Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-10-15
SOME ROAD SUGGESTIONS.

The NTa'.r!nl for the Necessary Macad-
mizing Right at Hand.
TO the ~ :lr rThe Dispatch:
If one we're to make the statement that
farmers were subject to tax of at least 10
per cent on all transactions involving the
sale and delivery or exchange of their
products, of which they have never taken
account, the farmer would be very reluc-
tant to take it. Yet that they are subject
to such tax, is susceptible of easy proof
All the outgoing and incoming products
and supplies of the farm have to be moved
over the public highways, at a loss in time,
in horse feed, in repairs and supply of
vehicles and harness very greatly exceed
ing 10 PER cent more than the necessary
cost were the roads properly macadamized.
In addition to all this is the discomfort and
inconvenience of the farmer and the abuse
Of the lorg suffering and patient horse
Neither the farmer, the merchant nor the
mechanic ever stops TO consider that at pres
ent it actually costs more to move ton OF
freight one mile over our miserable roads
than to move il % miles by rail To use
al illustration, it is now costing
to transport 5000 pounds from Buffalo to
New York 81 a.. To transport 5000 pounds
from Buffalo to New York by wagon, allow
ing 20 days for the trip one wav, would cost,
at 50 90 per day, S7O-more than IS times
rs much as by rail Over good, solid roads
the same team would take 1000 pounds
with much less labor. Now the entire farm
production of the United States, not con-
sumcd on the farm producing it, is moved
by wagon an average of seven miles. This
is equivalent IN cost to 1876 miles of rail
transportation. Half the horses required
TO do this work ever the present roads could
do it over solid roadbeds with practicable
grades. This would turn loose scores of
millions of dollars now tied up in horses,
that could be diverted to other channels of
trade. 1t would save annually millions of
hav. grain and other feed from a worse than
useless consumption, all of which would at
once become available for fattening hund-
reds of thousands of beeves, hogs and sheep,
a production always marketable for cash.
Put the roads of America in the condition
the roads of France are in and you have
at once effected a saving in freight equal in
any view of the case to at least 25 per cent
of the total cost Of moving our farm prod
ucts seven miles by wagon, which, as we
have seen, equals 1856 miles of rail transpor-
tation. Yet, this is only part of the show
ing. 1t is not farm products alone that are
transported by wagons. Tens of millions
Of tons Of other forms of merchandise are
annually transported by wagon under the
same conditions of delay, annoyance and
cost.
There is an indifference to and an ignor-
ance of this whole road question that ap-
pals the stauncheSt disciple of MacAdam.
Yet the farmer is no fool He believes he
is working for ''11O cents on the dollar"
but through ignorance of the situation he.
by neglect, depreciates the value of
his land at least 90 per cent, and suffers
loss Of fully 10 per cent of his entire effort
-Four months in the year he lives on an
island surrounded by impossible seas of
mud His loss and discomfort are great.
and so is the loss and discomfort of every
person desiring to see him, while the poor
horse that must bear the greatest burden is
the victim of our neglect.and cruelty.
A word as to the cost: To construct 200
miles Of good nacadGm in every county in