The record-union., 1897-12-09
DEFENSE OF CERTAIN CRANKs

TO those who have looked upon the
persistent advocates of good roads as
merely enthusiasts, men carried away
by excess of zeal and impatient for the
accomplishment of too great ends;
cranks indeed, the recent researches
OF the New York Sun" may be COM
mended to show that these same good
roads cranks are very far from amen
able to the charge of extravaganza of
economic ideas.
The Sun" entered upon study of
the claims of the good roads advocates
and it's discoveries justify fully all that
these enthusiasts have put forward in
the advocacy Of their claims. The
New York paper finds that approxi-
mately there are 100000 horses in
the United States, a decline of one mil
lion in the last ten years, due to the
introduction Of electric railways, the
bicycle, horseless carriages and eco
nomic motors for wheeled vehicles.
Many more than half of the horses are
used upon the public highways daily,
and this half has put upon them all
the burdens of bad road conditions. re-
ducing their capacity and limiting their
output Of energy. Whatever, there
fore, augments their ability saves time
and money,
There are in use also the same way
about 100000 mules, mainly in the
South The annual cost for fodder for
these horses and mules is 81, 100000
600. On a good, smooth stone road
horse or a mule can haul as much as
three horses or three mules on a poor
dirt road. Considering now the cost
for feed, the work accomplished, or not
accomplished, and the loss of time, to
say nothing of the influence of bad
roads upon the development of rural
sections, the Sun" declares that the
question of good roads rises to momen-
uous importance.
It estimates that it will be necessary
to build 1 1000, 900 miles of macadamized
roads IN the United States in order to
give US a system relatively as good as
that Of Europe But this, we take 1t,
is an excessive estimate. However,
taking the Suns" figures and the
SUNS values. and accepting its price
per mile, $4,000, as correct for good
roads, and an outlay of S4.000,000, 900
as involved, a sum simply monstrous in
proportions.
But, says the SUM-" if one half of
the draft animals could be dispensed
with by reason of such construction.
there would be an annual saving of
S700,000,000 on the food bill alone.
Therefore, if road bonds were issued
bearing three per cent. interest, the
people can build all the good roads they
VIII ever need without increasing the
annual cost TO which they are now put,
by so much as a single cent Assum-
ing the Suns figures to be even ap-
proximately correct, it should have
added that the saving referred to would
also discharge the principal regularly
by annual installments While meeting
the interest
But then, dealing in such enormous
totals is unnecessary. 1T is needed
only TO consider a small section which
Is dependent upon use of country roads;
consider the cost of maintaining poor
reads against the cost OF construction
end maintaining the good ones; take
into account the saving in food for
draft animals, the saving in time and
the saving in number of animals nee
essary to accomplish a given amount
Of work. and then compare with the
result of such consideration the cost of
a good road. 1t win be found inva-
riably that the cost of the proper road
is the greater economy The road
cranks have to put UP with q good deal
of reproach and laughter and submit
TO be called impracticables. but some
how. In every case where their theories
have had practical tests, these same
cfanks triumph.