. American highways; a popular account of their conditions, and of the means by which they may be bettered . er that he may have time toinspect the work of his subordinates and advise them asto their duties. Above these petty chiefs come the officersof the great corps of the Pouts et Chaussees. In addi-tion to the sketch of the cantonnier system as above noted,it may be said that the force is largely composed of dis-charged soldiers who have had a disciplinary are fined for any neglect of duty, and may receiveannual gratuities amounting to as much as a months payeach year for par
. American highways; a popular account of their conditions, and of the means by which they may be bettered . er that he may have time toinspect the work of his subordinates and advise them asto their duties. Above these petty chiefs come the officersof the great corps of the Pouts et Chaussees. In addi-tion to the sketch of the cantonnier system as above noted,it may be said that the force is largely composed of dis-charged soldiers who have had a disciplinary are fined for any neglect of duty, and may receiveannual gratuities amounting to as much as a months payeach year for particularly good service. As a whole the11* 178 AMERICAN HIGHWAYS efficiency of the corps is excellent. The men work in aplodding, pottering way. The product of their labor isprobably not more than two thirds of what would be ob-tained by a skilful private contractor for the same hours,but it is about as good as would be secured in public workin this country. It is interesting to note that, notwith-standing the low price of this labor, the annual cost ofmaintaining the main or departmental roads of France. A French national road. was in 1860 about one hundred and thirty-five dollars permile. The care of these ways was, however, of the highestorder, such as we cannot hope to attain in this countryfor some decades to come. It may be said without dangerof contradiction that good as the French system clearly is,it cannot be applied to a decentralized government suchas our own. METHOD OF ADMINISTRATION OF ROADS 179 ENGLISH METHOD The existing Englisli metliod by its system of local ad-ministration by connties, througli their county councils,represents the result of many experiments in the manage-ment of roads other than those in cities. These countiesare, as regards wealth and population, fairly comparablewith our own States. In area and concentration of taxableproperty they are not so, the resources per square milebeing many times what they are in any but a few of ourcommunities. The
Size: 1903px × 1312px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, bookpublishernewyo, bookyear1896
