farmers" institutes. 523 



their rapid progress toward scientificallj^ constructed highways, in appro- 

 priating large sums upon conditions that counties and towns shall con- 

 tribute like amounts— one-third by State aid, one-third by the counties, 

 and one-third l)y the localities beneflted. 



These resolutions indicate the thought and spirit of the American peo- 

 ple today, as, wherever we go, we hear this question discussed, and the 

 American people have the peculiar characteristic of "doing something" 

 whenever convinced that it should and must be done. 



Webster defines a highway — a public road. A way open to all passen- 

 gers, socalled either because it is a great or public road, or because the 

 earth was raised to form a dry path. Highways open a communication 

 from one city or town to another. 



A public highway is the property of the people, all the people, rich, 

 poor, high or low, regardless of vocation, calling or nativity. There is no 

 other institution known to man that Is so universal belonging to all. 



In our part of the country we have two kinds of highways — the com- 

 mon dirt or nature's kind, and gravel or stone highways. The common 

 dirt roads are maintained by a tax on the real and personal property of a 

 corporation by the proper officers and by the demand upon every able- 

 bodied male citizen of the age between twenty-one and fifty years from 

 two to four days' manual labor to be performed on the highways. The 

 expenditures of these materials are in the hands of the Township Trus- 

 tees and the Road Supervisors, and the chief object aimed at is drainage 

 and bridges. 



The gravel or stone roads are by far the more important and demand- 

 ing one's attention at the present time. These roads are built under two 

 laws. The two-mile limit law and the general tax law. After being com- 

 pleted they become, as it were, the property of the county and are main- 

 tained out of the county funds. The two-mile limit law, which is prob- 

 ably better than no law, as the few have to build the roads for the many, 

 and as stated above, that the highways are for all the people, it seems to 

 me that all the people should build them. It has been argued that this 

 law is just as it is based on the theory that the ditch law is based. This 

 I regard as a mistake, as a ditch benefits immediately only those whose 

 lands drain into it, and a highway is as much the property of the 

 traveler from a distant land who may have occasion to travel upon the 

 same as the man who may reside adjacent to the same. 



The general tax law I regard as the practical law, as it is built by all 

 the people and the provisions are so liberal and in the reach of any com- 

 munity and so plain that all may fully understand, and as the people of 

 White Post Township have the contemplation of the construction of 

 twelve miles of stone or gravel roads in hand, and these roads, when 

 built, will benefit all our sister townships adjacent to us, I beg the in- 

 dulgence of this convention to hear the law read covering this proposition: 



(Here the law was read.) 



