Montgomery County sentinel., 1891-04-17
The Country-Road Problem.

1Ao Jul pCppAC oiC Juot INV ptolOuuuiy
interested in the subject Of roads, we COM
mend to their careful attention the follow
ing sensible article from the columns of the
New York Post. We do not know when
we have seen anything which so clearly
demonstrates the value of good roads:
An interesting addition to the literat ure ol
road making is a pamphlet, recently ssued
containing an address delivered last Jan u
ary before the New Jersey State Board Of
Agriculture by Mr.. Chauncey b. Ripley on
Improved Roads," and a collection of his
views on the making of good country roads
and their financial value. Mr.. Ripley is q
lawyer practicing in this city and living in
New Jersey, who has, as a 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 desig-
nate certain thoroughfares as "as county
roads," and to bond the county to raise
money for their improvement. he has stirred
up the people of his own county (Union) to
take quick advantage of the law, and he
bears gratifying testimony to the result.
MIR. Ripley defines "a good road" to be
ga road available for all sorts of travel and
at every season of the year" No one, GER
tainly, can find fault with road which can
stand this test. The ordinary country road
is the exact opposite Indeed, it may be said
of it that il is really available for no kind of
travel except for few weeks in year. Ii
of clay, 1t can be driven over with pleasure
only in a dry time. If of sand, it affords q
good driveway for only a few hours after
rain, before its packed surface Is cut up by
wheels Nature very seldom provides road
bed which Is not a mire-hole in the spring
and a dust bed in the summer; and, In this
country only in recent years and very slow
ly have farmers come to recognize the fact
that the cost of making "a good road" after
Mr.. Ripleys definition, will come back to
them in any way. Accepting the adage that
the condition of a country's public roads in
dicates its civilization, Mr.. Ripley points
out that in our country we have been spend =
ing our millions on the railroads which
were unknown when this adage was framed,
and which have had SO much to do with
shaping the civilization of all countries in
modern time. The farmer who would look
on any one as schemer who should tell
him that it would pay to mortgage his coun-
ty for 8 per cent. OF its valuation in order to
macadamiZe the wagon roads, has been easl-
ly persuaded of the personal advantage to
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 80
generally mythical. The railroad, in word,
has been accepted as necessity and an un'
questioned benefactor, while the good wa
gon road 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 pre-
pare himself to prove that good roads Will
pay. The rural property-owner is not gen
orally susceptible TO the purely aesthetic.
When first appealed to to assist in road i'm
provements, his reply is, "Let the owners
of fast horses make fine roads" To get him
interested he must be shown by practical
example that 1t is to his profit to be able to
haul a ton where he has been able to haul
only half as much, or that with roads that
are good" in the technical sense, he will
find his land in demand at prices which
before no one would offer. For this reason
the testimony presented in Mr.. Ripley'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 Ia Union county,
when asked if he would consent to have the
road restored to its old condition in order to
save the taxes, replied "Well, as shall not
be required to pay more than two dollars
year for the rest of my life, it would not be
worth while" The travel has increased on
these roads tenfold in years time "Since
the law went into effect" says MIR. Ripley,
"real estate values in Union county have
advanced nearly $1,500,000, exclusive OF
property advances ia Elizabeth of about
100000 more" This statement was made
in October, 1890, and work under the Coun-
ty Road Act was begun only the year before.
So rapidly has real estate advanced since the
roads were made better, that one of the
largest real estate owners in the county ex-
presses the opinion that the appreciation in
future values will cover all the cost OF the
improvement. ##54 EEk
Every one who has watched the progress
of country road making must have noticed
that road Improvement is contagious Every
good piece OF road is an object-esson TO pro
duce imitators. In one district near this city
where no general system OF road making
has been adopted, great deal OF such work
has been done in the last few years by in
dvidual farmers who have been shown by
two or three enterprising neighbors what
luxury and time saver a piece OF good road is.
In Union county, New Jersey, it is noted
that many property owners on the cross
roads, which have not been improved under
thecounty system, are putting these roads
in good condition, a brief experience having
| convinced them that no roads but good
roads pay. Mr.. Ripleys chief point in his
address to the Board OF Agriculture was the
advisability Of laying out, at the State ex,
pense, two perfect roads across the State OF
New Jersey, one crossing the Stale, as from
Newark to Camden, and one running from
Cape May to the most northerly point. A
good argument in favor of these roads would
be the missionary work they would do IN
setting examples for Imitation; and if New
Jersey can SECURE an Executive and Leg
islature whose chief objects are something
besides the creation OF Offices and the dis
trbuton of salaries, Mr. Ripley State road
| scheme mnX soon be 4 reality.