The Saint Paul globe., 1897-09-27


have seen the subsidence of the agi--
tation begun in reconstruction days
and the slow improvement of the con-
dition of the negro in the esteem of the
whites, with sincere pleasure. We
think Booker Washington is preaching
the true gospel to his race in telling
Them that they will win an esteem
among their white fellows only when
they shall have established charsc-
ter that deserves it. These appoint
ments by the president will have only
the effect to renew the agitation, TO in
flame now slumbering prejulices, re-
tard their removal and, with that ia
tality that has attended every touchs Of
the negro by Republicanism, only in
jure what it is sought to help.
STEEL PLATE COUNTRY ROADS.
Some three or four years ago Buff
falo alderman, whose name has escaped
our memory, proposed to make good
country roads possible by the use of a
surface slightly concave. He was an
enthusiast and published a pamphlet
containing his argument and illustra-
tions of road-making with his plates,
and sent copies to all the principal pa
perS of the country. His argument
was that country roads could not be
built of usual material to resist their
constant enemies, rain and frost, eX-
cept at a cost that was out of the
question; that the chief difficulty was
with wagon wheels, and that if track
could be made of some material that
would resist rain and frost and main
tain hard surface in all seasons, the
remainder of the track could be easily
made and kept in repair. The best
made macadam roads are costly in the
first instance and expensive in main
tenance; planks soon rot and repairs
are costly, while gravel yields to the
effects of frost and rain.
So he proposed his steel rail, really a
sheet, eight inches in width and half
an inch thick, for a track for the
wheels to run in. But his enthusiasm
was powerless- against the mass of con-
servatism and inertia, reinforced, prob
ably, by the inevitable factor of cost.
Now, however, we are Informed from
Washington that the secretary of agri-
culture, in his search for something
ment, has resurrected the Buffalo al
derman's plan and is looking for some
location where it can be tried. He has
arranged with the Cambria works, of
Johnstown, Pa, to roll the sheets as
soon as responsible parties will con-
tract for mile of plate. The good
agreed upon a plan of track that avoids
the use of sleepers, laying the plates
on a bed of gravel and tying them at
intervals to prevent spreading 1t will
take 100 tons to lay a mile of single
track road. the department estimates,
and it will be furnished in small sec
tions at So, 500 a mile We have the same
doubt of the practicability of the plan,
now that the department of agriculture
has lent it its sanction, that we had
after reading the aldermans pamphlet
To make it available at the seasons
of the year when it would be most
needed requires a double track, for the
loaded wagon that has to leave the
track to meet another one would stall
in the mud. Even if the cost of a single
track could be borne, that of a double
one would insure it's rejection in any
township in the country The New
York agricultural experimental sta
ton has agreed to make the expert
ment, however, and we shall learn
whether our country roads can be re-
duced to "two streaks of rust; or are
to retain their present alterations of
dust and mud