(140 TRANSPORTATION IN SOUTH CAROLINA. 



The greater volume and activity imparted to the currents of trade by 

 tlie more numerous and more rapid processes of transportation causes 

 more traffic upon the common roads, which are really extensions of rail- 

 road and steamboat routes. These common roads should be put in good 

 order and kept so b}' the State, because the benefits to be derived from 

 their improvement is diffused over the whole State. If the roads leading 

 to a given town are good or bad, not only the interests of that town, but 

 the convenience and economy of the whole surrounding region are af- 

 fected, and even, in some cases, the effects extend to distant points having 

 only railroad connection with the town concerned. To this purpose the 

 State may well appropriate all its convict labor and such funds as may 

 be necessary to the efficient and sustained employment of the convicts. 

 Such appropriations would soon appear to be in the nature of remunera- 

 tive investments, raising the value of lands and augmenting the emolu- 

 ments of labor wherever the road improvements extend. 



