The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1892-01-09
FOR BETTER ROADS.
Gospel Of the League of American
Wheelmen.
MIR. sTEvENSS ADDRESS BEFORE
THE PORTLAND BICYCIISTS.

What Portland Has Done and What
Might Have Been Accomplished
Changes in Methods of City and State
Road Building suggested-Ciyil En-
gineers Should Have Control of the
Work.
"Better Roads, was the subject under
consideration at public meeting of the
Wheel Club last evening, and a good at
tendance evidenced that there was con-
siderable interest in the matter among
the people of the city.
President Marrett of the Wheel Club,
in brief speech introduced Mr.. John
Calvin Stevens, who spoke upon Better
Roads, Mr.. Stevens said:
EIr. John Calvin Stevens's Address.
The League of American Wheelmen
was organized few years ago, when BIZ
cycling was in it's infancy in this coun-
try, and when organization was necessa-
ry to protect the rights of wheelmen on
the highways. From small beginning
it has grown to membership of nearly
5000 and has been, and will be in the
future, of great benefit, not only to the
wheelmen but to the community at
large.
1t is only short time since the bicy-
cling papers land there are many began
to agitate the question of better roads
throughout the country, not merely
from a selfish point of view, because bet
ter roads viii not be of advantage to
Wheelmen more than to all other classes.
+Lo4 ,a haor,
gradually brought to the attention of the
public, until it has resulted in material
advance and great improvement in meth
DDS of building and maintaining high
ways in some sections of the country,
and the good work will go on until it's in
huence shall be felt all over the United
States.
The members of the League to whom
probably most credit is due for energetic
and systematic work is Isaac B. Potter
of Brooklyn, the chairman of the roads
improvement committee.
A road improvement bureau has been
formed and Mr.. Potter has been elected
to devote his whole time to the work. A
monthly m agazine has been published,
and we are promised a magazine that
shall compare favorably with any other
published in the interest of one line of
work.
But the question is frequently asked:
s'Can the people of this country afford to
BUILD AND MAINTAIN HIGH-cLAss
ROADS.
Is not ours a new country, and can we
expect to rival the countries of Europe
in the construction of costly internal
Improvements? The answer to this
question is forever ready. Ours is not a
new country. We are rich and popu-
lous; we claim to be intelligent and en-
terprising; we have cleared up our for
ests and exterminated the last wild beast
from most states years ago, while the
French government is still paying a year
ly bounty for the pelts of slaughtered
wolves. A glance at the statistical re-
turns of New York, Pennsylvania,
Massachusetts, New Jersey and
Connecticut, will show that the popula-
ton per square mile of these states is
more than so per cent greater than that
of Europe, while a dozen other states
might be added to the list without ma
terially changing the ratio.
England exacts an average of $40 per
head from each of her entire population,
while the average tax per individual paid
in the United States (where the farmer
and mechanic are better paid, better
clothed and better fed than their Euro
pean neighbors), is but $780,
Statistics show an enormous sum each
year expended for keep OF draught ami
mails. that would be unnecessary if our
roads were like those of France, Switzer
land, England and many other European
countries.
The actual cost of repair of the COM
mon country road under our working
OUT system is immensely greater than
the cost of keeping a similar length of
macadam road under a systematic plan;
and worst of all
THROUGH OUR WANT OF KNOWLEDGE
both work and materials are wretchedly
misapplied, and in most cases practical
ly thrown away.
A thing which your engineer will
teach you is that work to be done cheap
ly, must be done in a systematic way;
and to keep it in repair is to place itin
charge of some person who will be held
responsible for its condition throughout
the entire year. In your township the
roads are mended OF worked once, or
at the most twice year, and for the bal
ance Of the season are neglected. Even
when the warm weather of spring has
dried up q considerable portion of the
road SO as to make it fairly passable,
great mud holes are found here and there
in which the farmers frequently become
stuck with heavy loads, causing no end
of delay and trouble.
A good roadbed pays; it saves power,
shortens distance and time, increases
speed, insures comfort and safety, and is
in whatever way you state it, a good in
vestment.
wish, before closing, to call your at
tention to the system under which our
city streets are built and repaired, and
make a suggestion as to remedy.
A street commissioner, chosen by the
city government, Garely, if ever, chosen
because he knows anything of road
building) under the direction of street
committee, made up of members of the
council, who are
GENERALLY IGNORANT
of anything pertaining to road construc-
ton, has sole charge Of building our road
ways The city engineer is really sub
ordinate of the street commissioner, his
work being only to give lines and levels.
You all know the result of this system.
because Won have all ridden over +bo