French Broad hustler and Western Carolina Democrat. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1915-1916, 1916-05-11

j Editor Hustler:
By the grace of your courtesy in ex'
tending to me the necessary space !
will submit aSfew Anal remarks on
road matters in general, andsSupervl-
sor Patton in particular, fofs the
thoughtful consideration ofaHenderson
county tax payers.
Now. Mr.. Patton, 1 shall be as brief
as possible with you AND CONNIE my
remarks to- factshof interest ohR. free
from abusive Language of q personal
nature. and excluding ridicule alto
gather, which was 30 characterlstfesQl
your article and evidently employed
because, facts wsre not at Hand. We're
If nots the MdbPwell road affair."
would not bothd TO reply aEall to you
article of mich length but 40
strength" so aptly described by asmu-
tual friend.
MFR. Patton you have repeatedly said
in public print I misstated facts. why
do YOU specifically name some lies l
have told? Come out like a man and
name just one. = / challenge you 10
do it. Yous shout concrete" at %e to
divert attention from my criticisms of
your sand-clay methods. You know
Won did not follow the method advocat-
cd and emphasized by Mr.. Spoon or
the instructions of DR.. Pratt; and did
you not deliberately refuse the assist
ance of Uncle Sans road experts
You say l am a erank. That's all
right, vt fakes cracks to turn things,
and. sometimes eEanks kick" too,
when the spark is high" and public
money is being wasted. Now I would
like to know what you are, a self con-
stituted sand-clay road expert l sup
pose. You Sag you have gone around
a good deal, aFthe exbenseto of the pAbE
lie treasury, looking at roads in differ
ent states. Then you poke, fun at me
about my travels: 'Fwant' to Esay' to
you I have went junketing over
the country on the peoples money,
but paid for what travelling l have
done out of my W pocket. And 1
would like to ask you if you ever saw,
in your travels paid for with public
funds or~etherwise, sand-clay roads
built like you built them inEHenderson
county? If the road officials turned
over the bond money to you and you
have not spent it wisely, tie tax pay
ers will hold you responsible and not
the officials: No one need have any
fear of criticism who has honestly and
conscientious1y performed his duty.
Handling other peoples money is a Sc
rious matter, especially public funds.
The time once was when nobody paid
much attention to these matters, but
fhereshas been a change. Elf the road
officials turned these funds over to
you they Should not have done it, but
If you accepted them you accepted the
Responsibility. also and you can not
now shelter under the beard. You
seem TO h$pee been anxious enough to
handle the mbRey but WheA the day of
reconing comes yoh are willing to let
the 'boaTd share tie Responsibility. I
will tell you, Mr.. Patt0nst what your
trouble is as a public official: you are
too stubborn and head-strohg and bent
on having your own way t9 achieve the
best results. You Think you know
best and will therefore not listen to
any one else and these Very charac-
teristics, l believe. are: I'M some mea-
sure 'Fesponsible for that5sold dredge
F1yingiidle out here in Mud Creek. 1t
cost over $4,000 of somebody's money.
YOU should have, khewn the sand in
mud creek is half muck and entirely
too fine for road building. = That thing
has cost enough to buy all modern
road machinery necessary for building
maeadam, concrete, bithd1fthic or any
other roads all over Henderson county.
Il have repeatedly said we are finan-
cially unable to build concrete roads
under present methods and manage
ment, at least; You, hoWeve~ very
much 6Verestimate the cost at which
such roads could be constructed. Your
estimates do not mention, width. thick
ness etc, but are 1ike'thatf of the cost
of removing the rcck ledge on the Me
DoWelI road, which l will come to
presently. So it is not a question of
what sort of roads we might have had,
or what We may have some time in the
future, but what we now have. There
fore it behOoves us to make the, best
US Of u road funds if we ever have
any more, in maintaining the roads we
have and in constructing other roads,
and above all else never again allow
any body to be fooled Or lead to be-
lieve sand-clay will make a permanent
road requiring NJ repairs. Nothing
was ever said about the upkeep of
these roads until the money was just
about spent. Now we hear a great
deal about "upkeep," and are doomed
to hear a great deal more. l really
believe properly constructed sand-clay