Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 January 1893 — CHANCE FOR RICH MEN. [ARTICLE]

CHANCE FOR RICH MEN.

Let Them Unite In an Effort Looking to Improvement In Country Roads. Millionaires who don’t know how to lay out their money to advantage will find a good suggestion in an article by ex-Governor James A. Beaver on good roads. He says: “It is not impossible for us to hope for some improvement, even under our present unsatisfactory laws, in certain favored localities and under exceptional conditions. An example or two which will appeal to the readers of the Forum will best convey the impression desired to be made. A. J. Cassatt, whose country residence is In Montgomery county, adjoining Philadelphia, well known in railroad and business circles and in the community at large as an engineer of brilliant attainments and as a railroad manager of large and varied experience, and who is also a lover and breeder of fine horses, was a few years ago elected—probably partly as a joke and partly in the hope of securing the benefit of his knowledge and experience—a road supervisor for the township in which he lived. To the surprise of many he accepted the position, levied the highest amount of tax allowed under the law, summoned his neighbors and secured voluntary contributions'from those who were interested in good roads for driving purposes, and as a result during his official term secured for that township the best common roads in Pennsylvania. Another gentleman In one of the suburbs of Philadelphia, anxious to benefit his kind and to secure for his neighbors the greatest comfort and convenience in everyday life, located, laid out, and built at his own expense some two miles of model public road, which he presented to the municipality in which he lived. These two practical examples furnish by busy business men arc suggestive of what can be done, even under existing circumstances and discouraging legal surroundings. “As to the practical results arising from the improvements just referred to, there have been undoubted enhancement of the valus of real estate, an influx of desirable population, and the largest possible increase to the comfort and convenience of all the people of those regions who make use of these roads. If a good road, thoroughly constructed, will endure for a thousand years with ordinary repairs, what better monument can a man who wishes to benefit his kind raise to his memory, how can he contribute to the welfare oi his fellows more fully and for a longer period, and how better perpetuate his memory than by following the example of the gentleman last mentioned, and by giving his own name to the roadsthus constructed?”