The evening leader. (Tarpon Springs, Fla.) 191?-19??, 1916-09-11
COMMISSIONERS AND BOND TRUSTEES WILL PROB
ABLY INSPECT LUGGED BRICK ROAD ON TUESDAY
St Petersburg Times Deserves Credit for Inviting" Them-May
Some Good Being Done But We Don't Expect Much
From County Commissioners
SHOULD TIMES OTHER
WAYS AND MEANS AND INSIST
COUNTY ROADS AND GUARDING COUNTY INTERESTS DIDN'T
SWEAR THING?

The st. Petersburg Times has issued
invitations to the five county commits
sioners-John S. Taylor, G. E.. Jack
son, D. Byrd McMullen, George Ed
wards and G. W. Stahl-and the three
trustees of the $715,O00 bond issue,
Messrs. Harrison, Hagadorn and
Louden, to meet at the point where
the section of the brick road which
has caused so much complaint is be-
ing laid, and to inspect the quality of
brick, manner of laying, etc. The
Times believes this is the proper way
to go about settling the question as to
whether the road is right or wrong.
If these gentlemen will only inspect
the road without first blindfolding
themselves they cannot help but see
that the logged brick are of inferior
grade, rough on the sides and held
apart by the Jugs allowing grass to
grow between the brick and water to
go under and undermine the founda-
ton. But we will bet dollars to dough
nuts that the county commissioners
will 4see nothing wrong with this
road and will declare it 0. K. in ev-
cry particular, for the chief engineer
of the McCrary company has said this
road and these lugged brick were the
best ever, and he will receive $4,000
for his superior knowledge concerning
roads, though he has admitted that he
never saw logged brick before, and
that they are an experiment which has
never been tried out, also that they
are cheaper than the other brick being
used in the county roads.
Again, why should the county COM
missioners have to be invited" to in
spect these roads? Is it not their
duty which they have sworn on oath
to perform, to inspect and know all
about the work being done by the
county? If they do not represent the
people and protect the interest of the
tax payers what are they expected to
do? Surely they were not placed in
Office by the public vote for the ex-
press purpose of seeing nothing, do
ing nothing and being nothing, unless
forced into action by public clamor
and direct Invitation" to perform
some specific duty? Should they not
inspect these roads often and know
what is being done and halt any work
which appears to be inferior? And
yet haven't some of them admitted
that they have not seen this section
of the road and never saw lugged
brick?
The Times, in another paragraph
criticizes The Leader for asking some
tax payer to stop the laying of the
logged brick by mandamus proceed
ings and next day saying that the lug
ged brick may make good road if
laid on their edge with the Jugs in the
ground as they were manufactured to
be laid. The Leader still declares that
the logged brick should all be con-
demned and that the contractors
should be compelled to comply with
the specifications laid down in the
contract as to the description and
class of brick placed on the roads.
The Leader feels absolutely certain
that the county commissioners will
not condemn these brick and that they
would not condemn anything which
looked like brick even if it was soft
enough to crush up in your hand unless
they were compelled to do it by the
public who elected them for the pur-
pose of guarding the county's inter
ests. Why have they waited for the
Times to ''invite" them to inspect
these roads? If those roads were be-
ing laid on property personally owned
by any one of the commissioners or
the bond trustees they would not have
to be "invited" but would "invite"
themselves often to inspect the work
and the work would be done exactly
as the contract said it should be. But
you can hardly expect men to look