The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-08-13

therefore the funds, or at least large
share of them, to pay for the improve
ments should be raised by general taxa
tion, or by pledging the general credit. A
thorough improvement of the roads would
not be of temporary but of permanent
value, and, therefore. it seems perfectly
proper course to leave part of the cost
of road-improvement to the coming gener-
rations. It is thought that county-road
improvement bonds bearing a low rate of
interest would be easily saleable, for
every dollar spent in such work increases
the taxable values in the districts bene-
fitted to very considerable extent For
instance, the experts of the agricultural
department contend that the construction
of good stone roads in a purely agricul-
tural section increases the value of farm
lands $50 per acre.
The secretary of the National Farmers
congress, by analysing the transportation
returns of the country, makes the cost of
wagon transport S1,00000O, 900 annually,
of which six and one-quarter hundred
millions is due to bad roads The total
annual value of the farm products in the
United States is about 50, 300 000,0 900. 1t
will, therefore, be seen that one-fourth of
the home value of all the farm products
of the country is lost through bad roads.
If this loss" SAYS the road engineer of
the agricultural department, ''fell wholly
upon farmers, it would result in instant
and general bankruptcy, for there is no
such margin of profit in agriculture any
where. But, while the farmer must pay
this tax on all exportable products, the
price of which is fixed by foreign compe-
tltlon on those products which have only
a home market, he IS able to add a part
of it to the price. and so transfer the tax
to the consumers in towns aad cities
The burden of the country al large, how
ever, is none the less real or grievous.
and in amount it nearly equals all other
taxation local and national"
Now the question to answer is how best
to lift this burden without placing an
other equally heavy on the people. 1t
may be that the previous suggestion
about county road improvement bonds
may be the correct solution of the prob
lem. In the southern states drainage
will not cost so much as in the north ,
where the frosts go deeper, and if the
convicts-and what to do with the con
vict labor is in itself serious problem in
most - southern stateS--were used to
quarry and break stone good roads could
be built there for 81 600 mile. Indeed
in Canandaigua, New York, the roads
have been improved at less cost than
this. and are so good that during the
thaws of last February they were in
prime condition, whereas the unim-
proved roads in the same neigh borhood
were impossible. Delaware has adopted
this policy of working convicts in prepar-
ing material for macadam roads and this
material is 10 be furnished free on board
| the cars for counties and towns hifs un-
dertaking to make good roads. The great
railroads. and small in the United States,
realizing the value of good roads IN in
creasing the amount of freight shipped,
! have very generally expressed a will
ingness to carry stone for roads at a very
low rate
There are, indeed, many methods which
may be employed satisfactorily both as to
construction, and as to raising the neces-
sary funds The all-important factor in
the problem, however, is the attitude of
the PEG pie toward this movement They
need to be stirred up by constant and in
cessant agitation, so that the good idea
now abroad may not die. The influences
now at work are many and powerful, but
all of them are needed all the time, for the
people are afraid to undertake such a
great enterprise as the one presented to
them, and they do not realize the shame
and the cost of the wretched highways
now in general use. The common roads
are at once the means and the measure of
a peoples civilization. Those of the
United States are worse than in any
country in the world with a stable gov
eminent. The conclusion from this truism
and this fact is obviously disgraceful, and
a serious reflection on the progress of
which we prate so loudly.
JOIN GILMER SPEED.