The weekly intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1891-1901, 1891-11-14
GOOD COUNTRV ROADS


Much is being written of late about
good country roads, but very little is
seer of them during that portion of
the year that the sun and dry weather
do not make them. Indeed, it is prob
able that people who have produce to
market or supplies to haul home are
now and will be hurrying to get the
work done before the rainy season
comes and the highways will be almost
impossible. 1t would seem that at
this stage of American civilization
some system of building good country
roads could be devised which would be
practical in older communities. The
growth of the railroad system has
probably detracted much from the
necessity of such roads for general
travel and the transportation of mer-
chandise long distances.
Sometimes it seems that the promi-
hence of the railroad has overshadowed
the real Importance of the country
roads-the roads over which the large
body of farmers must reach the
villages and towns where they make
their exchanges. And yet there are
periods, nearly every year, during
which the business of whole sections,
whole states, in fact, outside q few rail
road towns is suspended by impossible
roads. Scarcely q year passes when
commercial papers do MOI contain
statements to the effect that all bust
ness is mud-bound.
To make the main roads of q Sec
ton of country so thoroughly that they
a be travelled with comfort and safe
ty, and full-loaded wagons a be
hauled over them IN rainy as well as
dry seasons, strikes some people rs
impossible, because of the cost and the
general nature of the western country.
That the cost is great there can be no
doubt, but what is being done thor
oughly in Great Britain, France and
Germany can be done in Indiana o
any other western state. The whole
country cannot be checkered by
macadamized roads, but is it not pos
sible that the roads at regular intervals
along which the bulk of local travel
and transportation passes u be put
into q condition that a rainy week will
not cut off II large portion of the coun7
try from the railroad centersP This is
the question which is being discussed,
and of which, in some states, n solution
il being sought.
The New York senate has twice
p used a bill! appropriating ten million
dollars for the construction of APPROX
ed roads on important lines through
the state. The action by the legisla-
lures of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Massa-
chusetts and Rhode Island is toward
a state appropriation for such purpose.
The state department at Washington
has made inquiries regarding the inn
proved methods of road building in
European countries, and the reports
OF consuls upon this subject will soon
be issued i'm the form of an illustrated
document.
Several counties in various parts of
the country have tried the experiment.
In Union and Essex counties, New
Jersey, the experiment of the construc-
ton of hIgh-cost roads has been most
satisfactory, the increased value of the
lands and population, and the more
prosperous condition of the residents
being attributed to it. In Union coun-
ty forty miles of telford and macadam
road cost $3.50, 900, for which bonds
we're issued, but so much has the
property improved in value that there
has been no increase in taxes to pay
interest and maturing obligations. An
experiment in this direction has been
made in Parke county, in this state,
which, in a general way, is reported to
be satisfactory. 1t needs no argument
to satisfy sensible people IN Indiana
that the subject is mt of the most I'M
portant that a be investi gated.-In'
dianapolis Journal.