HIGHWAY LAWS — THE OLD AND THE NEW 83 



allowing taxes to be worked out in labor, has been frequently 

 discussed, and that with varying expressions of opinion. 



The other, which made the district the unit for raising high- 

 way money, and in general for expending it, was, at times 

 even more vicious in practice, and, what is more, its evil' was 

 not generally recognized. Let us examine the practical work- 

 ing of these two features of the old law. Under the first, the 

 district highway surveyor was at the mercy of his employes, 

 who many times would work only when it was convenient, 

 and as they chose, frequently not working at all. Shrewd 

 men, not desiring to work out their own taxes, sold the 

 privilege to their neighbors for so much on the dollar. If 

 coaxing failed to secure the tax in some form, other means, 

 though lawful, were rarely resorted to. In short, the tendency 

 of this part of the law was evil, and if it had not been for an- 

 other excellent and restraining feature, would long ago have 

 proved unbearable. Again, the district was the unit, and, as 

 a rule, taxes were assigned to the districts where they were 

 assessed. A special effort had to be made, and therefore was 

 rarely made, to take money from one district into another. 

 If important roads in some poor district were going to pieces 

 the selectmen would allow the surveyor money raised for gen- 

 eral town purposes to help him out rather than offend other 

 districts by withdrawing what they were accustomed to look 

 upon as their own. Quite a number of back country towns, 

 with large road mileage, find it a serious burden to raise 

 $15 per mile of road per year; $25 to $30 is perhaps a 

 fair average of our country towns. A few come up to 

 the limit allowed by law of $50 per mile. Our cities, 

 acting under charters, may expend several hundred dollars per 

 mile of road and still not be taxed at nearly as high a rate as 

 the small town which raises the $15. While the expense per 

 mile for construction and maintenance increases rapidly with 

 the larger traffic of the village or city street, this increase is 

 nowhere near in proportion to that in resources. There is no 

 difficulty whatever in convincing any fair-minded person that 

 money ought to be taken from these large centres and expended 

 upon the roads in the country towns, and the demand for 

 this is just. It is one of the fundamental arguments in favor of 



