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Show MAKING BEST OF DIRTJGHWAYS Many Conimunltlas Unable to Maintain Other Roads. THE GRADER AND DRAG, Ths Troubl. With the Oood Rosd Movtmtnt Is Thst In Msny Com munltUi It Oitt Mlx.d Up In tht Minds of Tsxpayers With th. Motor Spdwy, Tho troublo w ltd tliv kikhI road more-ment more-ment In nltio out of ten iiclgliloruood U Unit It git mixed up In I lie minds of tlic taxpayer with ttio tnolor speed wny nnd tlm trail of tlio Joy rider. njs n contributor to tbo Kann I'rogre A wood many farmers aro Edtlng auto-mobiles auto-mobiles and mom fanners will cct them In tbo future, but even tbU has failed to do much toward removing tho prcjudlco ngnlntt ttio building of permanent roads. I There aro soma communities that are ' nuauclally ablo to build tbo wide, per- J luaticnt. brick, concreto or macadam rundrrny. Most communities aro not able to niftuinu iucu a burden. Tbo dirt rnnd U about tbo best we can look forward to. dvplte tbo statements of the radical road builders. Wo do not caro to tax ourselves to death at tbo pnwent time, and we dislike to bend our backs to the burden of paying off n scries of road Ixiud maturing at thu end of twenty or thirty year nnd at tbo miiio time Mrplne up and main-talnlng main-talnlng tho splendid but coitly road. Therefore n great many of tbo plain people, thoso who suffer iuot from bad roadt, are In favor of setting about the task of doing tbo best wo can with (be dirt highways. Wo would like tbo vort of a road that innchlnes could travel over twelve month In tho year, but feeling that tbcuo nro out of our reach we nre going to do tho best we can with what we have nnd hope for I N- I on ak cxttsoomiiocm:,, uibt wun. will really utnoutit to wtnetblug Thl n.e.tn. that wo are taking a Briat deal moro Interest the building wn"! nnd dragging 0f iUe I10ne tJo good nlguwumhatwenowbuve. Oertatal, n Srea deal can bo done by the commuulty that mikm.? mind to help t4 the S In tape. One man la a dlitrlct L h I enco easily seen. I was (n uortijwt JIlMourl for a week In tbo fall of 1014, nd I saw work being dono that should be copied. 1 was vUlllngn man who lived Ihrvo and n half mile from town, nnd he. his sous or some one of his hired men spent n part of n day dragging tho roads overy week. They did not wait for tho "rond lon" to "warn" everybody every-body out for n "road working." but whenever they found that tbey had an hour or two of time that could bo spared they hitched up to n road drag of the D Ward King pattern nnd smoothed some of tho humps off tho highway Hiinxlilne or freezing tnndo but little dlffereiH"? on thec roads that were Im Ins steadily worked down twelve months In the year That lithe kind of work that wilt count, pirllcu irly where ynu cflti get o whole neigh lwrliooil Interested tiy Hif ue of the grader In summer and spring and the road drag In fall, winter, spring and summer wo can put the surface of thuxo dirt road In suih shape that they will be rvnuonably passable all tho year round. Then we ought to turn our attention to narrow lag the actual roadway down to a track of not moro than sixteen feet In width. What Is tho use of working, grading nnd dragging n full thirty foot width of trnrk? I havo no Idea who U responsible for the Idea that a country highway ought to bare a sixty foot right of way. but whoever he was be mado a sad and cotly rnltake. We will be forced to pay moro attention nlo to bridge nnd culvert work. It Is rrninrkabla to see how easily the public pub-lic money can b waii-d In till Item. Ily miking the mot of our present road and reourre wo may possibly get to n point where we can build more permanently. At lean we should not give up all hope simply because we cannot have the very latest thing In permanent highways. |