FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 49 



appear for service in this construction should be required to give a dol- 

 lar's worth of work for a dollar's worth of credit on their taxes. But 

 no matter how efficient these workers may prove to be, some money is 

 necessary outside of the' labor which they perform. Bridges are" to be 

 constructed, machinery' must be purchased, extra labor must be had at 

 times when the citizens are unable, by reason of their occupation as 

 farmers, to work upon the public roads. Some of this money should be 

 furnished by the community itself. 



To relieve citizens from all responsibility for road improvement would 

 be a serious mistake. Some taxes, to be paid in money, should be levied 

 upon every community. About fifty per cent, in money, and fifty per 

 cent, in work would be a fair proportion if the system is so constructed 

 as to compel those who present themselves as workers to render satis- 

 factory service. 



Every road, no matter how well constructed, requires continual care, 

 and the fourth quality in an ideal road law is that it shall provide that 

 every mile of road in the entire State shall be under the constant atten- 

 tion and care of ''a competent custodian." Roads lie out of doors ; are 

 subject not simply to wear by travel, but also to the effects of heat, and 

 frost, and floods. Summer and winter, day and night, year in and year 

 out, these elements are at work and more destruction is occasioned 

 through their influence than by all the travel that passes over their sur- 

 face. The practice of repairing roads for a week or two in the spring 

 and a week or two in the fall of the year, and then allowing them to lie 

 uncared for during the intervening periods, prevails throughout the 

 United States. No railroad corporation could run its trains for a single 

 month if the track hands were to be dismissed in May and no work were 

 done until September. The ideal highway has some one in charge and 

 responsible for the roads every day in the year. 



I had charge of the public roads in my township for several years. It 

 was impossible for me to give personal attention to the details of the 

 work of their construction and maintenance. I placed in charge of twen- 

 ty-four miles of road two men who were given each one-half of this 

 district, or twelve miles apiece. These men were instructed to be out 

 upon the 'roads every day and were given special instruction to be out 

 during the days in which it rained. They were given gum coats, gum 

 boots, and a gum hat to protect them from the weather and were re- 

 quired to stay out all day during the time that the rain was falling, turn- 

 ing the water ofl' on the hills, protecting the bridges, seeing that the 

 work that had been done in dry weather was not destroyed during the wet 

 season. Roads do not run away in dry days. They leave us during the 

 showers and heavy rains. The necessity for a custodian is not so great 

 during the sunshiny days of summer, but upon every raim^ day there 

 is necessity that every mile of road should be patrolled by some one who 

 is responsible for keeping them in repair. One man can often do more 

 in one wet day to save the township from loss than could be repaired by 

 twenty men in ten dry days. The radical defect in our present road sys- 

 tem is that there is no custodian in charge of our public roads during the 

 entire year. A road law that is to save the public money must insist that 

 the roads shall be kept in proper condition for travel at all seasons, and 

 that the work that is done on them today, shall not be allowed to be des- 

 troyed tomorrow. 

 • An ideal road law should provide, in addition to the items already 

 7 



