Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1897-11-23
FARM AND GARDEN.
EVERYBODY INTERESTED.

EVERYBODY INTERESTED.
a kentucky Editors Comments on
the Road Movement.
The movement for the improvement
OF our coun try roads is one in which all
el1lzens ought to take an interest. At
the same time, it is necessary to under
stand the conditions that surround the
question.
There was time in the history of the
country when there was great con tro-
Versy over what was called internal i'm
Provements. This included turnpike
roads. The right Of congress to expend
federal revenue for such purposes was
strenuously combated. On the other
hand, it was defended on the ground
mat these roads were to be national
hlghways-avenues of interstate COM
merce. That was before the day of rail-
roads. The latter have superseded the
necessity of building turnpike or other
commerce. The federal government
has assumed a supervision over these
highways of commerce, and there are
those who insist that it ought to pur-
chase or confiscate them all and operate
them. Conditions have entirely changed
since the time when it was insisted that
congress should construct turnpikes.
Our artificial highways for long-dis-
lance commerce are all railroads, with
the exception of few canals.
When the goodroads convention at
Nashville, therefore, insisted on the con-
struction of country roads, partly at the
expense of the federal government,
partly at the cost of the states and
partly by convict labor, it appears to
have lost sight of the real work to be
done. All of our great highways for in
terstate commerce are either water
routes or railroads. OF the latter there
appears to be suf6ciency, if we can
draw any conclusion from the cessation
of railroad building. Roads are
now wanted to transport products
to the railroads, to the mines, to the
coast, or to other roads which lead to
one of the three first mentioned In
other words. we need what are called
neighborhood roads, and not roads en-
gagged in interstate commerce, or even
state commerce between distant points
The latter, as we'll as the former, is
carried on over railroads where water
routes are not available.
It seems clear that the federal gov
eminent has nothing to do with roads
within the states, few miles in length,
that are needed to reach longer lines en-
gagged in state or interstate commerce.
If it had the power to construct such
roads, it would be difficult to do so on
an equitab BILE basis. Some of the states
have many roads of this sort built at
local expense: others have none at all,
or next to none. The same remark ap-
plies to states some portions of which
have fine systems Of turnpikes, provided
at their own cost, without state aid,
while other sections have no good roads
at all. The injustice of taxing all parts
of the country alike for local roads is ap-
parent at glance.
The agitation in favor Of good country
roads is SO important in itself that it
ought not to be complicated with eN-
traneous questions. The main point is
to utilize the money already expended.
1t is not the small amount of
money and labor expended on our roads
that has left so many of them in bad
condition, but the want of intelligent
supervision and direction. It is not in
the interest of good roads to instruct
the people who need them to wait for
the federal government to come to their
relief. To considerable extent at least
the same is true of the state govern
ments. These local roads can be built
with local resources if they are proper
ly utilized.
AS to the use oSconvict labor for the
making of these. no doubt that is pos
sible in some parts of the country. In
this state, however, it is not possible
under the present constitution, which
provides. in section 253. that persons
convicted Of felony and sentenced to
confinement in the penitentiary shall be
confined at labor within the walls of the
penitentiary, and the general assembly
shall not have the power to authorize
employment of convicts elsewhere. ex-
cept upon the public works of the COM
monwealth of Kentucky, or when, dur
ing pestilence or in case of the destruc-
ton of the prison buildings, they can
not be confined in the peniten tiary."
County roads are not public works OF
the commonwealth. and hence are not
within the exception. This, however,
might be cured by a constitutional
amendment if the people desire to make
the experiment of convict labor on
country roads. There would still re-
main, however, the difficult matter of
apportioning the expense.-Louisville
Couirer-Journal