Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1892-11-24

not regarded as crimes-''then the highways be
waste and the wayfaring man ceaseth''l These
laws OF good government, therefore. are
primarily the kings highway" Of all good
| to people.
ooop SCHOOLS.
But the nations schools and other provisions
for education are WAYS by which the truth en-
tiers in and establishes that reign Of truth
wherein alone all men can be made freemen.
For Ignorance is always a stakeholder and truth
the only iiberAtor. few people Jealous of
their freedom will always guard sacredly the
highways Of truth. which lie in a generous,
free, broad education. Encouragement and
substantial aid to scientific research to explor-
alton, whether in fields to be reached by tele-
| scope or microscope, whether in distant lands
or at home, and TO invention and to artistic ere
| alton, such as the government can afford,
| whether municipal or state or national. by hber-
ally endowed and wisely regulated museums
| and schools and commissions; these are among
the highways for God which any nation may
build without any interference in church affairs,
but with no less Loyalty and efficiency as q true
handmade Of religion. Let there be oulv true
and living church in the hearts and faith of the
| people and all the scientific and material ad-
| vancement the nation can provide for BY what
ever means, is sure to be made by the people
truly highway for our God
MORAL AND INTELLECTUAL HIoHwAYs
Recognizing then how truly do good laws and
good educational facilities constitute the moral
and intellectual highways Of nation, we see at
the same time how hindered and impaired is
the true-that is, the spiritual-life Of a people
when these purely civil provisions are neglected.
A people with good religious motives, but with
bad laws and no schools and no encouragement
to art and science. is like a fine mind in q sickly
body or with d.sordered brain. The high
ways are wanting by which all the higher and
nobler impulses may find vent and exercise in
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more manifest even on the physical plain, where
instead of moral and intellectual highways we
| consider the actual public roads of country.
And we see that it is no superficial judgment
that the well-known maxim is founded that the
civilization of people is indeNed by
the condition of its public roads! And
much as may be thankful for in
| the progress our own nation has made in pro-
| viding cd government ard good schools as
avenues of good living, we have still to confess
that we are far behind the rest Of the world in
this important requisite for true social progress.
namely, good public highways. We may indeed
| be thankful that the public attention is being
| called to this great national defect an d that q
| process Of education is begun whereby the peo-
| pie at large shall be made aware Of the humi-
countries Tar less favored in other respects. and
| shall become convinced of the duty they owe
| themselves 20 remedy this defect.
COMPARES WITH SWITZERLAND.
For it is a fact universally admitted by those
who can make the comparison that even in the
poorer and smaller states Of Europe the poorest
| and humblest inhabitants of the rural districts
enjoy facilities for travelling and transportation
that here can only be found in largest cities
| We pride ourselves in the beautiful smooth
| streets of our national capital il it were
| thing for our nation TO boast of, when yet the
little republic of Switzerland has built thor
| oughfares just broad, fine and smooth
1 throughout all her stony valleys and back and
| forth many times over her cloud-piercing Alps.
| When we consider what it means to the isolated
| farmer and the small country villages to have
firm. smooth dry roads like our best city streets
| by which to walk and to carry their produce
how much labor is saved how much wear and
| tear of vehicles. how social intercourse is
promoted and healthy public spirit and
love of country fostered by this grand
facility which meets them at their
doors in every coming in and going out: and
when by contrast reflect the rudely
built neglected and often impossible highways
which are to be found in even the oldest states
of this country by any traveller venturng
| beyond the suburbs of the larger towns; when
| We think or the encouragement to the farmers:
| the difficulty put in the way of children attend
| ing school and of families attending church:
| when we remember that in many district in
| this prosperous and enlightened land with rail-
| roads and telegraphs from ocean to ocean, the
1
portant elections has 10 turn on the condition
| of the country roads being such to allow the
farmers to get to the polls, We shall, think.
| all admit that here is a fundamental defect that
| needs looking after and that the improvement
| of our material highway is a primary condition
| to our enjoyment and true use of all
| the other mental and moral highways of our
nations advancement.
IL is true that the railroads in this country
have been the vas. highway on which the
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been largely expended, and that the use of
these where available has led to the neglect of
the old national and county roads and the
abandonment of old modes of travel; that the
railroads have been great public and national
necessity, and that they have contributed to
the rapid development Of our nations re-
sources as no other system Of road building
could have done. But while this is true. il is
also true, and one Of those things that are
too much In the habit of forgetting. that the
railroads are not the kings highway" they
| are not the free thoroughfare of tie people. If
their building is form of charity it is not that
charity THAT begins at home in the way the
country road begins at the gateway or stile of
the isolated farmer or school boy.
THE PEOPLES ROAD.
The county road is the peoples road, the
road for which the people are taxed, and to
make the best roads that the highest science Of
roadmaking that the world has learned during
| the $500 years or more since the prophet Of
Israel cried. go through, go through the gates.
| prepare we the way of the people! Cast up, cast
up the highway; gather out the stonesr'-to do
this is what nation ike ours is under every
obligation to do which aspires to be q leader in
the civilization Of the world.
ROADS OF IMPERIAL ROME.
| Among all the monuments of the past great
ness of nation none were more enduring aud
impressive than its highways and its gates! In
this way has Rome, after fifteen hundred years.
| left the mighty impress of her imperial hands
on the continent of Europe from Scotland to
the southern extremity of Itay-still lie in their
roadbeds the great stones of lava granite on
which were cast up those highways over which
marched the armies and rolled the chariot
wheels of her conquerors. Should the enlight-
ened nations of our day show less -eal in build
ing the ways Of peace? And why should public
| gates, arches, and roads be such significant
| signs of a nations power except that they actu-
ally stand for the intercourse Of men in organ
lied society, and for all the uses that social and
civil order brings? L. it not because they stand
fo- the ''going out and the coming in Of men
in all the intercourses Of commerce. of charity,
of brotherly help and brotherly love? And I'M
deriving all is the great spiritual law, of which
all material and natural laws are but the shadow
and figure. Our nation should build roads and
cast up all the highways for God for such is the
bounden duty of man--to make way for the
coming of the kingdom OF God, for God verify
| to come and reign over us. But all the high
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