The herald., 1895-05-15
GIVE US DIRECT AND DECENT ROADS

One would hardly expect that parlia-
mentary czar, Tom Reed of Maine, to be
interested In good roads. unless it be
those leading to the White House. But
this magazine bimetallist and legislative
goldbug" as Congressman Bryan aptly
designates him, has been sufficiently in
terested to evolve some very sensible
ideas regarding the subject. In an ad-
dress before the students of business
college of Philadelphia, treating of va
fious forms of wealth, he referred to
highways and their importance, in the
following language:
''One of the greatest civilizers Of the
world is something we hardly think of.
either as a civillzer or as wealth-the COM
mon country road. Few people ever
think how much roads cost us. They
represent the surplus labor of centuries.
"They make possible the transfer of the
abundance of one region to supplement
the want or another. And yet the modern
road. crossing the country in all direc-
tions. traversible by carriages and carts,
- we'll as beasts, does not 60 back to the
times OF good Queen Bess. Indeed, in her
reign. thousands might starve and did
starve in one county, while abundance
filled the granaries of the others.
"Think OF men and women and children
starving from mere lack of that form of
wealth which we call roads in the days
when Drake and the great captains were
securing the seas in search Of the Span
ish galleons and Spanish gold. and when
the military might of England hurled
back the Spanish armada and all the
- <ha
of the globe. In the very heart of Lon
don. in the street named after the kin
himself, the only way one of the Ed :
wards could get to his parliament was to
fill with great punches of fagots the
holes in the streets"
There are some truths suggested in
these remarks that the people of Los An
geles county should take home and cult :
vate the acquaintance Of. This county
needs a more practical and better kept
system of roads. absolutely and imme-
diately. 70 a large extent the produc-
tiveness of our soil and the intelligently
spplied energies Of our people are nulli-
fed by the indirect and shockingly kept
routes they are obliged to take in getting
their products to market. The actual saw
Ing in dollars ami cents that would be
permitted with system of highways
that rendered unnecessary long detou1s
from a reasonably direct line in jour-
neying from point to point, and that al
lowed the attainment of decent speed
without running the horsehesh, breaking
the wagon gear. or jolting ones teeth
out would pay many times over for
scientifically laid out and decently main
tanned roads. And to those owning land
III the country only as spectators and not
as users, the pecunlary value of direct and
decent roads should be easily apparent.
The price they will get for their holdings
largely depends on the ease and prompt
itude with which the intending in
vestor can be shown the property. Moth
ing is so discouraging to a man coming
probably from some old and we'll kept
part of the east, as to be drawn in winter
through SIX to twelve inches of simon
pure slush or mud, and in summer be
yanked fiom one chuckhole into another.
The prospect of having to experience this
series of vcisstudes as regular thing,
should he buy property thus located, is
enough to deter the most sanguine of Gus
toners. If we are civilized people let us
have civilized ways from the city to the
farm.