Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1919-08-15
This is Not Pork Barrel" Legislative

THE TIMES-D1SPATCH has scant patience
1 with those persons who profess to fear
that the special session of the General AS
sembly will degenerate into log rolling
or pork barrel" affair, thereby endangering
the basic system Of good roads that has been
planned carefully and scientifically few
years ago such fear might have had ample
ground but even then the responsibility for
the patchwork eXtravagant roads system
rested not so much on the members of the
Assembly as on the people who demanded
and brought pressure to bear on the repre-
Sentatives for Il bit Of good road here and
bit OF good road there That was before
they had come to realize that their mo7usy
was being wasted and their object not at
tanned.
Now, happily, all that is changed. The
people themselves ara demanding that from
this time forth the roads system be builded
on sane, continuing basis in which every
dollar shall count. They know at last that
Virginia cannot be supplied with good roads
in day. year, or even in ten years;
that what is being planned now is after all
only beginning, a foundation on which TO
build. They know that while the great
initial arteries of traffic must be laid out to
the end that the greatest possible number
OF people shall be served yet it is manifestly
Impossible to reach every community in the
State: But with these arteries once laid down
1t Will he only matter OF time until every
resident Of Virginia will be in touch with
good road The people and the members
of the Assembly will not lose sight of the
fact that it is only start that is being made,
and that there must be patience and a gem
erous policy before the final naturalization
Of the good roads dream.
No one who has seen the members of this
Assembly in session talked with them can
fail to believe that they are deeply imbued
with this truly State spirit as opposed to
narrow local interests, and no one who saw
that throng Of good roads enthusiasts who
came to Richmond to impress their wishes
on the Assembly can think otherwise than
that its members are working for the State
at large and tor no particular districts For
the first time in Virginias road history all
district county and local lines have been
wiped out, and there need be no fear that
they will be permitted again to inrude them
selves to the enlargement of the State
wide plan.
The roads system as drafted by the High
way Commission may not be perfect No
one has claimed that for it. 1t is but ten
tativc draft of the good roads map, and GER
tain changes perhaps will be found necessary
as the General Assembly comes to consider
II carefully and in detail. Certain cities or
counties may feel that they have been
sighted while others have been unduly
favored. Such objections may be we'll
founded. II they are, they should be met
in spirit of fairness. But in every change
that is made there should be- and it is be-
lievcd there will he. an eye single to the per-
lection OF the foundation system as whole
with no yielding to merely selfish interests
based on local pride or profit. To that end
the Assembly is Consecrating its very best
endeavors and when it has finished its Dor
the people who sent them here will be the
judges Of how well the task has been ac-
complished