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Show Construction of Roads in Arkansas Progresses The cost of building roads is always al-ways an important item. Hard surfaced sur-faced roads may seem mote expensive but they more than pay for themselves. them-selves. This has been well illustrated by Melvin T. Traylor, president of the First National bank of Chicago, in an address to the forty-ninth annual convention con-vention of the American Bankers' association. as-sociation. He is quoted as saying: "Much of our recent debt has been for good roads. In most parts of the country coun-try these cost in the neighborhood of $25,000 per mile, but they add immediate immedi-ate increased value of $10 to $25 per acre to every foot of land they traverse trav-erse iind they certainly add increased dollars to every item produced on farms bordering or near them, to say nothing of the comfort and happiness which safe and easy traveling over them brings to the rural communities. "There are many methods of providing pro-viding funds for road building. Regardless Regard-less of the manner in which the funds are obtained, the principal thing to be considered is that the roads shall be so built that they will render service at little expense long after payment for them is completed. Any other type of construction is waste ; waste which is doubly abusive in that construction and maintenance go on larger and larger, while at the same time the user and those who benefit from the roads are paying an excessive cost for inadequate highways. "More and wider roads of permanent construction must be built. Otherwise money is being spent upon construction construc-tion which soon wears out which is impassable during weeks of the year and which is fettering the growth of the transportation system and community com-munity development. It rests with the people who furnish the money whether roads shall be built for the present or for the future." |