Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1922-01-16
0NE-TRACK Minds
||D|ANE OF OLD BUCKS
Narrow-cauge Supervisors Re-
sponsible for Wretched
County Roads
OPPORTUNITY FOR sAoLeR

SeIIrsyille, Jan. 16.-Narrow gauge
nsthods Of rural highway supervisors
with lone track minds are to blame in
the estimation Of some of the patient
'lwellers among the hills of old Bucks
County for some Of the worst OF the
less inportant roadways in the State.
1t has been suggested by the old.
imere' cabinet comprising the bankers,
physicians, the postmaster and various
,sher. leading citizens of this thriving
comaunity. that State Highway Com
missioner Ssdler might do a neat turn
for Rennsylvan!a by calling these mar
row gauge township supervisors into
ronference and impOrting to them SOME
Of tie simpler rudiments OF highway
ccnstSuction In this era of rushing motor
trafie
Az thousand long suffering farmers
fromsthe west branch Of the Perkiomen
20 the Delaware River. tributary 10 the
Reading Railway and It's mi k and csg
trnins, would hail such move with
loud acclaim, for all of them are de-
pendent upon many Of the short-cu
minor routes between towns in getting
cheirE products TO stations in time 10
make connections for the Phi adclphia
narket.
Tlh bane of this thrifty section OF
Pennsylvania, apart from the admirably
paved and maintained main State ar
series are the high. crowned single
eraclf' roads of the narrow gauge rural
supervisors. Frequently motorists leav-
ing the main pixies encounter q section
IT township maintained roadway in n
ccndiion 80 deplorable as to be incom
prehensible. These are the products of
INEXPERIENCED local super!ntendents.
TheT are barely wide enough for the
Inost3part, on the stif hills, particularly.
for s single vehicle.
Yehrs o. antlquated practice. unaf-
fected By great strides IN the State
maintained roads. causes rural super
visors to heap the tween roads with
crowns OF impossible contour. upon the
theory that they drain better than fiat.
ter Highways. The custom IN some
parts Of Bucks County, within close
toucb with perfect highways. is 70 heap
up more stone upon the crown Of the
township road when II begins 20 de-
tsriorate. AS result. the shoulders of
the driveway are cut away steadily to
suchta deg ee that when a mOtorist en-.
counters a farmer with a plodding horse
and tinally persuadss him to leave the
middle of the road a passing is affected
with Imminent risk TO botn. Some Sec
tionA of the Sellcrsvil' -Doylestown
road Just outside Se'lersvi'la furnish ter
riblekexamples of this absurd custom of
wasting township funds which Commis-
sionar Sadler should endeayor to
abolish.
Sellersville is about TO experience Z
building boom. An estate which has
been in the possession of one family
virtually from the days when Bucks
County first was settled is being cut up
into building sites for homes of modest
cost Tor which there is a pressing need.
both here and in nearby Perkasie. MANY
of the new homes will command a view
Of Mfnlo Park, where the Bicks County
Fair3s held.
This section of Bucks County is not
what il used to be for cattle raising.
William Boyd, of Perkasie. who worked
a single farm of fifty five acres for
thirty four years before he retired from
active agriculture, recalled today that.
ffteen years ago, u radius Of five miles
hereaboutS could boast close to 100
fat, productive cows. Today, probably,
the same area contains less than
third that number. and the disp'ay of
milk producers at the Bucks fair is
virtually a blank.
Farmers in this part Of Bucks are
In alstate Of mild indignation over the
failure of State police to discriminate
In the enforcement of automobile stat
utes, They have no fault to find with
the vigorous fashion in which the State 8
spforcers OF law and order wage war
upon chicken thieves But when a
prontiDent agriculturist happens to drive
FORTH after nightfall without having his
motof lamps burning brightly or offends
agaipst the law in some other fashion
and , State policeman summons hin, TO
fppAr before a eqIire up at Quaker
sowH why. then they maintain the
stats troopers should be banishcd from
the payroll.
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