The news & observer., 1897-02-06
Lectures Last Night by Gen.
Stone and Prof. Holmes.
A BIG CROWD HEARD T4EM
PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS ABOUT
ROAD BUILDING.
ILLUSTRATED WITH PICTURES
Prof. Holmes Used a Projection Lam
tern in His Lecture and Repre-
sented Actual North Caro-
lima Scenes.

lima Scenes.
The hall of the House of Representa-
tiyes was packed to suffocati0n last night
with people who went to hear
Gen. Roy Stone. chief of United
States Bureau of Road Inquiry in Wash
ington. deliver and address on public
road Improvement in North Carolina, and
to listen to Prof. ]. A. Holmes enter
tanning lecture ON the same subject, Illus
trared with views from projection
lantern. The audience was composed
of legislators and citizens among whom
were many ladies.
Gen. Stone was the first speaker. lie
said by way of introduction, that when
he spoke here before he did 50 upon IN
yitation of a few citizens. but that now
he eame at the joint request OF
both branches of the General Assembly
He said it was an honor for any cltlzen
of the United States, or any official Of the
government to be invited by joint resolu-
ton to address such a body, and espe-
cially upon SO important a subject as the
improvements Of highways
The speaker told Of the work of the
National League for Good Roads and
how Il came to accept help from Con-
gress. Tt had been feared that such
step would arouse old antagonisms on
questions of State and Federal jurisdlc-
ton, with fatal results. BY quiet and
steady effort, however, and with the CO.
operation of good citizens in every State,
such cordial relations have been estab-
lishnd between the United States inquiry
and the State governments that its work
has never been criticised by the most
earnest advocate of States rights; on
the contrary, it has been welcomed and
aided universally by State authorizes
everywhere.
''The State of North Carolina, he con-
tinued, ''has already made such progress
in some sections in Improvement of Its
highways that, wherever | have gone,
| have been able to hold the Old North
State up as an example and incentive
shining beacon light, TO States OF far
greater wealth and population. l am sure,
however. that the little taste You have
had of the fruits of road improvement
has only given you an appetite for more,
and that you are anxious for more speedy
progress il the way can be found without
oppressive taxation or dangerous indebt-
ness.
THE TAN OF BAD ROADS.
I'm considering the subject of taxation
for good roads, you must take into ac-
count the tax of bad roads, aud one of
the most thorough and valuable studies
made by the office of inquiry has been
in this direction; in this study we have
done nothing but collect actual facts
and information from farmers them
selves, and apply that information to the
other facts collected by the Census
Bureau. We have consulted ten thousand
of the most intelligent farmers in the
United States, located in every agricul-
tural county, as to the present actual
cost of marketing farm products, and we
find the average to be almost exactly
twenty-five cents per ton for every mile
those products are hauled. This is three
times as great as the cost of hauling the
same products over good roads, as testi-
fed again by farmers in the good road
districts in this country, and it is four
times as great as the cost of hauling over
the best roads in foreign countries. TAX
in the total amount of farm products
in the country, together with the neces-
sary hauling Of farm supplies and other
materials over the country roads, we
find that the total cost of the hauling
done on those roads is not less than
nine hundred million dollars annually.
Taking into account also the loss sustain
ed by reason of the failure to reach mar
ket with perishable articles, the failure
to cultivate products which would be
marketable, Gf markets were always ac-
cessable, together with the enforced
idleness of farmers and draft animals
through periods of wet weather, we
deem it entirely safe to say that six
hundred of this nine hundred millions can
be saved to the country when good roads
become universal This six hundred
millions then, is the annual bad road tax.
And, again referring to the census re-
turns, we find that This is equal to one-'
fourth Of the home value of all the farm
products Of the United States.
1T is needless TO say that his tax is
not all borne by the farmers alone, il
would promptly bankrupt the whole agri-
cultural community. The farmers add all
Of it they can to the price Of their pro
ducts and then saddle it upon the mer-
chant and the consumer, and this is
what is making the people of the cities
and villages, and of all other occupations
than farming willing now to help bear
the burden Of road improvement. The
Chamber OF Commerce in the city OF New
York says; We are handicapped in all
the markets of the world by an enormous
waste OF labor in the primary transporta
zion of our products and manufactures
BROADER CONSIDERATIONS.
Self government by a great people, is