FROM DAYS GONE BY July 25, 1919

July 25, 1919.

The following is a letter to the editor by local Wrightsville man, Ben Hill Moye, concerning the biggest issue of the day, better roads for Johnson County and the state of Georgia.

Scores of counties in Georgia have already blazed the trial toward permanent roads, and the Federal Government is truly living up to its obligations in matching dollar for dollar in making these much needed improvements.
There is not a man in our county that would refuse to invest his money in a private enterprise if his government would give him half the purchase price and then when the purchase was consummated give absoulutely and in fee simple the title to the jointly purchased property. That is exactly the proposition our government is making to us as a county. If we will only take an interest in the development of our own county and will show our interest by voting bonds for permanet good roads our government will give to us outright free from the treasury of the country a sum equal to the amount of bonds floated for that purpose. That seems to us a most liberal proposition.
From a strictly business standpoint Johnson County is very foolish indeed to longer delay going "over the top" in the movement for permanent good roads. It cannot be denied by any man that has given the matter any thought at all that permanent roads in our county will immediately enhance the value of all our property from twenty-five to fifty percent. Then again permanent roads will eliminate the expenditure of large sums of money in carrying on and keeping up our present obsolete and inadequate road system, and it will reduce by seventy-five percent the enormous cost and expense that our people are annually paying out through wear and tear on buggies, wagons, mules and horses pulled to death, and automobiles, the one item of time saved by good roads will more than pay the interest on the bonded debt.
Now the question arises, what are we going to do about the matter, and what and how can we do if we take any action? If we are willing to let well enough alone there is nothing to be done, but if our people have the proper interest in this most necessary public improvement we should begin the movement by holding a mass meeting for the people of the whole county and agree on the amount of bonds to be floated, and then organize and appoint a bond committee to put the machinery in motion to hold an election. The first and initial thing to be done is to hold the mass meeting. That will bring the minds of the county together and then the necessary organization can be had and the details of the campaign worked out.
Now would be a good time to inaugurate this very helpful and progressive campaign. We need to meet at the court house immediately so we can start something. Permanent roads are coming. Why not hasten the day?
B. H. Moye