The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1880-02-14
About Country Roads.


Although we are a boastful people,
we never brag about the common wag-
on roads of the country. If they were
capable of being transported, we should
not be tempted to exhibit them at any
international fair. Our highest author
ity on the subject declares that the COM
mon roads of the United States are in
ferior to those of any other civilized
country. AL our citizens who have
been abroad agree in the above opinion.
Even the barbarous Turk" construct
better roads than the civilized Ameri-
can. We "beat the world" in the mat
ter of wheeled vehicles of every kind,
but we pay very little attention to the
roads over which they are run. We
have neglected the science and art of
road-making almost entirely. Few
treatises on the construction of such
roads have ever been published in the
country, and they have had very linn
tied sale. With road on nearly every
section line, one may travel hundred
miles without finding an expert at road
making.
There are various things that serve
to account for the badness of our roads.
The country is new, and the construc-
ton of fine roads is usually the result
of considerable time. Our population
is scattered, and to supply all portions
of the country with good roads would
involve a heavier tax on the community
than is required in countries that are
densely peopled. In the West, where
the roads are generally worse than in
any section of the country, farmers are
commonly engaged in improving their
property, and they find it hard to make
public improvements at the same time.
AS rule, the roads are more numer-
GUS than the wants of the general pub
lie actually require. Every farmer,
even if he owns but forty acres of land,
wants a road on one side of his prem
ises, and he expects that it will be laid
out, constructed and kept in repair at
public cost. The great number of roads
serves to make them all very misera-
BILE.
Our numerous railroads have oper-
ated against the construction of earth
roads of the excellence of those found
in foreign countries. The fine roads
seen abroad were generally made be-
fore railroads were thought of, and the
present generation is only taxed to keep
them in repairs. Many portions of the
West were supplied with railroads be-
fore any earth roads were constructed.
This being the case, settlers only con-
cerned themselves about roads leading
from their farms to the nearest station.
In some sections so many railroads were
projected that farmers waited to see if
one would not pass their doors before
they thought to construct common
road to station on some existing rail-
way line at considerable distance from
their places. AS a rule they were
heavily taxed in some way for the rail-
roads, and they accordingly thought
themselves too poor to spend much on
common roads.
In many portions of the prairie region
of the West materials for the construc.
ton of public road-b beds are scarce, and
the ordinary soil is as bad for making
roads as it is good for producing crops.
1t is soft, porous, retentive of moisture,
and easily washed. On the low and
fiat prairies there are few facilities for
proper drainage. The bitches made at
the sides of roads for the purpose of
carrying off water are easily filled with
earth, owing to insufficient fall. In
many cases the bitches become simply
reservoirs for holding water. The por-
GUS character of the earth of which the
road is constructed causes it to absorb
the water and to keep it saturated for
days and weeks after rain. Such is
the action of the water in bitches on
the roads they are intended to drain
that the public highway affords much
poorer passage for teams than the ad-
joining private fields or open prairios.
Another thing that has operated
against the construction and mainte-
nance of good roads is the general lack
of local pride concerning them. Towns
emulate each other in the construction
of school houses and other public build
ings. There is great rivalry among diff
ferent denominations about the build
ing of elegant churches. But there
seems to be no pride, emulation or
spirit of rivalry on the subject of fine
roads. 1t is often difficult to find hall
in village of sufficient capacity to &C
commodate the people that will assem-
BILE at meeting called in the interest
of some projected railroad. But a
meeting held for the purpose of arous-
ing public sentiment on the subject of
better earth roads, on which anyone
can travel without cost, would not be
attended by dozen people, and most
of them would be opponents of the
measure. Still the wagon track will be
used'ffty times where the car track is
employed only once.
Farmers and other people living in
the country often complain of the ex-
pense attending the construction of
good roads. They do not like to pay
for them. They seem to forget that
thew are nhliOed to nav for moor rnads