The Portland daily press., 1896-10-29
FOR GOOD ROADS.

FOR GOOD ROADS.
The Leagners Issue an Address to
Maine People.
A Road Commission-Its Necessities and
Uses-Cost May Be betrayed from the
Bicycle Taxa ForcefuI Address.
The Portland Wheel Club have issued
the following address to the people of
Maine:
To the Citizens OF Maine in General,
and the Wheelmen in Particular:
For over fourlhundred and our years
the most enlightened people on the faoe
OF the earth, " chook full of Yankee ings-
nu1ty. thrift and push have been in tho
busin ess of road building (?) ana the
oldest inhabitant is bound to confess
that to the best of his recolleotions the
roads are now no better than they were
when Columbus landed. We boast of
our progressive spirit" and point
with pride" to the telegraph which spans
the continent with it's message minute
to the Atlantic cable which tells of
events which have taken place even later
in the day than the time when we are
reading about them; to the telephone
| which allows US with safety to call
down statesman over miles of wire
when he fails to vote for a Highway
Commission as he promised to do; so the
steamboat, which in the past twenty
years has reduced over 10 cents bushe l
the cost OF bringing wheat from Chicago
| 10 New York: to the railroad which
| under the most favorable circumstances
pays dividends on q rate of cent ALTON
| nlils-we point with pride to these
giant strides, ana well we may. No
| other nation has ever made such won
derful progress In health anf general
prosperity and our smile Is complacent.
But when We compare our r0ads-with
apologies to MacAdam-with those of
England, France or Switzerland, our
| oomplacsnt smile fades and we are
humiliated to discover that In the very
ways which literally lie boneath oursfeet,
we are as backward as we have been
FORWARD In other ways; worse, in fact,
FOL. they have, in measure, appropriated
| our steamboats,, our telegraph and our
telephone, while wesshave failed to appre-
ciate the value Of good roads.
! We are too busy, lot us In all charity
say, to grasp the fact thatssthe reason why
these great enterprises are great, lies iu
! sAO AdVo Uudu 0uOy d1lVW uB W uO iuUI6
business in year than our ancestors
could do In life time. We are too busy
doing this great work to grasp the fact
that while millions of dollars worth of
business are transacted without a tele-
phone, millions without a telegraph,
millions without railroad and millions
without steamer, yet there is not one
cents worth that does not depend upon
somebody or something going over a
highway. Did you ever think why it is
that railroads oan carry coal for cent a
ton mile and pay dividendsf The an
swer is simply that by expending thous-
aDds Of dollars mile in building good
roadbeds they are nb 10 to move freight
over them with such small expenditure
Of power that cent ton mile pays
for the power, pays for the wear and tear
of the track and train, pays for labor
employed, pays the fattest of fat salaries
| to the brainy men who direct the run
ming Of these great iron highways, and
then above all, they pay dividend to
| stockholders.
Do youSrealize that every ounce of
these tons of freight which goes over q
railroad, also goes over the highways? A
cent ton mile pays q dividend on
railroads. What does it cost ton to
move it mile on our highways? Does
| il pay divident there? You know that
the dividends saved to the railroads by
good roads have been lost dozen times
over to our farmers by the apologies
which we call roads. 'Tis the difference
between profit and loss, and our farmers
have lost dividends which would make
| them happier and wealthier class
For over fifteen years the League of
| American Wheelmen has been fighting,
and during the last eight years 1t has
spent over S120, 10000 and distributed
over 2, 600. 900 pamphlets and magazines
In its campaign of education eor good
roads. In spots there has followed won
derful progress, most notably in New
Jersey and Massachusetts
In our last legislature, a bill modelled
| on the Massachusetts one which created
the Highway Commission that has done
snch magnificent work in the reforma-
| tion Of road building there, was present.
ed. Drawn by the Hon. Josiah H.
Drummond, it was championed before
the judiciary Committee by the Hon.
Henry Lord Of Bangor, President Of the
Maino State Board of Trade. Amended
by the Judiciary, and passed unanimous
~. 1t went to The house where 1t was
lost A change of eighteen votes, how
ever, would have carried il.
The following reasons were given for
killing the bill-and they were the only
| nan1mous-confession that something
| ought to be done, and there was no
deuial Of the fact that good roads have
always paid wherever tried.
Listen to these reasons:
You bicyclers are good fellows, but
you don't pay taxes.
Commissions are "a fraud. There
Ism T one that amounts to shucksll in the
| State.''
And lastly and the only one that is
entitled to grain of consideration:
I'VE are opposed to the creation of new
| Offices"
The first objection was answered by
q request for the insertion of clause in
the bill calling for the taxation of wheels
and the using Of all monies so raised for
| the support Of the Commission. This
was refused, as the members Of the
judiciary Committee did not care to
make class tax.
The second objection may be olassed
with that of the New York merchant
prince who, after having had several
daughters married to the imported
European nobility. prayed daily that the
remainder of his daughters might die old
maids as he had enough no account
counts on his hands already. There are a
few Q0Qd in To- nj hCfo Il