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Show FARMER NEEDS GOOD ROADS Motor Hag Extended His Sphere of Operation Until 100 Miles Doesn't Worry Him. There is a reason for American tardiness in road building. We need not be utterly downcast when we hear oar highways unfavorably1 compared with the fine, smooth roads of Europe. We must . remember that European highways were hundreds of years in the making and In periods -when roads were the sole means of transportation, both civil and military. There were no railroads, no electric lines, no wire communication. Road building was the essence of commercial life and communication. America started almost with the railroad and the steamboat. Comparatively Compar-atively a few years later we had the telegraph. Our. roads were neglected because they were only local in character. char-acter. Our railroads and telegraph enabled us to leap the centuries. But now we are confronted by a new need. It Is the need for better local transportation, trans-portation, says Chicago Tribune. Where formerly the farmer was content con-tent with a few miles of dirt roads for his local traffic, he now requires hundreds hun-dreds of miles, for his area has expanded ex-panded with the advent of gasoline. A few years back there was the protest that good roads was merely the argument of the automobilist, a species restricted chiefly to metropolitan metropol-itan districts. A part of that argument argu-ment still obtains that good roads is the demand of the automobilist; but the automobilist Is the farmer. The' motor-has extended his sphere of operation until 100 miles is of no more concern to him than was ten before. |