314 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



to prevent waste and damage, would be ready to attend to bis work. 

 But we know that as at present arranged, the overseer is a man who 

 either has the office forced upon him, or, if he seeks it, is generally the 

 most unsuitable person in the district. The man who can come down 

 to electioneer for this office is generally not in it for the good of the 

 community, but for a chance to earn a dollar and a half a day at a time 

 when he can find nothing else to do, and to hire a boy for twenty-five 

 cents to drive his team and charge a man's wages for the work. 



A practical and sensible system of working the roads in counties 

 Laving township organization would be to give the township boards 

 whole control of everything relating to roads and bridges in each 

 township. They should either superintend the road work themselves, 

 or appoint competent men to do it, and such employes should be sub- 

 ject to the orders of the board and liable to removal at any time for 

 neglect or incompetence. The people could then look to the boards 

 for a thorough and systematic working of the roads of the township, 

 and would know where to place the responsibility for failure and mis" 

 management. Under the present law, the road overseer is supposed 

 to be elected by the voters of his district at the township election, but 

 as very few of the voters know the number of their district, there is 

 always a great deal of confusion resulting, the same person being 

 voted for in every district of the township. Some election boards 

 have assumed the right to examine every man's ballot to see if he was 

 voting for the candidates in his own district — a proceeding that is 

 stiictly forbidden by the law. But whether this way of choosing over- 

 seers does or does not register the will of the voters, we know that it 

 does not result in giving us as efficient officers as could be had by 

 appointment. And as the law makes every overseer supreme in his 

 own district, he can neglect his duties and defy the township board for 

 the whole term of his official existence. The boards have assumed to 

 limit the expenditures of the overseers, but practically they have no 

 sach power. They can only "audit the bills" brought in by the over- 

 seers, whose power to contract bills has no limit in the law. If we 

 are to have overseers, Ihey should be appointed by the township di- 

 rectors and subject to removal if they prove incompetent or insubor- 

 dinate. At present the boards have neither authority nor accounta- 

 bility. The public gets no report of their acts, nor of township 

 receipts or expenses. They should be required to publish an annual 

 statement, and make reports to the county court. 



To abolish the labor tax, and raise the money necessary to maintain 

 the roads by taxation, as other expenses are provided for, would be a 

 great improvement. One-half of the lax now nominally raised, if 



