The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1893-07-11
FOR BETTER ROADS.

Progressive Railroad Managers support
the Good Cause.
One of the most encouraging phases
of the good roads movement is that
which shows that the different rail-
roads of the country are gradually
waking up to the fact that better con-
dition Of highways means better busi-
ness to them.
The apathy shown up to the past
year or so has been due TO the fact that
railroad managers have not fully re-
allied the vast Importance OF fostering
any movement which would improve
the surface of the wagon roads, and
thus add to their efficiency as feeders to
the iron highways. Thanks to the
splendid work done by the road inn
proyement bureau of the L. A. W., rail-
road managers are now seriously turn
ing their attention to the matter, and
the policy of the progressive manage
ment of railroads will hereafter be one
which will recognize the factor Of bet
ter roads as one which will have
great bearing on their dividend-earning
capacity.
Says the president of the Illinois
Central: Notwithstanding
the phenomenal crops last season, there
is to-day MAY Q, '92) less grain at rail
way stations than last year, farmers
being unable to haul their crops to the
railroad, and therefore are without
funds to make purchases, all of which
results in general stagnation OF bust
ness.
There is q whole sermon In these few
words, and yet it seems so strange tn at
the average granger is SO destitute OF
good business sense as not to see the
penny wise, pound foolish" policy
which prevents them from spending
money intelligently on the highways OF
their different sections.
1t is true that In some sections the
right kind of material does not exist
for producing the best road surfaces,
but it is just here that the railroads
can cooperate with the town and coun-
ty officials by hauling free of charge
road metal or gravel as can be secured
at some place on the line of the rail
ways. When the railroad magnates are
thoroughly awakened to the fact that
frst-class highways mean increased
earnings for their road they will take
up the matter in a way.
We are very apt to cry down the en-
terprise of America because of the lack
of good roads, and the pessimist is very
prone to point to the superior roads OF
ssYurrop" as an evidence of vastly SUI
perior enterprise. If these men would
stop to think moment they would re
alize that the territory Of Europe has
been thiclxly populated for centuries
and that it has taken them centuries to
bring their highways to the present
condition of perfection. Smaller in ex-
tent and with a vast population they
have been centuries in bringing about
results which it will take this country
only one century to perform.
Prior to the time of the first Ma
poleon the highways Of France were
anything but perfect, while the roads
of England one hundred years age
were simple ''mudways." None the
less is it necessary in this country to
drive away at the question, and in q
very few years time we shall see re
suits which it has taken conservative
Europe hundreds of years to perform
Things move fast these days; more ad.
vance Is made in twenty-four hours Of
the latter part of the nineteenth cen
fury than was made In a month of a
hundred years ago. OF course we are
behind, for it takes lot of time AND
patience to develop the vast territory