Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1897-11-13
COST OF POOR ROADS.
STUPENDCUS SUM WASTED IN MAR
KETlNG CROPS.


Careful Estimates Place the Amount An
nually Sunk In the Mud at $500, OOO, 900.
Mr.. Otto Dorner Advocates State Aid
For Highway Improvement.
Mr.. Otto Dorner, chairman of the ma
tional committee for highway improve
ment, League of American Wheelmen,
in an address on GOOD Roads, deliv-
cred at Urbana, Ills, said:
"a leading agricultural paper in the
east has severely criticised my state
ment that the farmers Of Wisconsin,
where I live, might, by the construction
of good roads, save So, 900, 900 each year
ill the cost of marketing their oats,
corn, wheat and barley. This figure is
indeed so stupendous that it is not sur
prising its correctness should have been
questioned. Figures of this kind deserve
to be subjected to rigorous criticism,
and am glad to say that these figures
are based upon the highest authority
and will bear the most careful analysis.
The United States government, through
its bureau of road inquiry, has made an
extensive investigation into the cost Of
hauling crops and has found as the re-
suit of replies to it's circulars coming
from 1900 different counties, that the
average cost of marketing ton of farm
produce i'll the United States is some
thing over So. The United States census
ought to be pretty good authority as to
the amount of crops harvested in each
state. With these two authorities as
foundation, it was easy for me to esti-
mate the cost of hauling these four
crops, which is about $S,25O,OO
1.-The progress of the good roads
movement has brought about careful in
vestigation as to the possible saving
from good roads. Both the department
of agriculture and the secretary of the
farmers national congress agree that
the cost of hauling farm products might
be reduced by two-thirds through the
building of good roads. Two thirds Of
$4,000 is SIS, 10000 as any school
boy can readily figure out. The paper
i'll question would be amply justified in
attacking these figures if they were SIM
ply my own, and if it were not for the
fact that they are based upon careful in
vestigation conducted by the United
States government, impartially made,
for the simple purpose of honestly as
certaining the facts.
In the same way we are able to as
certain few things with regard to the
losses from bad roads in Illinois. The
United States census of 1890 shows that
the farmers of Illinois harvest annually
over 269, O00,O bushels of corn, or
something more than 100000 tons;
nearly 2,250,OOO tons of oats, nearly
5000, 600 tons of hay, considerably
more than 100000 tons of wheat and
enough rye and barley to make more
than another 1000 tons. This makes
q total of nearly 16, 500, 900 tons, and
does not include many other crops, such
as potatoes and tobacco 1t is safe to as
sumo that 100000 tons of these are
hauled to market, and this costs the
farmers of Illinois, according to the
United States department of agricul-
ture, just about $3.50, 100000 This, of
course, does not represent cash, but is
the value of the time and effort expend-
ed each year by man and beast in trav-
cling over the roads as they exist today.
If it be true, as the department Of agri-
culture estimates, that two thirds of
through the building of good roads, it
means that the farmers of Illinois are
each year unnecessarily expanding 1884,
000,0 900 worth of time and labor in
hauling their crops to market.
Equally large amounts might be
saved in other states through the con-
struction of good roads The department
of agriculture estimates that in the
United States good roads would save
over $500, 900, 600 each year in the cost
of hauling crops, and the estimate made
by the secretary Of the farmers ma
tional congress results in the same enor-
nous amount. While great deal Of
effort has been expended on our public
roads, very little actual improvement
has been made in them, and doubt If
the cost of hauling crops by wagon has
been reduced one third since the close
of the war We can today ship bushel
of grain from Chicago to New York for
just one-f fifth of what it cost to ship it
in 1865, and, while we formerly paid
101a cents for carrying that bushel Of
grain from New York to Liverpool, the
freight across the water today amounts
to only cents. 1t is fortunate for the
farmers of the United States that the
cost of transportation has thus decreased,
for, with the rapid growth of agricul-
ture in this country, we must depend
more and more upon foreign markets to
dispose Of our grain products and must
certainly depend upon these foreign
markets to control the price of grain
even here at home If American wheat
is to successfully compete in the cities
of Europe with grain imported from
Russia, India andSouth America, where
land and labor are cheap, it is of the
greatest Importance that the cost Of its
transportation be reduced to minimum.
This applies not only to freight rates
from Chicago to New York and to
Liverpool, but with equal force to the
cost of hauling that same grain from
the farm to the railroad.
"The greatest improvement in our
system of building country roads is the
plan of state aid as advocated and pro-
NOTED by the League of American
Wheelmen This is the system under
which the famous stone roads of New
Jersey have been constructed by divi-
sion Of their cost between the state, the