Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1892-08-24
A PLEA FOR GOOD ROADS.

ties of man have called upon him to
perform. In the Section of Transpor.
tation and Engineering, in the U. ).
National Museum, at Washington, may
be seen arranged, in chronological
order, the various means used for pro-
noting travel and commerce, and for
conveying intelligence. making a
unique and interesting memorial OF
the genius of man as be created, link
by link, the grand chains of conmuni-
| CO ton which have exerted so powerful
an influence on civiliz ton Here we
may see brought together from every
available source the appliances OF
travel by land, beginning with the
simplest aboriginal devices for the
conservation of muscular force In the
first-that is the human beast OF
burden: skin bags woven, baskets and
cases, toboggans, carrying chairs,
sledges, rts, mar ess, ETC., traring
the various stages of progress until we
reach the smooth iron tracks and pow
erful steam engines and palace cars of
our XIX Century.
But with all the Yankee facility for
invention and with the numberless de-
vices for promoting travel, our country
roads, and often our city streets, are
noted for their wretchedness, and the
pa lent farmer pays more than enough
in taxes and in the wear and tear OF
vehicles and harness to procure a
smooth and level road. we're it man
aged with the "brains" for which We,
as nation, pride ourselves, but which
IN the matter of our country roads
seem heretofore to have entered as u
minimum factor.
In the promotion of all great reforms
there needs to be a continual bringing
of the subject before the people in or
der to so mould public opinion that
the people. as a body, shall call for
legislation upon it, for, however care
less may be our public servants in the
administration of their trusts while
the public remains apathetic or unin-
terested, a general demand for the re-
dress of wrongs by the great American
people is invariably followed by a re-
sponse from the government.
But it is this moulding of public
opinion that is the hardest part OF the
task, for the call must be from the peo-
pie and not from a few reformers who
may prove only to be ''cranks," or
from a class or section who may have
an individual ak to grind. When We
shall have trained wardmasters, thor
oughly understanding the topography
and drainage of the country; the rela-
tive merits and economy of gravel and
asphalt and broken stone and the
proper machinery; we shall see cor
responding improvement in the con-
dition of the farmer, a greater pfotit
on the product of his labor and an in
creased value in his land. AS the in
crease of land values necessarily i'm
plies a corresponding increase in tax
alton, thus enlarging the revenues of
the State, it will be readily seen that
the State can well afford to take the
matter in hand and provide for sys-
tematic road construction. And here
the Agricultural Colleges and other
industrial institutions, maintained by
the State, may do good work by fitting
ont ana training expert roadmasters
who will be sure of permanent and
paying employment in this most i'm
portsnt work.
% When we survey our miserable
country roads, miles of sticky clay
alternating with wretched corduroy,
almost mpassable at some seasons OF
the year, We can well imagine the
agriculturist surveying the wreck OF
dllapidated vehicles and broken winded
horses, caused by the laborious hauling
to market of his produce, and count
ing up these losses and the growing
taxes he has paid for this wretched
failure, we can readily imagine him
exclaiming with the ubiquitous street
gamin, when he dropped his hard
earned nickel in the area grating:
| yuhera ia my nncE ct bnok Uone tD-Do-OO
And the money, loved it so much?"
As it is a self evident fact that 'the
farmer feeds the world" the matter
becomes in this way, if no other, a sub
ject of the deepest concern to US all.
by the improvement of country roads
every branch of our agricultural, COM
mercial and manufacturing interests
would be benefited. Every article
brought to mark ct would be diminished
in price, and the number Of horses need
ed to carry on business would be greatly
reduced" says an eminent authority.
The city, too, sharing in these bene-
fits should provide well paved streets,
so as to attract to her markets the pro-
ducts of the surrounding country.
If it be true that "the road Is that
physical sign by which may be best
understood any age or people" one
might easily conclude that the people
of America, to-day stood on lower
plane than the Incas and Aztec nations,
whose broad causeways of stone, con
structed without the aid of the labor
saving devices of fto-da-, we're a wonder
to Europeans who discovered them.
Hum boldt, never lavish with his en-
comiums, SAYS of these vast rosdways,
''Ihe roads of the IDcas were among
the most useful and stupendous works
of man"
The excellent opportunity for pre-
senting the subject at the Worlds
Fair should not be neglected. Col.
Albert Pope, of Boston, in offering
$1,000 as the beginning of a fund to
raise building on the grounds of the
Columbian Exposition, has begun the
good work, and if other capitalists and
manufacturers, pecuniarily interested
would assist, We might have such G
display of machinery and materials
for proper road construction, exhibited
by skilled workmen as would be al
object lesson to every visitor an6
would go far to convince the most
apGthetic, that the remedy for this
great evil of bad reads is within oul
re ach and only needs that the people
of the country should wake up to 1t.
Importance, Let us then petition oul
Congr ess, that while making suct
liberal appropriations for our Worlds
Fair as may give opportunity to fairly
represent the industry and ability ol
our country, that this important sub.
iect shall have such conspicuous exhibit
as its Importance demands. and that,
among the buildings set apart for sucl
special representations as may be de
manded by their consequence to the
interests of the people shall be seen
that devoted to the Department o
Road Construction and Maintenance"
f s. CRANsoN.
Blaudyte is the name given to th'
new material made OF Trini6 al asphalt
81 hA hl..