558 ANNUAL KEPOR'l" OF THE Off. Doc. 



cau be lakeu. Tlit'U the louuly eommissiouei'S are authorized Lu 

 build the road aud use for that purpose couuty taxes. In our State 

 personal property, certain kinds, as well as real estate, are taxed for 

 county purposes. Many communities .are taking advantage of that 

 law. They are building some fine roads in the county of Allegheny. 

 But that law seems applicable, only in counties in which there are 

 large cities, and where the amount the city contributes, will be of 

 assistance to the country people. It can be truthfully said that the 

 country people cau not be taxed any more for roads than they are 

 at present. We are spending in the country districts of our State 

 about 14,000,00 per annum for roads. We have altogether about 

 100,000 miles of country roads. 



We have a law, which is now two years old, which forms townships 

 of the first and second class. Townships of the first class, have a 

 government, very similar to cities or boroughs, and there the road 

 question is settled. But they can only be formed in districts where 

 the population is dense, and road improvement is a simple matter in 

 those localities. But the great difficulty is found in townships of 

 the second class, where the population is sparse. There the country 

 people are utterly unable to build roads as they should be built, so 

 they must look to the State. At the last legislature we did a thing 

 which looks like a very simple thing, and perhaps you gentlemen 

 from the prairie 'States may not known how much it means. We 

 passed a law which requires the supervisor to pick the stones off the 

 roads once a month during the summer mouths. If he does not, he 

 can be arrested aud fined. The legislature passed another law last 

 winter which is a great law for every State in the Uniou, and that is 

 the wide-tire law. [Applause.] When you have got your good 

 roads you must stop the use of narrow tires, and you people in New 

 York should make it a penal offeose for a man to go on your roads 

 with a load of over 2,000 pounds, with a narrow tire, or you will have 

 no roads. [Applause.] 



