212 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



must be built on scientilic principles.. You can no more build good 

 roads with fools and idiots, than you can run Republican form of 

 government with the same element, and it will be just in proportion 

 to the amount of intelligence shown — a fountain cannot rise higher 

 than its source, neither can the reform of a party be greater than 

 its constituents. 



This has been verified in political affairs. It is verified in township 

 public road affairs to-day. AVhat is more preposterous than to as- 

 sume that a man who all his life never earned over one or two hun- 

 dred dollars a year and never ran any more business than a pick 

 and shovel be elected to the office of road supervisor to lay the 

 number of mills of tax. Collect same and squander three or four 

 thousand dollars of the people's money annually in a vain attempt 

 to patch dirt roads, when if judgment were exercised over townships 

 that are now in apparent bankruptcy, would to-day be among the 

 civilized and prosperous portions of our land, again, as the telephone 

 aud telegraph connect distant lands in thought, the roads convey 

 and carry out the purport of the mind. As money is a medium of 

 transmitting the values, so is a good road a medium for the trans- 

 mission of commerce and is the ultimate means aud end of inter- 

 locking mind, money and commerce: These three great forces with- 

 out the modus operandi of good public roads would be paralyzed and 

 utterly fail and is operative only in proportion to the means af- 

 forded. Then educate the masses that the highest possible results be 

 obtained; with education the greatest amount of enjoyment is ob- 

 tained. He lives most, who thinks most and enjoys the labor of his 

 thought. The great advantages to be gained shown in figures are 

 so stupendous that we at this time have refrained from compiling 

 as they have been given on a farmer occasion, and seen useless until 

 we can comprehend our real position, and resort to the means to 

 help ourselves, namely the ballot. Vote for our land's improve- 

 ment, our home's improvement, and God, as he is in the scientific 

 road, a principle that alleviates the condition of his created beast, 

 and the highest possible enjoyment of mankind. 



