Mexico weekly ledger., 1896-02-13
GOOD ROADS.
BY N. R. PTTTaIAN.


The people of the United States
have spent money for railroads. They
have railroads, many railroads, good
railroads. They are ahead of all other
countries in railroad building.
The Independent, of New York, has
devoted twenty-four columns this
week to good roads. The mild win
ter, the winter of rain and mud, has
emphatically called attention to streets
and roadways. When the people OF
the United States determine to lead
the world in building good roads they
will do it.
Roads which were built by the
Roman people two Thousand years
ago are giving good service to-day,
Prof. Sterrett says that the Roman
roadbeds were as carefully graded and
built as are those of our railroads
The roads were as straight as possible.
The air line was often secured by deer
cuts through rocks and mountains OF
by steep fills, bridges and culverts,
The roads were as level as possible. A
grade once fixed was maintained il
possible by raising the roadbed by
excavations or by tunnels.
Prof. Sterrett says: Investigations
with regard to the preparation of the
roadbeds were made years ago by
Bergies on Roman roads that r still
in use in France, and with the follow
ing results: In one road the excava-
ton down to hardpan was three feet
deep. This trench was filled up first
with a layer of sand and cement an
inch thick, then come a foot layer OF
fattish stones and cement, then a foot
layer of graveled stones and cement.
These last two layers were so hard and
firmly knit together that tools could
break off fragments only with great
difficulty. The next layer consisted
of a foot of cement and sand covered
with a top dressing of gravel"
Civil Engineer J. W. Howard says:
ga healthful city must be clean; it
cannot be clean if not paved.n He
claims that a city which has not well
built and well paved streets has a tre-
mendous obstruction in the way of
the health and the success and the
mental force of its people.
A residence of ten years in st.
Joseph convinced me that the people
somehow improved their homes and
themselves as soon as their street was
made clean and attractive with asphalt
pavement.
Mr.. George E. Walsh says: "The
movement for improving roads is not
confined to the Eastern States. In
the prairie districts of the West, where
stones are scarce and expensive, the
roads have been improved by blowing
two deep burrows along where the
cart wheels go and filling them in with
loose field stones, gravel and broken
stones, topping off the whole with
light gravel. These roads can be con-
structed at comparatively small ex-
pense, but when the roadbed is prop
erly elevated and a ditch made on
either side they are passable at all
seasons of the year for heavily loaded
farmers wagons"
Mr1Manriea ThnmnsonLnEC raw-.
louisville, Indiana, praises the road
way environment of his town. He
that in fourteen different di-
rections from Charlottesville the
splendid roads extend to indefinite
distances between rich farms where
and prosperity r absolute.
foot of the way is a graveled
floor. A few years ago all the gravel
roads about Charlottesville were the
property of private corporations and
a toll was exacted for using them.
The county commissioners bought
them and made them free and have
since maintained them by taxation.
Charlottesville has had no
boom the town has doubled its popu-
lation since good roads came. Farm
ers about Charlottesville have become
rich.
Gen. Roy Stone, Chief of the U. S.
Bureau of Road Inquiry, estimates
that excellent stone roads for the
country would cost about 81, 800 a mile.
first-class stone roads have cost
81 900 a mile. He estimates the total
area of farm lands in the United
States almost exactly n million
square miles. An average of a mile of
good road to each square mile of farm
area would be about sufficient. Hence
it would require at $500 per mile
fifteen hundred millions of dollars for
Uncle Sam to give good stone roads
TO the people of the United States.
Do all the road masters wisely work
roads? Is the road tax honestly
paid? Throwing tufts of grass and
,lods of dirt into the middle of the
-oad may count for something or
nothing. Every road master should
know what his task is. Where
is available the county should
in a stone crusher as well as in
| big pillow and big scraper- Looking
lpon these impossible road and streets
am not in despair if / am in trouble. ,
do know that good roads and good
treets are possible. We may not
lave them, but we "a have them If
We will.
Homeseekers' Excursion
Via Chicago & Alton and Wabash
Railroads.
January IA, %, February II and
1arch 10, to points in the South and