The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1915-06-09

private roads have been opened by
the county, and are now maintained
by the county. 1t is manifestly i'm
possible for the supervisor to work
twenty-seven hundred miles of road
with the force and money at his
command. The present Supervisor
and his predecessors should have
seen this years ago, and called a halt
on the practice, which had grown up,
of opening new roads wherever a
few voters, by petition, requested
the same. We have no general
knowledge of the roads of the coun-
ty, but we are acquainted with some
of the roads which have thus been
opened. They are nothing more
than plantation roads, opened and
maintained, not for the public, but
for a few individuals. When this
is done in one section it must, in
fairness, be done in every other Sec
ton. The result is that the high
way mileage has grown to such an
extent in Abbeville county that it is
now impossible, in our judgment, to
keep the roads in proper repair un-
less a great deal more money was
available.
Supervisor Stevenson knows how
to build good roads. If you have
been v e the thirty foot roadway
on the Mccormick road in Bellevue,
you have seen for yourself that good
roads can be built in Abbeville coun-
ty. But they can be built only by
cooperation. The landowners
along the line must give the neces-
sary amount of land in order to make
the roads wider, and then the neigh
borhood through which each section
of a road runs must give the super
visor assistance in keeping the roads
in repair. This is what is done in
Bellevue. These good people got
together when the road hands We're
working the roads through th.t
neighborhood and gave the necessary
amount of land, and then helped
construct the road, as We are in
formed. They did not sip with
this and look for the small road Lex
to keep up their road, but they keep
it in shape themselves, by dragging
it, and scraping it, at intervals, after
heavy rains etc., and the result is
that they have a good road pretty
well the year round. Other COM
munities should do the same thing.
In future issues, we desire to call
to the attention of our readers other
practices and customs which stand
IN the way of good roads, not in a
spirit of fault-finding, but in an en-
deavor to correct evils by calling the
attention of the public to these prac-
tees and customs. We should all
try to make our roads as good as the
best. Trolleys and railroads, for
short passenger service, will be a
thing of the past when we have the
right kind of roads. We can put
every part of the county within an
hours reach of Abbeville, barring
the speed law, by building good
roads. Not having the railroad and
trolley connections with the live
towns of the county, we should try
to get in easy reach of them by the
right kind of highways. To that
end, we should all strive.
And in that connection, would it
not be a good idea to start a move
ment in Abbeville county to get the
people themselves interested? Every
citizen should have an interest in the
building of better roads. Why not
let the people get together for five
days In July and August and give the
roads in each school district a thor
ough working. The people did this
IN Missouri last SUMMER, we believe.
and the undertaking was a great sue
cess. Those who do not want to
work can contribute five DAYS labor.
either by sending a substitute, or bv
paying for the extra labor. With
this work, by building up only those
roads where the necessary width is
given, we can build a system of
roads IN the county which will be
49,