Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1894-11-22
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IMPROVEMENT.
EXPENSE OF ROADS.


A Simple Statement from a Plain Busi-
Point of View.
In almost every article about i'm
proving our highways, there is the
same commendation of the object, the
same disposition to dwell upon the
comfort and profit il that object can
be realized. but then comes, with a
lament and an apology. positive pro-
hibition of progress by calling atten-
tion to the enormous and intolerahle
expense
This inverted climax is reached by
aggregating in one vast sum the cost
of furnishing an entire state or coun-
ty, or even a township, with dura bic
roads properly constructed. This
method of computation will kill any
enterprise The farmer who counts
only the cost will never sow any
wheat To man who knows nothing
but the cost of bread and butter, it
would be impossible to feed the peo-
pie of the United States for one year.
IL all the social drinking in the United
States had to be done at a gulp and
paid for>Vpon a sIgEaf- it would not
only kill all -che drinkers, but for the
time MHu-Ad make an unheard-of strin-
gency IN monetary affairs To get
nine hun dred million of dollars ready
all at once to make payment in money
or currency would drain the banks to
their reserves, and empty the pocket
books of the people. Things are not
done that way.
Expenditures are made from year to
year, as accumulations create ability.
The burden is adjusted so that like
the pressure of the atmosphere it is
never felt, and if known is only known
as n blessing.
But the principal fact in this connec-
ton is that there need not be an in
crease of expenses, but there should be
a wiser use of the expenditures that
are annually made. Not heavier tax
alton, or an increase in corporate and
municipal debts, is the first aim, but
permanent work, so that each years
work may join and supplement the
work of the previous year. II any
one will take the pains to calculate
the amount ordinarily expended upon
our roads to make them nothing the
better, but rather the worse, and to
disappear before storm and food and
frost of the next winter and spring, he
will find that the sum in almost any of
our older states rises into the millions
And this wasteful expenditure has
been repeated year after year for two
or three generations, and bids fair TO
be repeated for generations to come.
The waste already amounts probably
70 To nj 10 lahf &c
and out of it all we have few miles of
really good roads.
No, the problem of first considera-
tion is not how to raise more money,
but rather to expend what we do raise
so that the work may be satisfactory
and permanent.
Our roads would now be in better and
more serviceable condition il all the
public work had been done to secure
properly-constructed roadbeds, without
metalling - roadbeds of clay. thor
oughly underdrained, with sufficient
sluices, either Of iron pipe or of clay
tile, protected at the openings with
masonry, the clay crowned so rs to FREQ
the road from water, well compacted
with the roller, and the roads so To-
Gated that no grade need be more than
three feet to the hundred. III we had
such roadbeds, they would be as per-
manent as any structure made by the
hands of man. The material will not
decay. 1t will bear up any load that
horses can pull 1t is smooth, firm
and elastic.
When the time might come to put on
metal-to complete the structure by
putting on the roof-the metal would
remain until worn to powder by the
wheels and hoofs passing over it.
Over such roadbeds coating of mac
adam three inches thick, broken,
spread and rolled according to Mao
adams rule, would be quite sufficient
for any ordinary country road. Where
travel is very heavy greater depth of
metal might be required, but the writer
knows of road which bears n heavy
traffic, cut in hillside, that has but
five inches of broken stone. 1t stands
and wears, year after year, always
smooth and dry. But it was thorough
ly constructed and drained before
stone was placed upon it. under the
direction of an engineer with compe-
tent knowledge and good common
sense Col. w. ID. McClung, in Good
Roads