The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1893-02-24
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THE WASTE OF BAD ROADS.


ut CAGE to the first rank Of Importance,
and the popular interest shown in it is
, proof enough that the people have begun
to comprehend its immense importance
to them. The wastefulness of American
life has long been favorite note of the
amazed foreigner, but not il any ot.cr
department of our common life is there
such reckless and senseless expenditure
of money and effort to no purpose as in
the construction and maintenance Ci
roads.
/ If the peoples of Europe were corn
! PEELED to reach village or market over
| such highways as the dirt roads of our
country districts, they would starve. The
whole of the little profit that they resp
from their fields would not make good tho
difference between the cost of transpor-
| tation over their smooth, hard turnpilses
| and the cost of using the wretched
stretches Of mud and bog which consti-
| tute, at certain seasons of the year, the
only connecting link between one farm
house and another, and between either
and the centers of village or city life.
1t is estimated that an ordinary horse
will draw load three times as great
over a macadam road as over dirt
road. The difference, which would be
the measure of economy under systeya
of improved highways, is enormous 1t
is because the farmers are beginning to
understand the meaning of this that the
road question is coming to the front
everywhere.
In view of the fact that state con-
vention is to meet in st. Paul in couple
Of weeks to consider ways and means of
road improvement, part of the recent
message of Governor Flower of New
York which deals with this question will
be read with interest. Governor Flower
commends in the strongest possible Ian
guage the matter Of road improvement
to the legislature, and the argument that
he uses Is the common and forcible ono
drawn from the real economy to be
found in an expenditure of all the money
that would be required to furnish an
community with a system of the best
roads.
get approximately the cost of maintain
ing the ordinary dirt highway as we
know and see it. The residents of the
country are aware that this, miserable
substitute for road though it be, is
maintained at heavy cost Large sums
of money are expended in keeping it in
so called repair" while the "working
out" Of the road tax consumes the labor
Of great number of men each year.
The repairs that are made under this
system are worse than primitive. The
com mon system Of repairing country
road consists in running a road plow
along the bitches at the side, throwing
up the sediment that has accumulated
there and the dirt that has been washed
down from the surface of the highway.
middle of the road, leaving open ways
for the water courses ON either side and
q soft dirt track in the middle.
OF course this is ridiculous from the
roadmakers point of view. With the frs.
rain the matter that has been deposits
on the surface becomes clinging muc-;
which impedes travel, while the few
loads Of stone or brush dumped into the
worst places serve barely to make them
passable. This is about all that is un-
derstood in this country by making and
mending roads. 1t is almost wholly Ia
Dor wasted.
Now, the cost of this work in 80 coun-
ties in New York state is estimated by
the governor at about $2,700,O00 an
nually. This counts the actual cash and
estimates the labor at the low rate of 81
per day. Yet nearly $3,00O,O00 are
thrown away in single state under the
supposition that it is the best that can
be done to improve the means for farm
transportation and to furnish facilities
fOr neighborhood communication.
with no greater expenditure" says
Governor Flower, and this is the moral
nf his message and of all that is to be
Raid about good roads, "but under diff.
ferent system, each county might be COW
ered with fine macadam roads, with all
she resulting advantages in appreciation
at property and in economy of transpor-
ration." That is to say, the money which
Is now spent in this futile piling up loose
dirt, to embarrass travel while it remains
IN place and to be washed back into the
cutters after few heavy rains, would
be sufficient to pay the interest on all the
money necessary to build first class mac
adam roads and to provide sinking fund
eor tne payment OF tne principal.
1t is to this point to the awful waste
fulness as well as worthlessness of the
present system, and to the feasibility Of
ACQUIRING tho best, that we wish at pres
ent to direct the attention OF the people
of the farming districts. The best roads
may be had, and the best are by long
odds the cheapest. This is no utopian
scheme, but matter of hard headed
business.
But the first step is to have our people
stop for II moment to calculate the i'm
mense sums that are now wasted on the
care of roads and on dragging light loads
over them and the millions of dollars
that might be saved every year to the
farmers if the roads of Minnesota were
equal to those of the poorest shire in