Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 January 1911 — Delegates to State Congress Are Against Road Supervisors. [ARTICLE]

Delegates to State Congress Are Against Road Supervisors.

That the township road supervisor in Indiana is a nuisance, and that the office ought to be abolished, was the almost unanimous opinion of delegates to the state congress of Indiana In the closing session of the organization’s annual meeting. The supervisor came in for several rounds when the delegates were discussing whether or not they should approve the movement to establish a state highway commission. “The supervisor in my district came to me a short time ago,” said one delegate, “and handed me a signed road tax receipt, showing that I had worked five days on the highways. I looked at him in surprise, and I told him I had not worked a day on the roads, and thdt I had not been told by him when og>where to work. He looked at me blankly for a minute and told me he thought I had worked out my tax. that he had fixed up his books that way, and for me to take the receipt and save him the trouble of doing his books over.” Another delegate said: “I haven’t worked the roads for 16 years. I have always paid the road supervisor 75 > cents on the dollar to do it for me. I don’t know whether he did it or. not. I think not, from the fact that when our grand jury was sitting last time, he came to me and asked me to keep quiet about my road tax receipts until after the grand jury had adjourned.” accounts of the laxity of performance among road supervisors, and a declaration that the office should be abolished met with instant response. The opinion seemed to be that road supervisors are largely to blame for the wretched condition of roads In many townships and for failure of the land owners to get value received on their roads in return for the money and work expended for road purposes. The practice of railroad companies “farming out” their road taxes, or employing persons to do the work for them, was denounced as one of the grossest of the highway system abuses in the state, and the enactment of some law by which the practice could be prevented was demanded.