The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1892-12-21
A Defense Of Highways.

1t has been customary for many years
for newspapers and individuals TO hold
up for derisiOn the public highways of
the country, and attribute their deplor-
able condition to the slack methods of
farmers In this general TRADE of
abuse all communities have received
their share whether merited or not.
On general principles the people of a
highway district have performed the
labor required under the law quite as
well as their defamers would have done
under the same circumstances. Only a
few men in IA district are frequently re-
CURED to work two or three miles of
highway, in which they are no more in
terested than every other person who
travels it, and yet they are held respon-
sibie for its condition, and they natural
ly feel that there is some inequality in
the distribution of duties, when every
silk hat that comes along thinks it his
prerogative to find fault that his car
riage wheels get muddy and his gait is
Instructed Half "a dozen men cannot
level hill nor throw up turnpike,
and their work must at best be superb
cial and tentative.
1t is fair to say that the roads are
better than the system under which
they have been worked. Very few farm
ers have the gift of civil engineering,
which sometimes comes without much
cultivation, and the frequent, and per-
haps annual, changes that occur in the
ocerseer, prevents any continuous pol
icy of improvement. Bad roads have
been sequence of bad laws and GUS
toms. Quite frequently, however, the
roads have been improved in spite of
the laws controlling them, through the
enterprise of the citizens along the line.
The travel i'm some directions from al
most any town will reveal this pleas
ant result. Self-imposed taxation and
the aid of public spirited men have
changed the condition of many roads,
the burdens of which ought to have
been more widely distributed. The
public now point to these conspicuous
examples and say every road might be
as greatly improved. The great diff
Guilty lies in the fact that we cannot
compel voluntary act. If we could
reconstruct individuals as we recon
struct roads, there would be no neces
sity of new law; but this cannot be.
Man will be selfish and shirk; and so
we need law that will compel every
man to bear his full share of highway
cAPcbSc, WucbncI nc llNC III bOWu VI
country, and we need to do II in an in
telligent Goth century manner. Roads
should be divided into two classes, or
perhaps more, according to their i'm
portance and the amount of travel that
passes over them. Roads over which
heavy loads are frequent and likely to
continue, should be reduced to maxi
mum gradient, even though it require
seasons labor on one hill, before the
permanent road-bed is built or begun.
This road-bed should be regulated by
law-its depth, width and the manner
of laying the gravel or broken stone be
definitely Defined so that all roads
shall be uniform, SO far as material will
permit. Cross roads need not be so
costly, the grade can be sharper, the
track narrower and not SO deep. The
roads laid through Europe by the Ro-
mans 1000 years ago have not been
changed; the grades are the same, but
they require constant attention. The
tax to maintain them is AS high as all