Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1915-09-22
ADVOCATES BOND ISSUE.
Changing System Good For
Road Working But made
quate. More Money
Needed.

have seen from time to time ar
ticles in the county papers deplor-
ing the bad condition of our public
highways and various remedies sug-
gested.
The fault has invariably been
laid on our officials, but the OBJ
serving little improvement is made
in the roads when we change Off
cials.
Our chaingang system of road
work is all right, but it does not go
far enough. No one chaingang
under the very best supervision that
can be gotten, can work 1900 20
1900 miles of roads in Edgefeld
county. We know it takes from
two to three years to work over the
roads as we now have them. The
crying need is for wider roads. l
was Informed by the Supervisor
that to widen them it would take
FIVE years to get round over the
whole county with the present work
ing force.
Now the question is, are the peo.
pie satisfied with the present condi-
ton of our highways? 1t is my
opinion we are not satisfied; then
what is the remedy? MIR. Farmer, if
ycu were to undertake to plant and
cultivate one hundred acres in cot
ton with one mule and one hand
you know the undertaking would
be a fiat failure. To make good
crop on this much land any reason
ing person would know that you
would have to increase the working
force in proportion to area cultiva-
ted. The same principle applies
to our Edgefeld county roads, that
lis, we will have to increase our
working force up to our road
mileage 80 as to work them at least
|once a year instead of once, in two
to FIVE years.
The taxes collected for roads and
bridges is spent in the regular ways,
but it too, like the one chaingang,
does not 80 far enough. SO we can't
expect to get relief from either of
these. To get better system Of
highways will take MONEY which
will enable US to put on several ex.
ira road working gangs, or enough
gangs to get over the whole county
annually. Of course after the
roads everywhere are put in good
condition the expense of working
afterwards or maintaining them can
be materially reduced.
To get this big sum of money
available, in a short time there is
but. .one way, and that is for the
county to issue good roads bonds.
l know the advocating of bonds has
not been popular. idea, but as l
am not running for any office a"d
don't ever intend to, think | am
perfectly save in advocating what
| think is best for my old county,
that is if she needs, or intends hav-
ing better system of highways.
In my opinion it is Bonds and
Good Roads, or no bonds and bad
roads as they are and have been.
With bonds and good roads the
land and property value will in
crease more than enough to pay off
interest and principal of such an
issue. 1t has been my pleasure this
summer to travel over some of the
good road sections of this State,
Georgia and North Carolina and
along the route I made inquiry of
the farmers what their land could
be bought at, all replies were that
farms any way near the good high
ways were worth from $4,000 to
$4,000 per acre and none were for
sale. The most of these highways
were just clay, tho some were sand
clays and others the reverse of the
natural soil. / mention the above
to show that good roads will and
do increase land values many fold,
and enough to repay any reasona-
BILE bond issue.
1 find in advocating a bond issue
that many approve of the plan but
fear that a large portion will be
wasted. They want to be assured
that dollars good will be gotten
for every 100 cent that is spent.
Is this not a sad state of affairs, that
so many are afraid to trust our
selves to spend the peoples money