The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1892-01-08

| VI dill tl6 european countries none
has sent a smaller proportion of natives
to America than Switzerland. It is esti
mated that fewer people have come to
America from Switzerland in all time
than have gone to the states west of the
Mississippi river from the single state OF
Vermont in the last twenty years. Yet
Vermonts area lacks {, 700 square miles
of equalng Switzerlands. Moreover,
| Vermont has more natural fertility OF
soil, more chances for prosperity OF
manufacturing interests, more liberal
and better administered government and
| many other great advantages over the
little European republic. Yet in Yer.
mont hundreds of farms have been de-
spairingly abandoned, while in Switzer.
land every available inch of soil is under
profitable cultivation, mortgages are
practically unknown and the population
Is happy and contented.
Vermont in 1890 had population OF
332, 422, an increase for ten years of only
1875 persons, or considerably less than
one-half of per cent. Switzerland in
1870 had a population of 2,669,247.
which is estimated to have increased
since then to about 100000.
There must be some reason for it when
state of two-thirds the size of an
other supports population of less than
one-eleventh as many people and has
stopped growing.
Vermonts farms are naturally as good
as Switzerlands, and better. Yer.
mont's government is as good as
Switzerland's, and better. Vermont's
citizens have as great love for their
homes and as much reluctance to give
them up as have the natives of Switzer.
land. The only advantage of any mo-
ment which Switzerland has over Yer.
mont lies in her country roads. Does
not the widely contrasting condition OF
the two countries show that country
roads have powerful effect on the pros.
perity Of the people?
In Vermont the American system.
of country roadmaking and mainte-
nance prevails and always has prevailed.
The American system" consists of lay.
Ing out roads in happy-go-lucky fash
ion that takes little or no heed of grades
or scientific location, and of maintain.
ing them by taxing each farmer Ger.
tain amount every year and letting him
work it out" by digging the mud out
of the. bitches at the sides of the bad
roads and shoveling it into their center,
thus making them worse.
In Switzerland there are 9,OO0.miles
Of carefully built and scrupuiously main
tanned wagon roads--made ofAbroken
stone and kept in better repair, it is safe
to say, than the most important paved
street in Vermont's biggest city. These
roads climb mountains, wind through
crooked valleys, cross raging torrents
and yawning chasms and are beset by
thousand difficulties that roadbuilders
IN Vermont have never met with. Yet
they are perfect while Vermont's are
vile. Switzerland is prosperous; Yer,
mont is not
The writer has not selected Vermont
to compare to Switzerland because her
roads are worse than those of other
American states. But Vermont is one
of the older states, and thus shows more
plainly the effect of our long continued
policy of waste and neglect in our high
ways.
Statistics are not at hand which show
how much money is spent by Switzer-
land ON her roads, or how much Yer
mont spends on hers; but it is safe, in
view of investigations which have been
made in other states of the Union, to |
say that Vermont spends as much money
every year in keeping her roads bad as
Switzerland does in keeping hers good.
Yet Americans pride themselves on be-
ing the most intelligent and progressive
nation in the world. The Yankees have
achieved a world wide reputation for
shrewdness. 1t was thrifty Yankee
who invented wooden nutmegs, but that |
same thrifty Yankee evidently prefers
to haul his nutmegs to market through
mud in spring and fall, and flying dust
and shifting sand in summer. than over
smooth, hard, broken stos: highways,
which would cost the com ;:jlwealth no
more and which would en,spic the nut
megs to be hauled in hall the time at
half the cost. 1t. is one of the most mag
nifcent inconsistencies that the world
ever saw.
Luckily for the prosperity Of the whole
country, this question Of roads has at lasti |
been taken up in America by thoughtful |
men who are full of enthusiasm. It'll |
LIDS DStu cubiluSldSIu lLldt LIDS dCCOlu-E
plished every reform of every kind sinceI
the first reform was made, and enthusi
asm will some time bring good roads. HI
These men who have studied the ques,
ton carefully and who have the COURAGE
of their convictions, maintain that when
once good roads have come, and not till
then, will the old time prosperity return
to languishing localities. That when
good roads come the farmer will have as
good chance to make profit as will
the shoe dealer in the town. That
when good roads come one-half the dis
agreeable features of life in the country
will .be'wiped out. That the benefit to
the inhabitantsof the rural regions will
be not only pecuniary but social, and by
q reflex action moral and mental, and
that then, and not till then, viii this
magnificent nation of ours be justified in
holding up its head and crying: 1--WE
ore the greatest in the world. Here all
people have an equal chance Here viii
success and prosperity ever abide"