Evening capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1888-1893, 1892-04-28
GOOD RoARDs.
Practical Suggestions Respecting
Their Procurement.

"Let me make a peoples public
highway" some of the worlds great
men might fittingly have said, "and
1 care not who makes their laws. II
they be nation to my liking, l will
give them sound roads aud broad
and many, and they shall become
prosperous and intelligent. But II
they be sullen and rebelious from
my rule, will imprison them with
poor lines of travel, They shall not
journey, they shall not trade, but l
will leave them grovelling and
hampered by self contract. Let me
only give them poor roads, and 1
will settle them forever. They shall
never long for liberty; they shall
grope in mud and everlasting dark
ness"
With these words the imaginary
statesman appears to us, when we
have read and tossed aside the book
of history, and are sitting i'm medi-
tative mood. He raises his finger.
He points here and there to broken
passages as though he would have
us read them in a continuous stoIy.
Ours is a land of such gigantic
distances that other than wagon
| roo du roDOt n ret ho ,,oodo T., o,,r
new world, farm and market are so
far apart that only steam. and that
leaping across country at mile
IA minute, can join the two. And so
we have pushed forward our rail-
roads as only American energy can
push forward; but we have lived,
the most of us, these hundred years
along our same mud roads. But we
are awakening. We are learning
that it is dead loss to expend half
the energy in getting our crops to
market that it takes to till them.
We are thinking profitably and well
on the subject of good country roads.
The first method to success in
many localIties-is this: Citizens
cease working the taxes, but pay
them. The proper country official
secures bids for placing material on
mile or half mile sections OF road.
The award of any mile is of course
made to the lowest bidder for that
particular section. His work must
successfully pass inspection before
committee Of practical farmers.
This done, though the change comes
gradually, the country is soon en-
joying the fiuest macadamized road
ways. And it should be borne in
mind that there is no extra ex-
penses; taxes are simply paid in
money and not in work.
There is another way of getting
good roads. 1t takes advantage of
steam and machinery. 1t may cost
most at first, but at last it is cheap
est, The plan, put briefly, is this.
A township buys one of the many
kinds of stone crushers. The road
supervisor of the district hires
steam power and engineer for five
dollars a day, as may be done at
almost any time save summer.
Whenever it has been decided to
begin operations, there the farmers
are summoned to work out their
takes. They are expected to bring |
their wagons, Ten or fifteen teams
follow one another in the rock de- |
pOsit, which, it is granted, has been
donated to the common cause. The |
stone is unloaded into the hopper OF |
the crusher, and driving a few mo-
ments later TO the endless chain, the
beds are filled with broken rock.
On the return trip this is scattered
to the appointed place. So on and
on until sunset. With sach ar
farmers have actually
broken hundred perch of stone a
day at a cost of five to eight cents a
perch in money. Are we still going
to drive through mud ?
These are but suggestions, and yet
they are practical suggestions. On
the day when they are practiced as
well as practical, we may expect TO
see farm lands double in price. We
may expect all the advantages Of
town life to be extended to the coun-
try. When these become generally
practiced suggestions then America
will be a land of good roads from
ocean TO ocean.-EARLE EUGENE
MARTIN in Commercial Gazette.