Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1892-11-24

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"a being the necessary condition to al health
full, social or civil activity. when people do
not obey the divine commencement as en-
bodied in the moral laws: when, for instance,
lying and murder and stealing and adultery are
not regarded as crimes-''then the highways be
waste and the wayfaring man cesseth''l These
laws OF good government, therefore, are
primarily the kings highway Of all good
to apeople.
GOOD SCHOOLS
But the nations schools and other provisions
for education are WAYS by which the truth en-
tiers in and establishes that reign of truth
wherein alone all men can be made freenen.
For ignorance is always a stakeholder and truth
the only hberator. few people jealous Of
their freedom will always guard sacredly the
highways Of truth. which lie in a generous,
free, broad education. Encouragement and
substantial aid to scientific research TO explor-
alton, whether in fields to be reached bv tele-
scope or microscope, whether in distant lands
or at home. and TO invention and 30 artistic ere
alton, such the government can afford.
whether municipal or state national BY liber-
ally endowed and wisely regulated museums
and schools and commissions: these are among
the highways for God which any nation may
build without any interference in church affairs,
but with no less loyalty and efficiency as a true
handmade OF religion. Let there be only a true
and living church in the hearts and faith of the
people and all the scientific and material al
vancemeut the nation can provide for, by what
ever means, is sure to be made by the people
truly highway for our God"
MORAL AND INTELLECTUAL HroHwAYs
Recognizing then how truly do good laws and
good educational facilities constitute the moral
and intellectual highways Of a nation, we see at
the same time how hndered and impaired is
the true-that is. the spiritual-life of people
when these purely civil provisions are neglected.
people with good religious motives but with
bad laws and no schools and no encouragement
to art and science is like fine mind in q sickly
body or with a disordered brain. The high
ways are wanting by which all the higher and
nobler impulses may find vent and exercise in
the life of man with man. This becomes still
more manifest even on the physical plain, where
instead Of moral and intellectual highways We
consider the actual public roads Of a country.
that the well-known maxim is founded that the
civilization OF people is indexed by
the condition Of its public roads. And
much rs We may be thankful for in
the progress own nation has made in pro-
| viding good government ard good schools as
avenues of good living. we have still to confess
that We are far behind the rest Of the world in
this important requisite for true social progress
namely, good public highways. We may indeed
be thankful that the public attention is being
called TO this great national defect and that a
process of education is begun whereby the peo-
pie at large shall be made aware Of the humil-
iating disadvantage they labor under beside
countries far less favored in other respects and
shall become convinced of the duty they owe
themselves to remedy this defect.
COMPARES WITH SWITZERLAND.
For IL is fact universally admitted by those
who can make the comparison that even in the
poorer and smaller states of Europe the poorest
and humblest inhabitants Of the rural districts
enjoy facilities for travelling and transportation
l.
We pride ourselves In the beautiful smoo n
streets of our national capital as if it were a
thing for our nation TO boast of, when yet the
little republic of Switzerland has built thor
oughfares just broad. fine and smooth
throughout all her stony valleys and back and
forth many times over her cloud piercing Alps
When we consider what it means to the isolated
farmer and the small country villages to have
firm. smooth dry roads like our best city streets
| by which to walk and TO carry their produce
how much labor is saved. how much wear and
| tear of vehicles. how social intercourse is
| promoted and a healthy public spirit and
love Of country fostered by this grand
| facility which meets them at their
| doors in every coming in and going out; and
when by contrast reflect on the rudely
| built, neglected and often impossible highways
which are to be found in even the oldest states
of this country by any traveller venturing
4 beyond the suburbs of the larger towns; when
We think of the encouragement TO the farmers;
| the difficulty put in the way of children attend
| ing school and of families attending church:
when we remember that in many district in
| this prosperous and enlightened land, with rail-
roads and telegraphs from ocean to ocean, the
| obtaining full popular vote in the most i'm
| portant elections has 10 turn on the condition
| Of the country roads being such to allow the
| farmers to get to the polls, We shall, l think,
! all admit tina: here is a fundamental defect that
| needs looking after and that the improvement
| OF our material highways is a primary condition
| to our enjoyment and true use of all
the other mental and moral highways of our
| nations advancement.
Ii is true that the railroads in this country
have been the vast highway on which tine
wealth, labor and energy of the people have
/ been largely expended. and that the use of
these where available has led to the neglect Of
! the old national and county roads and the
abandonment Of old modes Of travel; that the
railroads have been a grea. public and national
necessity. and that they have contributed to
the rapid DEVELOPMENT of our nations re-
sources as other system of road building
could have done. But while this il true, it is
also true, and one of those things that we are
too much in the habit of forgetting. that the
railroads are not the kings highway" they
are not the free thoroughfare of the people. If
their building is form Of charity it is not that
| charity that begins at home in the way the
country road begins at the gateway or stile Of
the isolated farmer or school boy.
THE PEOPLE ROAD.
| The county road is the peoples road, the
road for which the people are taxed and to
make the best roads that the highest science of
roadmaking that the world has learned during
| the 2,5o0 years or more since the prophet Of
Israel cried, Go through, go through the gates,
| prepare We the way of the people, Cast up, cast
up the highway; gather out the stonesr'--to do
this is what nation ike ours is under every
obligation TO do which aspires to be a leader in
/ the civilization of the world.
| ROADS OF IMPERIAL ROME.
Among all the monuments of the past great
ness of a nation none were more enduring aud
impressive than its highways and its gates. In
this way has Rome, after fifteen hundred years,
| left the mighty impress Of her imperial hands
on the continent Of Europe from Scotland TO
the southern extremity of 1tay-still lie in their
roadbeds the great stones OF lava or granite on
which were cast up those highways over which
marched the armies and rolled the chariot
| wheels of her conquerors. Should the enlight-
ened nations Of our day show less zeal in build
ing the ways of peace? And why should public
| gates, arches, and roads be such significant
signs of a nations power except that they actu-
ally stand for the intercourse Of men in organ
lied society, and for all the that social and
| civil order brings? Is it not because they stand
| fo- the ''going out and the coming in" Of men
in all the intercourses Of commerce. of charity,
of brotherly help and brotherly love? And un-
| deriving all is the great eoiritual Inv Of vhich