The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1891-10-30
THE COUNTRY ROAD PROBLEM.

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Ing II.
Tho New York Evening Post Gays.
An interesting addition to the literature
Of road making Ia pamphlet recently
issued containing an address delivered
last January before the New Jersey state
board Of agriculture by Mr.. Chauncey
B. Ripley on Improved Roads," and
collection of his views on the making of
good country roads and their financial
value. Mr.. Ripley is lawyer practic-
ing in this city and living in New Jer.
sey, who has, us property owner, the
most unbounded faith in the doctrine
that money expended on roads comes
back to the taxpayer who expends 1t.
Having been instrumental in securing
the passage of the New Jersey law which
permits the chosen freeholders of each
county to designate certain thorough
fares as county roads," and to bond the
county to raise money for their improve
ment, he has stirred up the people of his
own county (Union) to take quick ad-
vantage of this law, and he bears graft
flying testimony to the result.
Mr.. Ripley defines "a good road" to be
"a road available for all sorts Of travel
and at every season of the year." No
one certainly can find fault with road
which can stand this test. The ordinary
country road is the exact opposite. In
deed, it may be said Of it that it is real
ly available for no kind of travel except
for few weeks in year. If of clay, it
can be driven over with pleasure only in
a dry time. If Of sand, it affords good
driveway for only few hours after
rain, before it's packed surface is cut up
by wheels. Nature very seldom pro-
vides roadbed which is not mire hole
in the spring and dust bed in the sum-
mer; and in this country only in recent
years and very slowly have farmers come
to recognize the fact that the cost Of
making "a good road,' after Mr.. Rip
ley's definition, will come back to them
in any way. Accepting the adage that
the condition of a country's public roads
indicates it's civilization, Mr.. Ripley
points out that in our country we have
been spending our millions on the rail-
roads which were unknown when this
adage was framed, and which have had
so much to do with shaping the civiliza-
ton of all countries in modern time.
The farmer who would look on any one
a. q schemer who should tell him that it
would pay to mortgage his county for .
per cent. of its valuation in order to
macadamize the wagon roads has been
easily persuaded of the personal advan-
tage to him of bonding the same county
to assist in laying out railroad through
it, and may have invested few hundred
of his own hard earned dollars in the
original stock of the road, the ultimate
value of which is so generally mythical.
The railroad, in word, has been &C.
cepted as necessity and an unquestioned
benefactor, while the good wagon roac
has simply been dispensed with as a too
expensive luxury.
Whoever attempts to stir up interest
in good wagon roads in this country
outside of the few Newports and Lenoxes
where luxuries are demanded as such
must prepare himself to prove that good
roads will pay. The rural property owner
is not generally susceptible to the purely
aesthetic. When first appealed to to
assist in road improvements his reply is,
"Let the owners of fast horses make fine
roads" To get him interested he must
be shown by practical example that it is
to his profit to be able to haul ton where
before he has been able to haul only half
as much, or that with roads that are
good" in the technical sense he will
lind his land in demand at prices which
before no one would offer. For this rea-
son the testimony presented in Mr.. Rip
ley's pamphlet is very valuable. Here is
some of it: Real estate has doubled,
trebled and quadrupled in value since
the construction of telford roads from
Orange to Dover, N. j. One of the
chronic grumblers against taxes for road
improvements in Union county, when
asked if he would consent to have the
road restored to its old condition. order
to save the taxes, replied: "Well, as | |
shall not be required to pay more than
two dollars a year for the rest of my life,
it would not be worth while" The travel
has increased on these roads tenfold in a
years time. "Since the law went into
effect" says Mr.. Ripley, real estate
values in Union county have advanced
nearly 81, 800, 900, exclusive of property
advances in Elizabeth of about 500, 200
more" This statement was made in
October, 1890, and work under the coun-
ty road act was begun only the year be-
fore. So rapidly has real estate advanced
since the roads were made better that
one of the largest real estate owners in
he county expresses the opinion that the
in future values will cover
Ill the cost of the improvement.
Every one who has watched the prog