St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1892-08-27
Public Roads.
[ OUIier-.J

| Louisville t0llrlCrJOllrnal
The widespread interest in the i'm.
provement of public roads in America
is one of the healthiest signs Of the
time:
| We have given so much thought and
money to building our great railroads
and bringing the distant lands of the
| West into direct competition with the
| farms of the more cultivated regions,
that we have overlooked the necessity
for improving local transportation ia
cilities. just in proportion as our rail
transportation is extended, the necessi-
ty increases for improving our roadways
and every avenue leading to the rail
road station.
Every community is cIamOrOus for
branches to some trunk line. These
communities will subscribe money and
tax themselves to death in order to
bring the railroad few miles nearer
the farm, but they will do absolutely
nothing to bring the farm few miles
nearer the railroad.
One gaZes in wondermcnt at the fig
ures telling of the tonnage OF our great
railroad systems, but we seem never to
ask how this great amount OF freight
reaches the railroad.
1t comes in wagons drawn by horses
over WORKOUT streets or dirt roads.
The cost of this first transportation is
something immense, but it is rarely ever
gathered into a table of statistics.
Farmers five miles from the railroad
will denounee the cxtortiOn of these
great corporations, and never stop for a
moment to think that they are robbiDg
themselves much more seriously by
their neglect of the country roads than
it is possible for the railroads to rob
them.
1t is not possible to construct a sys-
TEN of country roads in a few years. A
perfect system is not possible in poor
country, but nothing would so add to
the market value of farm lands any
where as d thorough and systematic i'm
farms into easy and direct communion
ton with the railroad system of the
world.
Senator Ingalls,, in a recent article on
the subject of good roads, says: "Many
of the Western roads are very much like
the roof of the cabin of the Arkansaw
Traveller, which did not leak in dry
weather and when it rained could not
be repaired. The prairie highways" he
says, are for nine months in the year
the best highways in the world, but for
the other three months, when the frost
is leaving the ground, during the con-
tlDuOus rains of spring and autumn, or
while the roads are frozen, nothing
worse can be imagined"
Such roads as these could be easily
made perfect by proper drainage. Con-
corning the highways of Europe. Mr..
ingalls, says:
"The public roads Of Englaud and
the continent are the growth of a CEN
tury, and, like those of Rome, were de-
vcloped before railways had become the
principal avenues OF communication. 1t
should be remembered also that the eli
mate and soil are different; the supply
OF labor there is greater and the rate of
wages less; land is much more valua-
bic and population more dense. 1t
would be mistake to attempt to con
struct in this country immediately
system of macadamized highways like
those between Oxford and Reading in
England, or Bantry Bay and Killarney
gradual, and the public opinion must lie
brought by degrees to this high stand
ard"
This is true. The work must be grad
uai. Public opinion must be brought
by degrees to this high standard. The
country that has to be improved is mar
velous in its proportions, as well as
IN It's resources. 1t has a system of rail
transportation that is the wonder of the
world, but IT has taken more than fifty
years to build it, and ten thousand mil
lion dollars. What is needed for the
construction of good country roads is
cooperation, information and some lit
tie taxation.