The Weiser signal. [volume] (Weiser, Idaho) 1890-1904, 1892-03-24
MORE ABOUT ROADS.
We Must and Will Have
Them.
Another. Able Pen Han
dies the Subject

The importance of the wheel as a
factor in civilized life las been well
epitomized in the following extract :.
'sDo you know that the wheel is the
connecting link between barbarism
and civilization, poverty and wealth;
that by it the world moves, and upon
it all great work depends2 Do you
know that the horse which staggers
with 500 pounds upon his back trots
off easily with 1000 pounds loaded
on wheels? Do you know that if you
were chained to 500 pounds of iron
in the form of a cube you would die
if bread was but one-eighth of mile
off?-that in a cask you could roll
1000 pounds around the earth? Do
you know that every time you step
you lift your weight (say 100 pounds)
one inch, which, added up, makes a
lot at the end of a day?-that on a
bicycle you can go farther, faster, and
easier in the same time? Take the
wheel from the locomotive, and one
half the worlds industry would die.
Remove it from the car, carriage, and
factory, and the wealth of the world
would dwindle nine e-tenths. You
would hear of no Goulds, no Astors,
no Vanderbilts. Wall Street would
go down tradition to future
generations.
Like many other important facts,
the above is very we'll known and is
very imperfectly realized. But the
wheel without proper surface to roll
upon is badly discounted. The rail
road only attains its speed by having
smooth steel bed for its wheels to
roll over. On less perfect surface
the speed of the slowest train would
be uncomfortable for the passengers.
The locomotive, that seems instinct
with self contained life, becomes the
most helpless of organisms when its
wheels leave the rails or when snow
accumulates little by little on the
track.
The road question is now one of the
great issues of the day. OF al
civilized countries, the United State,
probably holds the palm for bat
roads. The annual messages o
governors of States have takel
cognizance of the need for bette
roads; the roads of district hav,
been made a subject for indictmen
by grand jury. In the daily paper
we read of mud blockade, whel
farmers were confined to their house,
because the roads were impossible
Their produce was locked up, none,
because scarce, the local merchant
suffered in their business, so that
local financial crisis was the effect o
bad roads. We read that farmer il
Pennsylvania, last spring, Will
: using a six-horse team to haul a singl
load of hay, had one of his horse
fall in the road, and the horse wa
drowned before he could be got out
: The question, "How are the roads
so frequently put in country place
tells a whole story of the dependenc
of farmers on roads for their pro
sperity, comfort, and even for socia
recreation and enlightenment With
out practicable transit, there can b
I no support for family gatherings
lectures or lyceums, and the yer
schooling of the children of tn
country depends on the same thin
, good roads.
Occasionally it is found that peopl
in given district rise to the import
ance of this subject. In New jersey
a group of adjoining counties hay
positively transformed the face of I'll
country by constructing many mile
of macadamized or telfordized roads
In Kentucky, in parts of New Yorl
in the suburbs of Boston, and oth'
: places the same movement has pre-
T gressed. In Parke County, Ind,
road enthusiast, out of his priva
purse, built one mile of good roa'
. At this time the county in questic
was said to contain the muddie
road in the State. But the obje
!. lesson of the mile of roadbed had i
!; effect, and now the same county