Little Falls weekly transcript. (Little Falls, Morrison Co., Minn.) 1894-19??, 1894-06-22
IS THE FARMER GUILTY.

s. is THE FARMER GUILTY.
He Has Been Charged with Opposing Pub
lie Roads Improvement.
Il has often. been asserted that the
main opposition to improved highways
proceeds from those who would receive
the largest benefit from them namely,
the farmers. s.
Is this true? It becomes the duty OF
the American farmer to ask himself If
there is the least basis for an assertion
which throws upon him the chief odium
for a public condition which he is ever
ready to condemn and blame, maybe
upon his road overseer or county court.
So far as the facts are brought out it
must be confessed that the farmer has
been guilty at least Of inexplicable neg
igence of his own interest in doing moth
ing to inaugurate reform whose neces-
sity he would be the last to deny. New
York has road law adopted at nearly
the same time as the Missouri law and
similar to it in many respects. Like the
Missouri law, however, it must be rat
fled by the counties before becoming
effective, and this feature has operated
to make it practically dead letter.
In Missouri the case is similar, and If
anything worse A law has remained
upon the statute books for nearly year,
which, if rightly applied, might have
led to the construction Of hundreds of
miles of first class roads. Yet this law
today, by reason of the Indifference or
opposition of some one, is to all intents
and purposes an unknown thing.
IF the farmers are responsible for this
state Of affairs either in New York or
Missouri, it is time that they were wax
ing up. The benefit to the farmer of
good roads is more than double their
benefit to any other person. To others it
may be a question Of pleasure and Incl
dentally, through the increased value of
real estate and growing population of
desirable residents, of business, To the
farmer it is a matter of business pre-
eminently. If pleasure and convenience
come in, they are only incidental There
is much talk of the '*prohibitive" cost
Of good roads, but any shrewd business
man or investor, after weighing the facts
on each side, would be willing to pay
twice the amount if necessary and have
good roads.
In all probability the farmer is not
wholly to blame for the prevailing in
difference to road improvement. Wheth
er he is or not there is a glorious oppol
tunity before the American farmer t
prove to the townsman that he is not
mossbaclz, dead to his own interest, but
a live, progressive member Of society:
The way for him to do it is to take the
lead in road reform himself and never
turn back until the desired end is
reached kansas City Times
Benefits of Good Roads.
Many people who have not studied the
subject Of improved roads do not under
stand the immense benefit which they
bring to community. Yet of all the
thousands of miles Of good roads that
have been made in this and other coun-
tries the first mile has not yet been
found that has not proved to be protita.
U10. Liz 1uCI01So LII lc1lu values d1Oue
is always more than enough to pay fol
the improvement. Some benefits and adj
vantages we cannot always compute in
dollars and cents, and some things our
common sense impels us to take fo1
granted. No farmer in this country can
tell the money value Of an education,
and yet each farmer comedies it's value
and sends his children to school and
Fwatches carefully their advancement in
knowledge. Good health is Of infinite
VALUE, and the farmer seeks it and guards
| it, but he cannot tell it's value in dollars
| and cents. The same is true of good
habits, good morals and good clothes.
Do not, therefore, waste any time in
doubling the value of good road. The
people of other countries who have used
bad roads and now use good ones are
well satisfied that every dollar spent in
this work is good investment, and not
one of them would tolerate the miser'
able dirt roads with which so many
| American farmers seem to be content
| Country Roads.
The Good Roads Tournament.