The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1892-08-02
ROAD REFORM.

DNAD bLAI O1l4hs
The ''good road reform'' is making ex-
cellent progress-in the newspapers and
magazines. How far the agitation for
improved country roads has had effect
upon the people on whose activity the
success of the reform must depend is not
yet ascertainable.
We may accept it as undeniable that
the matter is to be one of long and pa
tient effort. Assuming that the money
saving, time-saving, comfort-increasing
and all the other benefits of good roads
are deeply impressed upon the people.
there remain serious obstacles to the
carrying out of the road Improvement
reform. First, this is a country of long
distances, and consequent heavy cost for
road construction; secondly, there has
grown now deep-rooted prejudice
against paying road taxes, and prefer
ence for working out' the rate; thirdly.
any tax rate sufficient TO carry out COM
prehensive scheme would be not only
large, but would involve the necessity
for the cooperation Of many tiers of road
districts, which are not as a rule. har-
monious.
The result of the existence of these
obstacles is that we have patchwork as a
rule; that matchmaking under the swork-
ing-out-the-rate' system gives us very
indifferent highways, since the work is
committed under it to large number Of
roadmasters, not one in one hundred of
whom has any correct knowledge of eco
nomic and good road construction. We
have, therefore, upon a single line of road
sometimes as many as a dozen methods
employed and as many systems or plans.
and with not two out of the twelve in
harmony with the best and most ap-
proved systems Of roadbed construction.
Before we will have any extensive i'm
provement of roadways then, it will be
necessary to convince the mass of
rural landowners of these essential
truths: First, that a smooth, well-kept.
hard road, free from obstacles, with a
lasting substructure and well-drained
and graded, is a money-maker. And
this must be shown in detail; as, that it
saves time in getting to and from market;
that it adds to the life term and capacity
of horses; that it enables larger loads to
be drawn and more rapidly, and hence
conserves economy in disposing of pro-
duce; that it is a saver in wear and tear of
vehicles and harness; that by reason of
economy of time conserved, the good.
smooth road brings the rural dweller
nearer to the town or city, and adds
greatly to the comfort and desirabiIity of
rural life. Secondly, the people must be
convinced of the fact that good road
building, if for nothing more than econ
omy, is best effected through the system
attic working out of comprehensive plans
of the most approved order, over long
stretches of roadway-a proposition so
obvious that it should need only to be
stated to carry with it complete convic-
ton.
To work this revolution in public senti-
ment and effect the desired end, it will
often be necessary to descend to little de-
tails in illustration. As, for instance. to
show the uneconomic use of the round
pebble, rather than angular stone, in
oad-building-that the first does not
crush, but remains to check the mo-
mentum of the vehicle and to grind holes
an the road surface; that this means re-
sistance to motive power, the loss of
which can be accurately counted in the
value of grass, hay and grain consumed
by the horses, wear and tear of vehicles
and in the cost of road-repairing as well as
IN loss of time. 1t will be necessary to
prove, for instance, that upon the dirt
road the wheel. by sinking into the sur
face, meets and has to overcome an ever
present up grade that is an obstacle. the
cost Of which in loss of time and of speed
and excess of expenditure of power can
be stated in dollars and cents in every
mans account who uses the road.
Again, it will be necessary, perhaps. to
employ much iteration of the fact that the
cheapest and best road construction is
that accomplished, as we have already
said, by wholesale, which permits the use
of road-making machinery and the in
vestment of large capital in it that great
contracts may be taken upon small mar
gins of profit.
These are the reasons for and obstacles to
road-making reform, and some of the
means necessary to employ to bring
about its Inauguration. Herein we have
not, and purposely so, enlarged upon the
augmented values of lands reached by
good, as compared to bad roads. AS the
value of land depends in greatest part
upon its productive capacity and the