St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1896-01-27
A FORGOTTEN ISSUE.

lature there was a good deal of deSul-
tory agitation throughout the state on
the subject of road Improvement By
the efforts Of the press, and through
some of the proceedings at farmers in
stitutes, the attention Of a part Of the
farm community had been called to
the immense inconvenience and enor-
nous financial loss that it suffers by
reason of the impassable condition Of
our public highways during a good
many months in the year 1t was hoped
at that time that some general system
of road improvement might be adopted
or at least a beginning made by legis-
lative action toward obtaining good
roads in the future. Nothing practical,
however, has been accomplished. The
country thoroughfares remain in
their abominable condition, and the
farmer pays annually, in the added
cost Of hauling his produce to mar
ket, an indirect tax quite as great as
would be required to pay interest on the
cost of constructing modern highways,
If it does not amount to a large share
of the principal. We hope that the
farmers Of the state will take UP this
subject at an early date so that their
ideas may be made clear and practical
long before the next meeting of the
legislature. 1t is most desirable that
general scheme for road Improvement
throughout Minnesota should be dis
cussed and be ready for legislative
consideration before next winter.
From the experience of other COM
munities, it seems probable that the
most practical and satisfactory
method is to authorize the diff
ferent counties in the state to raise
funds for promoting this work; with
a proviso that whenever any county
has actually expended upon it's roads
certain amount, it shall then be en-
titled to receive a fixed percentage Of
that amount from the state treasury.
Inc state should not undertake the
work itself, but neither should it throw
the whole burden upon local author
1t1es By some such system as we
nave suggested, local public spirit will
De simulated, and beginning can
be made, and will be made in various
parts of the state Even before this is
done, however, 1t wants to be under
stood thoroughly that road improve
ment means something altogether diff
ferent from the hotchpotch that has
borne that name in the past. It is no
way to get good roads to plow a few
burrows along each side of a country
highway and throw the dirt from the
bitches thus made into the central
portion used by vehicles A good
road means a road constructed accord
ing to scientific principles. It means
the employment of competent road
engineer, the placing in position Of
soma substratum, and the covering of
this with a material that will harden
by travel into a smooth and impene-
trable surface. We have the highways
of Great Britain and France for ex-
amples, and enough has been done in
this country in different parts of the
East to show how the work should be
prosecuted.
With such an intelligent understand
ing established at the outset and with
definite plan drawn up for financing
the work with reasonable assistance
from the state, we might expect
highway improvement to be car
ried forward rapidly and vigorously.
The fact that it will add from SIS to $50
per acre to the value of all farming
property situated along such roadways.
that 1T will relieve the isolation and
monotony of country life, that it will
enable the farmer to travel to and
fro between his home and the nearest
markets. churches and schools. and
that it will enhance the value of his
holding, and practically transform the
whole character of rural life, ought to
be sufficient to make this an Issue of
commanding Importance We urge
upon all farmers as individuals. upon
all farmers Institutes meetings of
Farmers Alliances and every associa-
ton that is instituted in the betterment
OF the condition Of our AGRICULTURAL
population, to push this question well
to the front and to make a strong MOVE
for an actual beginning of road i'm
provement in Minnesota.