The morning call., 1893-09-09
THE GOOD ROADS CONVENTION.

A convention is III session at Sacramento
for the purpose of considering the subject
of highroads. 1t starts out with the propO-
sition that the roads of California are the
worst IN the country, though they have
cost enormous sums of money. 1t would
only have been fair to have explained that
the badness of our roads is mainly due to
the climate; a long dry season, in which
roadbeds are pulverZed, being followed
by wet season in which torreniial show
ers cut ruts and gulleys in every road
which is not securely macadamized. In
other parts of the country the precipita-
tiou is distributed through the year, so
that when layers of dust accumulate they
are converted by moisture into mud, which,
IL it contains clay enough, may solidify
under heat into a very fair roadbed. 1t
does not seem possible to make a good road
in this State-one which will last and re-
main even under heavy travel-without
layer, at least foot deep. of stone that is
n OF too friable. or in other words of mac
adam.
How to lay such a maeadam on the lead
ing high ways is OF course the problem, 2 nd
the discussion thereof naturally brought
to the front the two parties which always
lOOul up NilCn are
proposed. the party which proposes to
borrow other peoples money to make the
improvements and the party which opposes
any expenditure of money except on a
basis fair TO all. In this case both parties
can meet on common ground. 1t is not in
the power of a convention, acting outside
of the law, to borrow any money on any
terms from anybody. If the farmers
want to issue road bonds they must
90 TO the Legislature. and if that body
organizes road districts, with authority
to issue bonds. parties interested will, of
course, keep in view the experience of the
irrigation districts with their bonds. But
there must be popular affirmative vote
somewhere. Under the law as 1t stands
boards of county supervisors have the
power to raise money for road purposes by
taxation. Ii the money is not wisely spent
| that is their fault. II $25. 900 is laid out
on fifty miles of road and in the following
year there is nothing to show for the out
lay, the blame should fall not on the law,
but on the county officials. Ii is better to
make two miles of good road which will
stay good than to mend twenty miles of
road which will not stay mended.
Good roads are the first sign of devel-
oped civilization. Nothing strikes the
| traveller more forcibly than the excellent
roads over which he travels in France and
England. and the miserable roads he en-
| counters in Spain and Portugal It costs
the Spanish farmer as much to haul a ton
of produce to a railroad or TO tidewater as
it costs the French or English farmer to
haul two tons. The difference accounts
| for the superior well being Of the latter
over the former. And good roads are as
essential on moral as they are on material
| grounds. When Diaz became President of
Mexico and was confronted by the ap-
parently iRsoluble problem of organized
brigandage, his first step was TO COM
| pei the people of each state to repair
their roads. The effect was that the police
and military could move swiftly and
surely against the bandits, and in the
course of few years bandit raids became
almost thing of the past.