The Dalles daily chronicle. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1890-1948, 1894-03-21
WEDNESDAY, MAR. 81, 1894
WHAT BAD ROADS COST.

ing road improvement Is: What will
good roads cost? How much per mile
Let us first inquire, Yankee fashion
what do bad roads cost? This is really
the first question to consider. If bac
roads cost more than good ones this
would be good reason for an exchange
When one stops to think about it, il
seems strange how few people consider
the cost of maintaining and using bad
roads. They pass over them every few
days and seem to think that they are
good enough, but rarely stop to figure
how much they have actually paid or
have been forcibly taxed for the use OF
the bad road.
In figuring them out we cannot, of
course he exact. We can keep, how
ever, we'll within bounds and arrive suf-
ficiently near the truth for all practical
purposes.
Carefully prepared tables from nu-
merous practical tests have shown that
if five teams can do certain amount of
work on smooth crushed stone road it
will take eleven teams if the road is
covered with ruts and soft mud and
stwenty teams to do the same work if the
road is covered with deep ruts and thick
mud. This is entirely in harmony with
experience and with common sense. In
doing work on poor you must GER
tainly have twice as many teams as you
would require on good road. If your
teams are worth $3 day each, then for
each extra team you use you are taxed
is $3.50 a day for each team
you have on the road. Suppose hun
-dred teams came into this city each day
with loads over comparatively poor
hroads, fifty teams could do the same
were perfect. Here would be ain actual
! tax of $3.50 day upon the people using
the roads. This is probably no exag-
geration of the actual average condi-
; tions for the year. Probably no one
will dispute that you cannot haul more
than two-thirds as large load nor
travel more than two-thirds as fast. If
! that is conceded then multiply two
thirds by two-thirds and you get four
ninths, or a little less than half. In
other words, if the roads leading into
The Dalles were made perfect, hard
gravel or stone roads out to the average
limit of daily traffic there would be
daily saving of $50 or about $45, 900
year. There can be no doubt that these
suppositions are conservative, and en-
Sirely in harmony with actual expert
'ence. If they are, then the result as
figured out is correct and it does actu-
ally cost the people of the county $40, 900
a year for the privilege of using poor
roads. But this is only one view of the
matter. There are other items of cost
in the shape of wear and tear of wa
gons and harness and the shorten
ing of the horses lives. It costs the
farmer to glut the market when roads
are fair and costs him again to be shut
out when roads are impossible and pro-
duce goes up. A uniform market is far
preferable and more profitable for all.
Bad roads wear out the patience and
health by shaking and jolting and long
exposure. There is hardly question
comes up in the country in which the
condition of the roads does not cut some
figure. 1t most effectually regulates all
inter-communication which is the great
civilizer OF humanity. Again road
may be pretty good, but have few bad
places or difficult portions. A chain is
never any stronger than its weakest link
and a load can never be any larger than
what the team can pull over the worst
part of the road. In other words the
load must always be gauged by the chief
obstacle.
Beyond Smile hill there is a mile or
two of road which is infinitely worse
than all, the remainder combined. If
this were rendered even as good as the
rest of the road it would double the
present carrying capacity of teams. The
city of The Dalles is badly in debt, to
be sure; and so is the county. But the
city has lost nothing in making of
Second street a good roadway, instead of
the long line, of mud and chuck holes it
was formerly. If the county will do as
well in proportion when it starts to
work with the rock crusher, it will
double the wealth and earning capacity
of our farming community.