The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1889-08-30
ale Sn~telltQenter.
once, Nos. 70 and ~ ToprtseptA stIoeI
OUR COUNTRY ROADS.

Why ThOy are as They RFs-Ths Effort e
improve Them,
Htv York Evening Pot,
Another good sign Of the times Is the
issue Of an excellent pamphlet by the
League Of American Wheelmen on the
Improvement Of Highways" both town
and country. II cannot be too widely
circllated, foI It contains articles on the
making and care OF good roads and on
city payements, by experts, who mol
only urge the saving and the comloIt q
good roads, but show In detail now they
are to be made and maintained, Every
farmer in the country ought 70 have
copy put into his hands,
The editors very naturally refuse U
accent the suggestion that "the degree
Of a nations civilization may be gagged
bv the condition OF its roads" because
Vthis would be q notifying test 70 ap,,
ply To- our own country, for 1t would
place 1t not only below France, where
all the country roads are said 70 be actu'
ally swept every morning, and Germany
and England, but even below some o.
| the States OF Asia and northern Africa"
The excuse for the badness OF American
roads Is that railroads were made here,
as nowhere else, when the country was
loo thinly settled to make good high
WAYS attainahle, and have ever since abb
sorbed the attention OF nearly everybody
who was interested In the questions Of
transportation either for goods or pas
sengers, But the country along nearly
every line OF railroad Is now so thlCkly
settled that the question Of reaching the
railroad has become one OF paramount
Importance, In several Of the Western
States, and in many parts OF this State,
the traffic receipts Of the railroads fall
off heavily in spring simply because the
carriage Of goods to the stations Is made
impossible by the badness Of the roads,
and there Ia hardly q road in the coun-
try In which the work OF the American,
as compared to the European, draught-
horse Is not nearly doubled by the con-
dltion OF the road-bed, even in,the best
weather, to say nothing OF the increased
wear and tear OF vehicles and harness.
There Is another excuse for tho bad
ness OF American roads, which the
Wheelmen's pamphlet does not mem
ton, but which ought not to pass with.
ont notice, and that Ia the Invention OF
the light wagon Us a substitute Tor the
saddle and the pillion, as q means Of 10.
comotion over short distances. The
comparative case with which this vehicle
can be drawn over rough or DOGGY roads
has for half u century aided the railroads
in concealing from the American public
the extraordinary badness Of their high
ways, And then the strength oil tfadi'
ton among the farmers to whose care
the country roads have been left, and
the length oil the winter In many Of the
Northern and Northwestern States, must
also be taken into account In inquiting
why road-making has not kept paCo with
the other arts in the United States. We
believe It Ia strictly true that the farm.
ers' mode OF repairing the roads In the
spring has conc down without change
from the early colonial time, when a
highway meant simply an open bride.
path through the woods, fro0 from dan
gerous holes and passable In the dark by
a mounted man. The scraping up Of
the mud from the ditch to raise the cen.
ter Of the roadbed, and level 1t, clearly
dates from this period, when there was
no need to provide for wheeled traffic.