No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 43 



inoitorative until one million of dollars has been set aside by the 

 Lejiislature lor road piu'ijoscs. This law provides in general: 



First. For a Board of three supervisors in each township, elected, 

 one each year for three years. 



Second. For road masters appointed by the Board of Supervisors, 

 to have immediate charge of the roads and oversee the work. 



Third. For a treasurer of the Board, who keeps the books and ac- 

 counts and attends to all of the clerical work of the Board. 



The distinctive feature of this law is, in providing a Board that 

 shall be continuous; never going out of existence; whose members will 

 not have to stand over the workmen and see the work done, but sim- 

 ply give direction to the road masters who shall attend to this duty. 

 This makes it i)ossible for the most busy man in a community to act 

 on the Board of Koad Supervision, and so the best talent can be se- 

 lected to give direction in road construction and improvement, in- 

 stead 01 the most incompetent. 



The law is not a road law, strictly speaking, but a supervisors' law. 

 It constitutes a Board which is continuous; oever closes accounts; is 

 always in existence; always on duty, and the majority of whom will 

 have had at least one year's previous experience. 



At present, in about all of the road districts, the entire Board of 

 Supervisors go out of office at the end of each year, and a totally new 

 and inexperienced set come in. These new men must be educated 

 in road control, but as soon as they get some information, a new set 

 comes in, as ignorant as their predecessors, and the reign of incompe- 

 tence is continued. 



A permanent continuous Board can be educated, and although one 

 man goes out each year, the information remains in the Board, and in 

 the course of a few years, the Board is fairly well educated; instead 

 of being a system of retrogression, we have one of progression and 

 accumulation. Teach first, how to construct a good road; and second, 

 how to maintain it. As soon as such boards can be put into control, 

 then we are ready for State aid, and not before. 



Aid from the State in Pennsylvania means assistance from corpora- 

 tions, money at interest, loans and taxable property other than real 

 estate. In Pennsylvania, State aid to the tov» nships, means receiving 

 money from the State, by country people, which they did not contri- 

 bute, but which comes from other sources. 



These other interests, which are thus taxed for road purposes, are 

 just as much benefited by the improvement of the roads, through the 

 country districts, as are the country people themselves, and it is not 

 a bonus or gift, to the country people, to provide State aid from this 

 fund, but it is simply an investment, on the part of the State, for the 

 benefit of all of the interests of the Commonwealth, 



