The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1920-01-30
THE GOOD ROADS BILL.

In our last Mondays issue we carried synopsis
Of the bill introduced in the Senate by Senator
Moore, which, if passed, would authorize the issue
of six hundred thousand dollars of bonds IN thls
county for the building of roads.
Six hundred thousand dollars is no small amount
of money, even in these days of forty cents cotton
and three dolar-a-day labor, and the amount OF
money involved should be sufficient to engage the
attention of every taxpayer in Abbeville County.
When the movement was on foot to issue three
hundred thousand dollars in bonds for the building
of roads in this county we opposed it on the ground
that the roads proposed to be built were not in
. fact good roads. We have not changed our opinion
on that subject Should the bill now before the
General Assembly become law we shall undertake
to show the taxpayers that we were right then and
that we are right now.
Of course some good will come out Of the ex-
penditure of the money to be raised by this Dond
issue. The roads will be graded, the small streams
bridged by permanent BRIDGES and the topsoil will
make the roads better for year or two. But
there will never be permanent roads in this section
built of dirt. The people had as we'll make up
their minds to this fact.
And we cannot help but-believe that Capt. Shaw
is right when he says that the present roads could
be greatly improved if we would raise the
road tax to two dollars 1--WE say to three or even
five dollars) and if would pay an additional
two mills tax for grading and widening the roads,
This additional money we'll spent, under the su-
pervsion of a road commission, would make the
roads about as good as they will be five years after
the money from this bond issue is spent, that is, if
the law is ever passed.
We become more firmly convinced each day
that if we are to build roads at all, we should
commence by building permanent roads, such as
are built in the cities and towns. There is no way
to begin this WICK except through state system of
highways. There are many who object to such
system, we have objections to it, but it is
the only way to build lasting roads, or to COM
mence the building of these roads The present
legislature should raise the automobile license tax
in this state to minimum of fifty dollars per
year, with graduated license tax upwards. We
can in this way raise four millions of dollars the
present year. A two mill tax will add to this and
the amount of money to be had from the Federal
Government will add further to the fund. With
this fund we may build two hundred to two hum
dred and fifty miles of highways of permanent
nature in the state. In five years, with the addi-
tional automobiles to be bought by the people we
will be able to build at least fifteen hundred miles
of permanent highways in the state. This would
give practically every county in the state high
way leading across the county from East to West
and from North to South The counties might
supplement these highways by building Others If
they did, in ten years might hope to make of all
the main roads in every county permanent roads
over which any kind of vehicle of reasonable
weight and capacity might run every day in the
year. Until this kind of highway is built, or
something new is discovered for this country, as
at present advised, we shall advise the people of
the county to vote against all roads bills.