The Neshoba Democrat., 1922-02-16
MORE ROAD GAS
BEAT as ROAD FOLKS AGAIR IN PRINT

Dear Editor,
note In Democrat OF Jan. 26th, an
article from the orator OF Beasha
Valley, In reply, to some extent, of a
lew remarks on the value of good
roads which appeared January 18th.
Some splendid and well worded
sentences appear In this article, SO
much so. that | feel u delicacy some
what. in "bucking up" by the side OF
this flow OF splendid English.
My good friend states, that he
was sure could explain the reason
OF our condition and suggest reme-
dy. This IL beyond my ability at
this time.. II possible, / would be
only to glad to do so.
He further states, that we have
Just as much intelligence and taxa
bile property, also just rs strong
spirit OF progress as any of our sis.
ter counties. This may be SO with
some Mississippi Counties, but not
with all.
Intelligence and property don't &C.
complish any thing unless we put it
| to work.
Suppose a great locomotive sta nds
on the railroad track at Philadel.
phia, with plenty OF steam, water
coal and oil to make the run to Mo-
bile, will 1t ever reach there unless
the engineer opens the throttle and
turns on the steam? So it is with us.
We have an average layer of intelii-
gence, some money In our "jeans',
and desire Way down in our
hearts for a better system of roads,
but we will not crawl up into the
cab. What shall we do then? Eyi-
IDENTIFY we need the engineer and fire
man.
10 make a long story short. we
Neshoba County people have actual
ly soured on the subject of roads,
Why have we done this? There is a
cause. Come, now my good friend,
pull your mustache a time or two,
and let's step back about 20 years to
the beginning OF this thing, and re-
hearse the subject up to the present
time. and see II we can not locate
the germ that caused this souring.
We first paid $3 Communication road
tax and l mill advalorem. For few
years, we had all the roads under
contract and got a little work done.
Later on every thing seemed to
slacken up little.
Graft would sometimes stick it's
head out from under the cover and
howl. Haven't you my good friend
seen roads that paid the contractor
from $40 to $40 per mile per year,
when the work actually was not
worth 81 per mile. Here is where the
souring began and confidence was
first shaken. TO add still further to
the already deplorable condition, we
now pay $5 communication road tax
and mills advalorem.
This is twice the former tax and
practically all of Beat has not been
under contraction a period OF 8 years.
I'll admit that labor was high the
past four years and a dollar didn't
go very far. Here OF late 1t seems
that a large per cent of people desire
to make bushels OF money with a
minimum OF effort, that's human ma
| ture, rough.
But to produce a change and get
better results, we must more money
and desire so strong for better
highways, that we will "get up
and make things happen.
Who is responsible for the present
crew Of officers OF Neshoba County?
A majority OF the qualified electors
OF course. We have employed them
to attend to our business, and II we
are dissatisfied with their Judgment
and conduct, let's first reason the
matter and endeavor to affect an un-
derstanding, whereby all concerned
will be better satisfied and confidence
restored. United we stand, divided
| we fall.
Now friend "Tom" the two special
elections you refer to, I wish to add
just here, that our Supervisor has
agreed to explain the matter salts
factorily, presume, thru the Demo-
craC. In justice to our Supervisor, L
wish to add here, that he is trying
to get some OF Beat ~ bad hills and
other places In better conditioniwith
our adval0rem fund. The total road
fund OF this beat will probably reach
$1,000. A sum too Insignificant to
mention, when we consider our mile
age and the condition OF our roads.
think we should abandon the pres
ent system, under the circumstances,
and work the rodas ourselves, until
we get so tired and sick that we