84 
TRANSACTIONS OF THE TEXAS ACADEMY OP SCIENCE. 
troduction of good roads would not increase, but decrease, the resultant 
taxation. Every farmer in Texas pays annually more taxes to bad roads 
than would pay his annual fees over the most excellent system of turn¬ 
pikes ever constructed. 
We complain of our farmer boys leaving the farm and rushing to the 
city, and the complaint is just. Why do they leave? Is it because farm 
life, or, better, country life, does not offer as many attractions? Why is 
it that the country life in the older States is so desirable? The reason 
will be found in the better equipment of the country in all respects. One 
of the greatest agencies in this work is our schools. Thanks to good 
management, they are now on rising ground, and it will soon be so that 
no farmer will be compelled to send his children to town to reach schools. 
A greater agent still in this work of social reform is the introduction of 
first-class roads. When our counties become belted and checkered by 
fine macadamized roads, the stampede from the country to the town will 
cease, and we shall see the tide turn the other way. It needs no state¬ 
ment here to convince anyone that the social life in the country Avould 
be improved, and that instead of our country boys selling their patri¬ 
monies and joining in the strife for wealth in the teeming cities, we 
shall see them settle down to the sturdy life of the yeoman citizen. 
The labor tax, or labor levy system (known by us as the overseer sys¬ 
tem) is so universally adopted that it needs more than a passing notice. 
As usually carried out in practice, it is very defective. In theory, the 
same objection can be urged against it that are urged against the poll 
tax. It is in reality a poll tax in labor. The work is under the control of 
an overseer, who generally knows little about the principles of road mak¬ 
ing except what he has learned by discharging his few (five) days’ assess¬ 
ment from year to year. As everyone knows, in the majority of cases the 
day is fooled away in discussing politics, or retailing the latest gossip of 
the country. As effective work, the day’s labor does not amount to three 
hours’ honest work. The overseer can not make the hands work. Every 
man, of course, should do something for his roads, but this something 
should be left to some competent road man. The work of a raw hand, 
however willing and industrious, is not as effective as a regular road 
worker. It would be better if all road work could be done by hands 
regularly employed on the roads. The only way to do this is to abolish 
the overseer system and place all roads under the supervision of expe¬ 
rienced men, and, instead of a labor levy of five days, make every man 
over 21 years of age pay a road poll tax of $1 to $3. Personally, I 
should prefer $2.50. Some of the special road laws permit a person to 
pay $3 and escape the road levy. I can not say how many avail them¬ 
selves of this privilege. Statistics on this subject would be interesting. 
