The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1919-02-05

that there is utterly no use OF wasting
time in anything other than perma-
ncnt roads. They must be either of
concrete, brick, asphalt. bitulithic,
granite or some other hard surface
with rock foundation. The conscn-
sus of opinion is that there is no use
to bother with anything else. Second
the, people are willing to pay for good
roads. They are willing to pay for it
either by direct taxation by taxation
on automobiles or by any plan that
will get them the roads quickest.
FRANKLY the only danger in the situa-
ton is in working out some one plan
IN view of the conflicting propositions
that will be accepted at this time.
What is known as the Rhctt plan has
It's strong advocates, and whether it
prevails or not, there is no question
that the effort and intelligent pre-
scntation of the matter by him and
his friends has resulted in an appro
citation of what can and ought to be
done. Bills have been presented car
rying out the Rhett idea; first, Of hav-
ing the roads surveyed, the routes
selected and the necessary prelimi-
narics effected SO that when the bond
issue comes out there will be some
thing definite on which to act and
there will he little delay After this
preliminary work comes, under the
l'hctt plan the $25. 100000 bond issue
which under the government aid p)an
would be considerably augmented.
The Rhctt plan has everything in its
f2Vor, cNccpt that some Of the NOM
NorS OF the General Assembly do NJ
want TO take chances on the failure
or a bond issue and arc avcrSe to de-
lay. On that account they suggested
that an immediate tax of 81 per hors~
power with special road tax OF one or
TWO mills. will get something imme-
dlatcly done. In other words. the.
figure that one mill will raise $3.50 900;
two mills will raise $760,O0O With n
dollar per hore power license tax on
automobiles. supplemented by the fed
cral aid, it Isl figured that there would
be over $3.OOO,00O Of funds available
annually without delay, and If this
method be continued there would be
an expenditure, Of say, three millions.
and this would get what some argue
quicker results than to wait on bond
issue.
or course, there is going to be a
great deal Of contention as to what
work should be done. Some lcgisla
tors already open and ayowCdly say
that they are not going to do anythjne
to help a bond issue unless thcif
counties get full share Of tho ne,
roads. It is argued that the, bos'
thing to do is 10 have 4 scheme tha'
VIII connect up all the counties and
TO rfoVidc for a north and south and
east and west artery through every
county as far as practicable. but 10
give each county certain amount of
mileage and then later on connect up
these fractions
1t is agreed by all that hapha2ard
construction in Indifferent engineer
ing should be abandoned and that
whatever system is to be deyel0pcd
should be mapped out by central
board, preferably the State Highway
commission, and that then these links
can be connected up. TO popularizc
a;
manent work will have to be done in
every county, and where this is along
a wcll-dcvelopcd plan, and system
that can be connected up, it might be
practical.
As TO the Constitutional Convention.
The Indications now are that tbc
people will in 1920 be given an op-
portunity Of voting whether or not
they Will want a constitutional con
vention held. The Senate which has
heretofore been a stumbling block, has
voted in favor Of submitting the uues-
ton to the people. The resolution in
favor Of submitting the issue to the
people has been passed by the Senate
and Is now under consideration on
the House side, where 1t has hereto
fore always prevailed.
Liquor! 1t almost sounds like
ghost rcappearing in the legislative
halls. Generally there are a score or
more OF measures undertaking to solve
this problem. This year there has
peen no mention Of "bone dry" or any