The Commissioners of Madison County, sometime ago, authorized an issue of $300,000 in road bonds, solely on account of the bill which had been passed by the recent General Assembly providing for convicts to aid in the completion of the Central Highway.

Relying upon the promise of State aid and in order to make sure of our ability to provide our part of the expense connected with the convict work, our Commissioners have sold $50,000 of our bonds at a loss of more than $2,000 to the County.

In addition to this, my own township (Hot Springs) has raised by special taxation something like $5,000 in cash, and many of our citizens have made private subscriptions in cash, work, tools, or teams.

We have also arranged to lay out a system of roads for the entire county, with the Central Highway, as surveyed by State Engineer Clingman, as the backbone of the system.

The Central Highway cannot be built without State aid, and, unless we are to have the number of convicts provided for in the bill referred to above, we will have to rearrange all our plans or abandon the project entirely. I would therefore greatly appreciate a letter from you advising us definitely what we may expect in the way of State aid, so that our Commissioners can act upon it at their next regular meeting.

I notice by the newspapers that some two hundred convicts have been ordered to the railroads, which would appear to be in direct violation of the intent of Sec. 4 of Art. 5 of our Constitution. Also that fifty convict have been ordered to the Hickory Nut Gap road. The bill authorizing State aid for Hickory Nut Gap provides for a minumum of thirty convicts, while the bill for Madison County, which is in the same language, provides for a minimum of twenty-five convicts.

We do not understand why Madison County should be discriminated against, especially when more convicts have been sent to Hickory Nut Gap than the minimum provided for in the bill.