The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1918-12-13
ANOTHER BOND MOVEMENT.

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We see that some of the wise men
about the state are talking about
bondiag ag the state t6tthe amount of
twenty-five millions of dollars for the
purpose of building "good roads" on
which a person may operate his Tin
pan Nancy every day in the year. 1t
is stated that the work will be 50
planned that every county-seat in
the state will be reached.
Another of the talking points in
favor of the issue is that the bonds
will be repaid, and all interest charg-
es paid, by the automobile owners
Of the state, and, therefore, the
"poor man" will not be called on to
pay any part of the burden.
Col. VIM. Jennings Bryan, Of "the
gate receipts" has. been down in Co
lumbia advocating the government
ownership Of telegraph lines, cables,
and of about everything else that
belongs to other people, and he, too,
wants big appropriations both by
the national government and. the
state government for good roads.
We are of the opinion that when
the people in this state get through
paying taxes for the liquidation OF
war debt they will have about all
the public burdens which they desire
at present. A man who can pay
twelve; per cent. on his net income,
and a. corporation which must pay
twelve per cent. ON its net income,
in addition to excess profits taxes,
and war profits taxes, and other gov
ernment burdens, will have about all
the taxes a reasonable man is look
ing for. Now, above every other
time, the people in this section need
10 take stock Of where they stand
and put on brakes for awhile. It is
the most unlikely time in the last
twenty-five years to increase public
burdens. ~. =. .
The idea that automobiles will
stand tax sufficient to pay, not on
ly the interest on a debt of twenty
FIVE millions of dollars, but the prin-
cipal as we'll, is absurd. If all the
automobiles in, the state were put
on the block we doubt whether they
ould bring twenty-five millions Of
dollars. The interest on that
amount of money at four per cent.
would be a million dollars per year,
end if the bonds are to be repaid in
fifty years, a half million of dollars
should be repaid each. year on prin-
cipal. If Abbeville county were
called on to pay one-fiftieth of this
amount, we would pay thirty thou
sand dollars per year-nearly as
much as we are paying for public
schools, roads and bridges and all
other purposes. With four hundred
automobiles in the county of an aver
age cost of eight hundred, dollars,
every automobile owner would pay
annually for this road tax ten per
cent. of the cost price of his auto
mobile. The result would be, and it
is about the only good result we can
see, that there would be fewer au-
tomobiles in this country than at
present, and fewer people to pay for
ne proposed bond issue. And this
tax only pays for building the roads.
Nothing has been said y yet about
their up-keep.
We assert that this state is not
able to build and keep up any system
of roads such as is contemplated.
We have been struggling for these
many years trying to pay off bond
ed Indebtedness of the state of
about six millions of dollars, and we
We made little progress at it in the
last twenty years. To add to that
six millions now twenty-five millions
more for the purpose of making bet
ter roads for the automobile ex-
cursionists to 60 to the mountains
on is about as absurd as some of
the things done by the City Council
Of Abbeville.
Our experience is that the people