The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1895-07-18
WIDE TIRES.
A Sensible Plan for Making Instead
of Breaking up the Roads.

We are behind the times. With yer,
few exceptions our public roads are ii
no better condition than they wer.
one hundred years ago. The world i:
progressing while we are standing still
just where our ancestors were hund
red years ago. There never was any
justice in requiring the man who was
too poor 10 ride to do the same amount
Of work on the road that was required
ofthe owner of hundred vehicles and
thousands acres of land. The system
was bad in many respects so bad that
the law has become a dead letter, and
the roads are not worked at all or
worked in such way as to do no good.
OF course all roads should be worked
by taxation. But to my subject. What
is the use of putting road in good
condition fit is to be cut to pieces and
made almost impossible by heavy loads
| on narrow wheel tires? The wagons
should be SO constructed, and can be
SO built, as to be road makers instead
of road breakers. If their tires are from
three to five inches wide and especially
if the front axle is shorter than the
rear one, the dirt roads will be i'm
proved instead Of ruined by use, and
the rock roads will not be cut into ruts
and holes as they are by the narrow
tires. On the dirt road, or on farm,
horse can pull a heavier load with
wide tires than he can with narrow
ones, and the farm is not injured by the
cutting of the wagon wheels.
In Austria, France, Germany, Swift
zerland, and Canada, as we'll as in
Michigan, New York, Ohio, Indiana,
Vermont, Massachusetts, and in certain
cities in the United States, the width
of tires is prescribed and regulated by
law, and whenever this has been done
it has been of great benefit.
The time will come when all our
Convicts, instead Of being sent to die
or have their health permanently i'm
paired by the malaria of the Roanoke
and where they are Of no service to
the State, will be put to work on the
roads, but that time is some dis
lance ahead of US; and in the mean
time we have it in our power, at little
or no expene, to greatly improve our
roads, by simply increasing the width
of the tires of all vehicles carrying as
much as thousand pounds.
This is an important matter. Our
wretched roads seriously interfere
with the prosperity of our country.
There are periods of the year, per-
haps months, when it takes four horses
to pull two horse load over some of |
the pubic roads within three miles of
the capitol of our State; and if this is so
within sight of the capitol how must it
be in sections more remote?
Let US get together in our different
and talk about this
matter; make experiments and see for
our selves how much more a team can
pull across our fields or along our dirt
roads with wide tired wheels of from
three to five inches, than with the tires
VIC now use, and my word for it these
will end in the universal
use of the wide tire.
1t is well TO talk about the politics
Of the day, the free and unlimited
coinage of silver and gold monometal-
ism, national banks, high and low
arlff, the internal revenue system; it is
we'll to keep an eye on our political
eaders; but we should study and dis
2uss other subjects also. Religion, his
DRY, science, and especially the
science OF farming, roads and road
making should have some of our
thought.
Gree and unlimited coinage of sill
'er." | like that. 1t sounds WELL Free
md unlimited. The prefix of these
words will make any thing sound we'll.
free and unlimited religion! I
eel like shouting when l think of such
possibility. Free and unlimited air
md health if we can only get rid of
hat free and unlimited malaria made
~ the Raleigh water works pond, and 1
he free and unlimited dead horse
hat sweetens our city water. Free {
nd unlimited coinage of silver; that's
ettled spell it with little s.; we are
ii in favor of that; we have read ,,
joins Financial School and talked
nd talked about that until there is ;
othlng left to say, and we just have to f
it down and see the old politicians
ushlng in hurrahing for free and {
Unlimited coinage of silver in a grand ,
ace to see who shall get to the United
tates Senate first. Oh, what pretty
ace it iS-some on yellow horses
'alnted white, and some on horses so 6
overed with mud and foam you
'ouldn't know the color if the rider
admit said it was white and as we
It and look we have unlimited fun I
again say, let US all put our heads
ogether and see if we can't have a
rec und unlimited improvement of
ur public roads.
SPIER WHITAKER.
Children,