The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1891-04-02
Our Roads.
.CRichmond Dispatch.]

Our Roads.
.CRiohmond Dispatch]
Beneath the lowest depths a lower
depth yawns to receive into its gaping
bosom the unwary traveller who at
tempts to use the roads in this State
when they are in the condition that
now disgraces our highways, and in
stead of inviting to Virginia settlers
from other States, caused those who
visit US to hasten to get beyond our
borders.
How are we to get good roads?
There is only one way in which they
can be obtained and that is by paying
for them. All attempts to secure them
otherwise will necessarily fail, as not
only common sense teaches US, but as
the experience of every State in the
American Union and OF every progress
sive country in the world has demon
strated. And yet it might be said
that system of good roads would
cost nothing; because to expend a
million ofdollars upon their construct
ion would be to add more than mil
lion of dollars to be assessed value of
the lands. This is no extravagant
statement for this, as we think we
have said heretofore, is one of those
cases in which money thrown out of
the window is brought back through
the door. But it does not follow that
fitful expenditures and improvements
will result rs would the resort to a
system for the whole State. To expect
such consequences would be as unreas-
enable as to expect good streets in a
city to result from paving one hundred
yards of a cross street here and another
hundred yards half mile off, with no
connecting pavements between them.
Like Oliver Wendell Holmes "one-
hos shay" such system of bogus inn
provements would give out everywhere
at one and at the same moment and
leave the traveller to scramble out Of
the mud as best he could.
If what we have said be true, what
follows? Surely we need not point out
the lesson it teaches-namely, that it
would be the height of folly for us to
expect good roads in Virginia to be
made by the local authorities of the
Commonwealth. There being a good
deal of money in each of them, it
would be possible for the several wards
of Richmond to adopt for themselves,
if the charter of the city would permit
them to do so, system of street i'm
provements somewhat respectable but
unless they consulted one another in
advance of separate action, even these
several wards would be compelled in
the end to ask the legislature to make
one city embracing all of them, thus
enabling them to devise system of
street improvements worthy ofthe city.
The several railroads across this
continent made their own business
after they were started. If their con-
struction had depended upon private
enterprise alone-that is, if the
national government had not lent its
assistance to the work in the form of
land grants or otherwise-they would
never have bound the East to the West.
And yet those railroads are not only
now worth more than they cost, but
| they have added to the value of the
property lying along their lines i'm
mensely more than that cost amounted
to. AT the risk of making an Irish
bull, we repeat that these roads have
cost the country nothing.
So it must be as to good system OF
roads in Virginia, (or, as to that
matter, in any State.) Such system
cannot result from local action. The
counties are as unable to perfect such
a system as Colorado and Utah, were
thirty years ago to construct railroad
leading from the Atlantic to the
Pacific.
If the people are not willing to pay
for good roads they will never have
them. And here seems to be the weak
point all over the land. The same
story comes from every State whose
law makers endeavor to keep the word
of promise to the ear and break it to
the hope. The roads everywhere are,
we are told, "the mcrest makeshift.'
So they are in Virginia, and just a,
this time they are impossible, or next
to impossible. Everywhere the people
want to get out of the mud, but, in
the words of the Philadelphia 7imes
they seem to expect the ways and
means to fall like the gentle dew from
Heaven or the mamma in the wilder
ness, and by no means to be raised BY
taxation. "This is the sheerest non
sense; good roads will cost money" ir
the beginning, but will cram it bach
into your pockets in the end. Depre
ciated farm lands, loss OF time, wea
and tear of vehicles, horses and harness
will be heard of no more or at any
rate at vastly reduced degree. Mr.
Arthur Kirk, Of Pennsylvania, thinks
it would pay his State to invest 81,
millions Of dollars year in roads. /
would pay Virginia to spend millior
OF dollars year.
But can a State which is afraid t
tax worthless ours, but chooses rathe
to see the sheep "industry" destroyed
be relied upon to levy tax for tn
betterment of our roads? AS Genera
Washington said in his farewell ad
dress, "Here perhaps we ought t
stop"