54G ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



Bon't waU for Ibo State to do it all; the State cannot. Don't 

 juiiij) all over the State Highway Department because you have 

 not got it already. Don't crawl all over the sui)ervisor when he 

 is disposed to do something besides pvomises. If you see a super- 

 visor a( work or out inspecting his roads on a bad, rainy day and 

 seeing where to make improvements, follow him and see whether he 

 makes them and if he does, back him up and you will get roads 

 ([uiikly witli a liltle co-operation of that kind. Tliere is an old pro- 

 verb: "It is better to be sixty per cent, right and do something 

 than be one hundred per cent, perfect and sit on the fence and criti- 

 cize." I am for the sixty per cent, man everytime because he helps, 

 and where 1 am forty per cent, wrong there is always somebody else 

 can supplement my mistakes and we get our roads. 



A Member: 1 was wondering why the gentleman speaking on 

 the road (luestion was so lenient with the supervisors. I happen 

 to come from one of the most mountainous counties in Pennsylvania 

 and up there we have gone to the expense of buying a stone crusher 

 and a road scraper. They cost $2,500. We have sevei-al jjlank drags 

 we are using and we have not got an abundance of taxes to work 

 with. 1 think our valuation runs $320,000 for the township, and 

 according to the law we can lay a ten mill tax, so you can figure 

 out what we get. But the question is that the money we raise don't 

 go to the right place, and we are not wholly responsible for that, 

 and the only way we think is to the State come to our assistance 

 and they can do it. Those who are from Luzerne county may have 

 noticed in the papers this last month of the way in which our road 

 taxes goes. I was sued and had two damage suits go to the court. 

 We have forty-seven miles of road and have a surve}'^ map and much 

 of that road is in such a shape that the law requires a railing for 

 inebriated men and reckless drivers and sharpers. We have many 

 corporate interests in our county and there is a feeling engendered 

 amongst most of the people that it is only right to get a crack at 

 the municipality in damage suits. As a result of that if we have 

 a case brought up from spite work or negligence or anything we are 

 up against it. 1 know of a case "where a man drove off the end of 

 a bridge because he was careless and, gentlemen, under the law, 

 he collected damages for the accident where he should have been 

 more prudent himself. What it costs to put up these rails we could 

 pay with the taxes if we did not have to pay out the money for these 

 damages and we have many miles of rails now. The law was in- 

 tended for good and for the right kind of people but was abused 

 in Luzerne county. There is a miscarriage of justice. These costs 

 have been i)ut on the township and the taxes have been compelled 

 to go in that way instead of being put on the roads to do good. In 

 Slayman toAvnship, across the river from me a man, who was an 

 Assemblyman of this State and afterwards served a term in the 

 penitentiary for distilling illicit whiskey, owned a farm along the 

 river and at the height of the bicycle craze the bicycle club obtained 

 permission of the township officials to build a bicycle path six feet 

 wide on the edge of the bank. This gentleman I am speaking about 

 owns a fine horse and instead of driving in the roadbed he would 

 show his mean principle and drive in the bicycle club roadway that 

 they had built there and maintained at their own expense. I am 



