Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1897-10-21
coon ROADS FOR MISSOURI

&AAAG
Data Showing that Missouri Loses 815s-
100000 Year by Bad Roads.
A state convention Tor good roads
and public improvements will be held
at the Masonic hall, in st. Louis, on
November % and g. A call for this
state convention is being prepared by
the officers elected to the charities and
correction and good roads convention,
held at Memorial hall, st. Louis. De-
cember 81 and % of last year. Circu-
lars are being issued, and THE States
Duty" and other literature is being
sent into all sections of the state, urg-
ing the necessity for the judges of
county courts, the mayors of cities.
and the commercial bodies to name
delegates to this important meeting.
1t is proposed that each county judge
shall name two delegates from coun-
~, and that every city and incorporate
ed town and also every commercial
body shall send representatives. w. III.
Moore, president of the charities and
correction and good roads convention
of las: year; E. C. Rowse, the secre-
tary, and President Jesse of the state
university at Columbia, who is one of
the vice-presidents, and many other
prominent citizens of Missouri, are
taking an active interest in the ar
engagements for the coming convention.
The chief object in calling this con-
vention more than year before the
Fortieth general assembly of Missouri
will convene is to arrange in advance
for the enactment of feasible road
legislation" said President Moore.
when the people of Missouri UNDER
stand how road construction is
progressing in systematic and prac-
teal way in other states it will be an
incentive for them to adopt similar
plans for the building of good roads
and the promotion of public improve
ments. Conventions crystalline public
sentiments. This state has as much
road legislation on its statute books
as any state in the Union, perhaps,
but the fact that good roads
are not being built III Missouri
is proof that active and consistent
legislation should be enacted. Mis-
souri, spends $1,000, 600 year on her
common roads, but last year S622. 600
of that sum went into the pockets of
road overseers. The common roads
have been neglected in this state. As
has been truthfully said, the price of
farm products is fixed at the great
cities or centers of consumption and
distribution, and is wholly beyond the
farmers control, and the cost of trans
portation is a principal factor in deter.
mining his profits or the possibility OF
any profit. On the railroads the cost
of transportation varies, according to
bulk, and runs from mills to cent per
ton per mile. But the average common
roads are so bad that, in compare
lively good weather, a two-horse team
and wagon, the value of whose service
is $3 per day, can not haul a ton of
produce more than ten miles and re-
turn in day. The cost of road trans
portation on that basis, therefore, is so
cents per ton per mile, or about forty
times as great as the rate on the rail
road. Say that the average distance
from the farm to the nearest railway
station is ten miles, and that means
that it costs as much to get the goods
to or from the railroad station as to
carry them 400 miles on the cars. But
there is a.long season every year wheL
the roads in some sections of Missouri |
are simply impossible. One big whole
sale house In ST. Louis lost S24e. 900 |
in trade last March on account OF the |
bad roads in Missouri. In many places |
it was an impossibility to go a mile |
away from the railroad. Gen. Roy |
Stone, who has charge of the road de- |
partment established by congress in |
1898, and who worked under the direc- |
ton of the secretary of agriculture, |
says that Missouri's. annual loss by real
SON of defective roads is not less than |
SIS. 900, 600.
''Such an appalling financial drain |
on the resources of this state should be |
speedily checked. Every farmer can |
readily see how he will reap immediate |
and direct benefit from good roads. It |
has been estimated that a macadam |
road ID feet wide alongside farm |
adds SIS in value to each acre OF land. |
Some sections of this state can fur. |
nish its own supply of rock for
constructing roads at q very moderate
cost. Good roads over all the state |
could be built on q plan whereby |
the cost of construction could be |
paid in installments when the general |
taxes are paid, and the burden would |
be felt lightly. To the contrary, it |
would be no burden, for the farmer |
would be benefited many times over |
the amount of his road taxes, owing to |
the enhancement of the value OF his |
land and the increased facilities OF |
the market with his |
products. Then. too, with good |
roads. the market would not be |
g1utted SO often as it is |
now, because the farmers products |
could be transported to the railroads
the whole year round. While the rail- |
roads would save money in the long |
ran, as they would be freed largely |
from the rush at certain seasons, |
they would handle more freight |
steadily the whole year through, |
and their rolling stock could be dirnin- |
ished. It ought to be made possible to |
skirt thia state with good roads within |
ten yeas, and it would add untold |
millions to the value OF farming lands. |
and as the same time furnish EMPLOY. |
nent for the surplus labor that il now
idle"