Report of Htaie Highway Engineer. 49 



must substitute a cash system and road workers with competent super- 

 vision. The men who work out their taxes, as a rule, know nothing and 

 care but little about the work. ]\Iany of them work with the sole idea 

 of working out the taxes, not to benefit the roads. It is not so much the 

 fault of the men as it is the fault of the system, a "venerable" system 

 which has been handed down from generation to generation, but which 

 has become rotten with age. 



In the first place, it is difficult to get men to serve as road overseers. 

 We must depend upon the farmers to fill these positions — men whose 

 living and business is farming, not making roads. They, even as over- 

 seers, cannot be expected to give the roads due attention at times when 

 roads should be worked, considering that they are as competent road men 

 as they are farmers. Their farms have first call upon their time, atten- 

 tion and study. 



We should have a few men in each county whose business is work- 

 ing roads ; men who make it a business, men who have an organization, 

 and who are prepared for it as a business. They will accomplish more 

 with one dollar than the average overseer can with two. These road 

 ercM^s should be under the direction of the county engineer, to be sent 

 any place in the county where necessary, such as the districts where we 

 have incompetent overseers or none at all, or where a good overseer re- 

 quires aid, or where work can be put directly imder the engineer. One 

 or two such crews could be kept busy in a county the entire year, and 

 additional crews could be put on in the proper working season. It need 

 not mean the abolishment of the overseer system where good men can be 

 secured to act, but one good outfit, with a competent foreman, to a town- 

 sliip. or to 50 or 100 miles of road, would accomplish something in a 

 year's time. It is doubtful if it would cost any more than under the 

 present methods, but even if it should, it will bring results. 



Furthermore, the business for this crew of road workers will be to 

 care for the roads while other people are attending to their own business, 

 for as long as road work is everybody's business, it will be poorly done. 

 Road affairs being everybody's business, together with politics, causes 

 more loss and poorer work upon the roads than all the other things to- 

 gether, for the inevitable result is incompetency or loose methods. 



THE ELIMITATION OF POLITICS FROM ROAD AFFAIRS. 



Another indication of rottenness in our "venerable system," is the 

 infusion of politics into road affairs. The roads do not belong to any 

 party, set, or faction, but are the property of all. In some of our coun- 



A— 4 



