CHARLES CORNER-COUNTY ROADS. 
19 
We swapped yarns and traded horses, ran two or three races, and had 
altogether a very good time, and one which I often think of with pleasure 
from the point of view of a picnic. It must be confessed that the day 
was innocent of serious road making, although in truth there was plenty 
to be done. Our inefficient work was not at all exceptional, for although 
I have never worked the roads since, I have often run across a crowd 
doing just as I have described above. 
A general road law has been repeatedly recommended by our Governors 
in their messages to the Legislature, and if I remember rightly one was 
very nearly passed by the Twenty-first. 
Some independent work has recently been done by the counties, and 
local laws were passed by the Twenty-fourth Legislature affecting Fan¬ 
nin, Dallas, Lamar, Medina, and I think others. These acts were long 
steps in the right direction and show the growth of an intelligent public 
opinion in the interest of this reform. When general legislation is had, 
there will probably be some differences of opinion as to what share the 
State shall take in the work. It may be urged that State roads are no 
more needed than National, and that the road building of the future 
should remain entirely in the hands of county officers, as being a matter 
of purely local concern. 
Still it would seem the part of wisdom to have our highways laid out 
as part of some general system. We are, after all, citizens of the same 
State, and even the most loyal advocate of home rule must deprecate the 
possible lack of roads in a county where an intelligent minority needs 
them every day. We have in many things recognized the rights of 
minorities, and a majority wielding the authority of the State might per¬ 
haps not improperly insist on the construction of roads of a certain stand¬ 
ard between county seats of a given population. This is a delicate 
phase of the question, and its solution depends upon how completely it is 
recognized as being a matter of general necessity and concern to the 
whole people. 
Whether the State takes direct action or not, it has been suggested that 
it should in any case reserve certain rights of approval and supervision 
as to design, construction and maintenance, and particularly in the mat¬ 
ter of cost and bonds. 
If this be done, the provision of the law should be undoubtedly ex¬ 
tended to county bridges. Under the present system the best intentioned 
board of commissioners is greatly at the mercy of designing men, when 
in the public interest they should be in a position to be consulting de¬ 
signers. Our bridges have often been sold to us with less knowledge on 
our part of what we are getting than a private citizen ordinarily brings 
to the question of buying a horse. 
The foregoing suggestions necessarily imply the creation of a State 
