The Neihart herald. [volume] (Neihart, Mont.) 1890-1901, 1893-04-15
GOOD A PAY.
No More Profitable Investment Can BE
Made by Any Community.

No More Profitable Investment Can he
Made by Any Community.
The National League for Good Roads
is n of the most beneficent ~organiza-
tons in the country. The movement of
which it has taken charge was very
largely promoted, if it was not begun,
by the efforts of the wheelmen, who
have done a great deal of public good
In other ways, and especially by secur-
ing a more accurate mapping and a
better system of guideposts in many
parts OF the country than prevailed any.
where before their labors began to bear
fruit.
1t may be said that everybody who
has paid any attention to the subject is
now convinced that good roads pay, and
that there is no more profitable invest.
ment for an agricultural community
than the first cost and the maintenance
OF highways that are considerably more
expensive and UNNECESSARILY more re.
munerative than any that now exist, ex.
cept in the outskirts of great towns, and
h a are very seldom to be found aver
there. But it would be a great mistake
to assume that improvement is certain
because the advantage of it is demon
strated.
1t is within bounds to say that the
great majority of the farmers of the
United States never saw a good road
and do not know what it is. A road
that is a morass in spring, a Sahara in
summer, a series of ruts and ridges
frozen stiff in late autumn and a slough
whenever there is a thaw in the winter
is to them the normal means Of rural
communication. If they had known and
used good roads they would not tolerate
the existing roads for a month, but be-
cause they do not they will go on acqui-
esclng in the existing country roads with
an apathy that is born of ignorance.
The only way to break in upon the
apathy is to dispel the ignorance, and
that can be done only by bringing good
roads within the reach Of the people of
the rural districts, or at least within
their knowledge, and enabling them to
find out for themselves the difference
between them and the roads of which
they have grown to regard the defects
as incurable. This must be done, under
our system, by the states and requires
state legislation. If there We're, say, !
ten miles of model roadway in every
county in the state of New York, it is
quite certain that within a very few
years this mileage would be multiplied
by ten by the efforts of the inhabitants
themselves, who would have come to
learn what al m saving to them !
in money and time, as we'll as what ii
great advantage in comfort the new
roads would bring to them.
The efforts of the national and state
leagues ought to be devoted to bringing
about such legislation in every state. In
one state the matter has already become
a political issue, for the candidates for |
the legislature in Illinois have been off
cially Intercepted as to their position
on the subject. 1t is not likely that MANY
of these candidates had ever given any |
thought to the matter. but being thus
required to take a stand concerning it,
nearly all of them have returned salts.
factory answers. This ought to mean
that if a well matured bill We're present.
ed to the legislature of Illinois provid-
ing for the construction of model roads. |
it would be enacted and put into execu-
ton. When that is accomplished the
battle will have been won.
1t is in the eastern states that the need
of good roads is perhaps most urgent.
The abandonment of New England
farms, attributed to western COMPETE
ton, would scarcely have been possible
if the farms had been connected by de-
cent roads with the market towns or the
railroads, II of which ought to be with
in easy driving distance of every farm
in New England, and would be SO if the
roads were what they should be. The
more eastern agriculture changes from
the raising of staple crops t o ''truck
farming" the more indispensable to it
are easy, well built, well drained roads
that are practicable at all seasons of the
year.--New York Times.
1