| Show ROADS GOSPEL DISCIPLES ARE THICK AS BEES IN A CLOVER PATCH NOT ALL CALLED TO PREACH desire Is strong but knowledge Is if lacking wonderful progress in campaign for better highway cut out all fads fade BY HOWARD H GROSS it if one looks carefully over the press clippings that come in upon the question of good roads he will be aston aotoa asbed at several things first the widespread interest that I 1 is taken in the subject better highways are being discussed everywhere in the shop store the school at the cross roads clubs grain exchanges boards of trade railway moe meetings tings etc the advocates of good roads are as thick as bumble bees in a clover patch all sorts of solutions are offered most of which are impracticable ti and it if undertaken would be simply a waste of time and money it reminds oue of the remark of a philosopher who after listening to a young lady of voluble conversation said vv what hat a relief it would be if she would stop talking for a little while and do some thinking there are disciples without It hout number who feel they are called to preach the gospel of good roads they know little or nothing of the subject but the desire Is strong and impelling it reminds one of the young divinity student with very little aptitude for the 4 1 UP 04 ann an the above view la Is from the pitch lake island of trinidad where we get Rp asphalt halt for our street paving the coolie Is loading up his cart to haul tho pitch to the docks other pitch gatherers can be sen sein in the distance profession be proposed to adopt and from which the bishop was trying to him because he regarded him as wholly inapt I 1 ahe he man maintained he was called to preach and there therefore foriE he was to obey the summons the bishop asked him in what manner the call had come ile he said eaid he had bad had a dream in which he be saw baw outlined in the heavens clearly in letters of white P C which he interpreted to mean to go and preach christ the bishop told him he had bad no doubt he had en the vision as stated but lie he bad misinterpreted it and that the letters P C in his case meant to plow corn it Is so with the good roads advocates many of them doing more harm than good one enthusiast who has been much in evidence Is telling the people how they can get good raids money lie he might as well try to boost himself over a fence by pulling at his bia boot straps the good roas roada question is a tremendously big one and must be handled in a big way no na one can master the subject in a short time the writer has spent 15 years digging into it from every angle and he feels that there in ia yet much to learn leam some good roads roada enthus taRts have bava pio proposed posed tho the building of great national highways connecting all the capitals of the states or a great transcontinental trans continental roadway from boston to ban francisco or from chicago to the gulf such roads would be tremendously expensive and about the only thing that they could be used tor for would lie be as aa speedways speed ways for automobiles these are not the roads that the public needs in the building of highways there are two great questions involved one I 1 is the economic advantages to be gained from the transportation view point and this means good roads roada from the farm home to the market town over which the food supply of the world must bo be moved the other question Is one ona of the social and educational cat ional advantages that follow good road construction fortunately it Is true that the same highways that would give the largest returns from an economic standpoint are the roads best beat suited to give tho the highest advancement hence the need la Is not these great broad expensive highways extending hundreds of 0 miles in any given direction but a network of good roads nine to twelve feet wide covering the main highways of the country and centering in the market towns upon the railways the wagon roads are the veins of commerce the rail railways mays the arteries the largest public good will come from such a condition that there will be a free and uninterrupted movement upon both the highways hig bays and railways throughout the year among the economic advantages Is that it enables the farmer to keep in close touch with the market and make his deliveries when in his judgment the best price can be realized there is no doubt that a large percentage the major portion of the farm produce for the last 50 years in the mississippi alley balley has been sold and moved with road conditions as the determining factor it la Is hooray llo oray boys we me must get this grain to mar ket because the roads are good and not necessarily because the price Is at its ita best this hurrying of product to market swamps samps the railroad companies and they are unable to move the freight and enables the shrewd dealers in the city to manipulate prices pushing them up or down and to reap a rich harvest out of the farmer on the one hand band and the consumer on the other colossal fortunes have been built up through the grain ex changes the principal factor that enables them to do this Is bad and at times impassable roads if good roads advocates will confine their talk and recommendations to the high highways ays that will serve the people and such highways as the people can afford to build much greater progress will ill be made in some instances good roada can be built with gravel at hand at from to 1000 a mile where the gravel must be shipped some distance the cost will be double when crushed stone Is used and must be shipped by train the expense will be an where from to a mile cven at a mile it would pay well to build good roads roada upon the highways it if it Is done by the state elate aid plan those who are objecting to the building ot of good roads roada advance objections that are found to be fallacious upon a littly consideration the writer remembers one man who interrupted him during an address and ie marked that in some fieroe parts of the country they were building hard roads at a cost of from to mile and then said that their township had bad about 72 miles of highways highway and proceeded to show that the expense would be at a nillo mile tv t cover all the highways with this type of road upon a little inquiry it was disclosed that the roads in question were brick roads built upon a co concrete h foundation an excellent road to be sure cure nod and such na as it may pay to build where the traffic is very heavy and there Is a large amount of taxable property to pay the bill but these are not the roads that it Is usually practicable to 1 build no township needs anything wee 1 72 miles the facts are that four fifths fifthe of the traffic passes over about one fourth of the road mileage and it has been found the country over at home and abroad that when from one fourth to one tb lid of the total mileage of the highways has been thoroughly improved all communities are well served and the good roads problem has been solved A man may have a farm a mile from a good road but if it Is six miles to town he can manage to got get over this first mile which will be a little used road to the main highway and if from there he can have a first class road to town making up five sixths sixtus of the distance lie he will III be well taken care of the fact that he be has five miles of good road and one mile of poor will spur him and his bis neighbors to put in the best possible condition this road of secondary importance it has been demonstrated time with out number that well built roads roada upon the antin highways will pay for them selves every five or six years treated from an economic standpoint alone to say nothing of the educational and social advantages and the pleasure and satisfaction of using a good road in stead of a poor one the good road boomers should keep in mind some certain things that are fundamental first that under our system 0 of f gov eminent no large amount of good roads can be built unless the farmers are ready to mo moe e in the matter hence the farmer and not the automobile manufacturer or user must be first considered next that the question of road ne cassity has baa the economic social and educational welfare involved in it next neu that good roads the country over need not cost to a mile but through the central west they can easily be built at costs ranging from 1000 to a mile depending upon local conditions th athla Is price may be sometimes reduced by the use of convict labor in the prepa ration of material the farmer should remember that the building of good roads adds to the cash value of his farm more than times as much as the tax he will nill be called upon to pay to help build them ile he should also remember that if the roads were uniformly good it would be much easier to get help upon the farm the farm laborea could himself with a bicycle which can be had a very small cost and upon rainy days or sunday he could ge out and I 1 see his friends instead of being marooned by impassable roads the farmer should also remember that over good roads can be hauled hau led two or three times as much produce as over bad roads let the good roads roada advocates agree upon some sensible line of procedure and cut out all the fads and impossibilities bili ties and bring the proposition down where it belongs and consider it in the light of local conditions and advocate such roads as will ghe the largest return tor for the money invested |
