams are
summoned, may send them just as
Mr.. Poindexter does; but Mr.. Rob.
e%rtson, living on a good road, has
the privilege that Mr.. Poindexter
has not. He can commute his
teams work by paying 80 a head.
Is this unfair to MI. Robertson?
And in addition, he is on a good
road and Mr.. Poindexter has three
miles of dirt road to travel before
he hits the good road he is paying
a seven mill tax to build and keep
up.
Mr.. Jim Cotton and Mr.. Geo.
Pagan both live in District 8.
Mr.. Cotton lives q mile from a
good road and Mr.. Pagan right on
one. Both pay the same road tax,
both are liable to 10 days road
duty, they and their teams. Mr..
Pagan can commute the road duty
OF his teams; Mr.. Cotton can not.
That's all the difference, and it is
in Mr.. Pagan's favor.
The funny thing about all the
criticism of this road law is that
it all comes from people living on
good roadside ones who are most
directly benefited by the good
roads and who are really most
benefited by the change in the
law. The trouble is that many
of the people living directly on
good roads have conceived the idea
thas they were no longer subject
to road duty; that the good for
tune that placed their lands i'm.
mediately adjacent to a good road
went further and relieved them of
any road obligation other than
paying the road tax. This would
be mainifestly unfair and has
never been the law, and is not
now.
My work or road legislation last
winter was done under the belief
that Noxubee county had good
roads and wanted more, and want
ed those already built to be kept
up. am still under that impress
sion.
All my work on the 1910 Lawn
was done on material furnished by
others since | had no personal ex.
perience with that law, and prac.
tically none of the new law is nv
original work. Most of this ma.
terial was furnished me by men
from Noxubee, Lee, DeSoto and
Lauderdale counties.
The law, as finally passed, was
scrutinized by a good many peo.
pie interested in road legislation
and approved by them. | think !
it a good law. 1t certainly is not
open to the objections / have'
heard urged against it, and l stand
by it with no apologies and no re.
grets, except that | was not more
thoroughly informed and more ex.
perienced so that | could have
made it better.
| do not think that the law is
perfect. But twenty or more
counties in the state had invested
several million dollars under the