The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1894-09-27
GOOD ROADS.
WORKING IN A WORTHY CAUSE

Three Hunred Men, Who Mean Busi-
ness, Say We Must Have Them=-
The Re- Congress in Charlotte
Interesting Discussions Had and
Valuable Papers Read.
About three hundred delegates,
representing many counties of the
State were present when the State
Good Roads Conference was called to
order in Charlotte's beautiful City
Hall at 1890, Wednesday, Sept. 9Th.
DR.. r. ]. Brevard, Mayor OF Charlotte
and President OF the North Carolina
Road improvement Association, called
the conference to order, and welcomed
it to Charlotte in a nea: speech, which
was eloquently responded to by Mr..
Jas. {. Stevenson, of Wilmington, and
Mayor Patton, of Asheville.
DR.. Brevard is President of the Con
ference and Prof ]. A. Holmes
Secretary, Col. ]. c. Upton, of Sails
bury, assistant Secretary. After the
organization and announcement OF
the programme the conference adj
journed, reassembling at 2:5o O'Clock
and immediately adjourned to visit
parts of the city and vicinity where
road building and repairing are in
progress, being transported on electric
cars, rendered by the City Railway
Company. Charlotte leads in this
work and its inspection afforded much
pleasure and profit to the delegates.
In quarrying rock for Macadamizlng
It's streets, the city has opened up a
hole large enough to contain the
State Capitol at Raleigh and this
quarry is right in the heart of the city.
/ The steam drills, derricks, and great
rock crusher are all worked by Il go
horse power boiler. The delegates
were also shown how the steam roller
tears up a rough street and packs it
down again smooth and even.
At s o'clock the conference recon-
vened and Hon. S. B. Alexander,
member of Congress from the Sixth
District, and the father Of the Mecklen
burg road law, gave a history of the
law and synopsis of its provisions,
explaining and emphasizing its adapt
ability to all parts of the State. He
was followed by Capt. w. E. Ardrey,
his colleague in securing the enact
ment of the Mecklenburg law, who
read an interesting paper Gu "What
have good roads done for the farmers
df Mecklenburg county," Showing
that the agricultural interests of the
county have been immensely benefited.
One horse can haul as much as four
formerly could, and many thousands
OF dollars worth of farm products were
put on the market now that had no
value before, the advantages of the
! city are extended to the country and
along the lines of the Macadamlzed
roads land which dozen years ago
could not be sold for SIS per acre
will now bring SIS to $3.50 per acre,
but are not for sale at any price.
S. H. Hilton gave history of the
working of the ConviCts upon the
Mecklenburg highways, and how the
county had come by experience to
build much better roads now and at
much less cost than when they began.
Mr.. B. H. Butler, city engineer, read
a valuable paper on the cost oil
Matchmaking streets and highways IN
Charlotte, with some interesting facts
relating to the machinery and technical
description of the road. He showed
how the cost of this work Of improving
the streets and sidewalks has been
greatly reduced by having better
machinery. Following these papers,
Prof. Holmes gave stereoptlCon
exhibition of large pictures of the fine
Macadam roads % be found in par s
of Europe, and also of the bad roads
in North Carolina. He also showed
illustrations of the beautiful scenery
and the resources of North Carolina
emphasizing the fact that we have
great country, but we can never develop
it ourselves, nor can we attract the
thrifty and intelligent people of Other
States and countries to aid us until we
have the good roads such as these
people have at their homes.
Thursday morning by eight o'clock
the delegates assembled in front of the
Central Hotel, where the citizens o
Charlotte met them with carriages FOL
a long drive over the country roads
The whole process of building the bes
modern roads was seen, and all kind:
of machinery were at work grading
the old country road; rolling The
graded surface the farmers hauling
rock off their fields and Cording i
along the road the spreading O
coarser stones at bottom on the dir
road surface, and rolling them down
then putting on another layer of three
inches OF stone, and rolling this anc
then two inches Of fine crushed stone
on top and rolling this. All along
these Macadam roads the houses anC
fences and farms generally were IL
good condition, showing the influence
of the roads. The only complaint
that the delegates heard was that these
roads were not built fast enough. Tx
wagons they met coming into town OF
these roads, were hauling loads twice
as large and more than would have bee I
seen elsewhere, and the conclusion
arrived at was that the half had no
been told about these Mecklenburs
, county roads.
At II O'Clock the council reassem
bled at the City Hall and an i'm
portant paper read was one by MIR. "
c. McMackin, supervisor of roads II
Wake county, on working public road