Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1892-06-04

Road Improvement.

The importance of the wheel as Il
factor in civilized life has been well
epitomized in the following extract:
"Do you know that the wheel is the
connecting link between barbarsm
and civilization, poverty and wealth;
that by il the world moves, and upon
it all great work depends? 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 800 pounds of iron in
the form of Il 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 u lot at
the end of a day?-that on 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-tenths. You would hear
of no Goulds, no AstOrs, no Wander
bits. Wall Street would 60 down n
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 all civiliz-
ed countries, the United States prob
ably hold the palm for bad roads.
The annual messages of the governors
of the States have taken cogniZance of
the need for better roads; the roads of
a district have been made IL subject for
indictment by Il grand jury. In the
daily papers we read OF mud block
ade, when the farmers were confined
to their houses because the roads were
impossible. Their produce was locked
up, money became scarce, the local
/
so that local financial crisis was the
effect of bad roads. We read that a
| farmer in Pennsylvania, last spring,
while using six-horse team to haul a
single load of hay, had one of his
horses fall in the road, and the horse
was drowned before he could be got
out. The question, elbow are the
roads," so frequently put in country
places, tells n whole story of the de-
pendence of farmers on roads for
their prosperity, comfort and even for
social recreation and enlightenment.
| Without practicable transit, there can
be no support for family gatherings.
lectures or lyceums, and the very
schooling of the children of the
country depends on the same thing
| good roads.
Occasionally it is found that people
in given district rise to the import
ance of this subject. In New Jersey
n group of adjoining counties have
| positively transformed the face OF the
country by constructing many miles
of macsdamized or telfordized roads.
In Kentucky, in parts of New York,
in the suburbs of Boston, and other
places the same movement has pro-
gressed. In Parke County, Ind, n
road enthusiast, out of his private
purse, built one mile of good road.
| At this time the country in question
was said to contain the muddiest road
in the State. But the object lesson of
the mile of roadbed had its effect, and
now the same country is celebrated for
| its roads.
Without going into statistics as to
| the number of horses owned by the
4 g. .~f 20 laf, tl,oA
a condition of affairs which exacts the
labor of two horses to do what should
be the work of one is disastrous to the
business sense. Good roads are the
best possible investment for II State
that cares for the prosperity of its
greatest producing class. They are
of the greatest importance to railroads.
Good roads would easily double the
width of the belt or zone of supply of
railroad lines, and would maintain
such supply winter and summer.
| This would avoid the troublesome glut
of freight when the mud dried up and
the want of business when the frost,
leaving the ground, produces impass-
able roads.
| All this seems clear enough, but is
! hard to impress upon those most near
| ly concerned. How far state or fedral
aid should be devoted to the end of
securing good roads is question for
political economists. 1t seems clear
! that without some such aid the end
will never be reached. In Europe the
state is the road maker. The great
carts of the French farmer with broad
tires roll smoothly over splendid Tel
ford surfaces, tandem team drawing
immense weights without painful ef-
fort. A parallel picture is presented
in other countries, England and Italy
among the rest.
The road movement is being fur
thered by constant agitation by pub
lication of manuals on the subject,
and by an excellently edited monthly
magazine published in this city. All
this work will eventually have its eff
4 fact IL has boau found that roads