The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1898-01-24
GOOD ROADS.

Congressman Stone of Pennsylvania
will offer an amendment to the postal
savings bank bill when it comes up in
the house which if adopted is calculated
to win to the support of that measure
all the wheelmen and wheelwOmen in
the country. It provides that the funds
deposited with the government shall be
invested in county and municipal bonds
issued for the purpose of improving the
roads in those localities which are dis
posed to take advantage of such an Op-
portunity to secure good thorOughfares.
Gen. Roy Stone, special agent of the
department Of agriculture in charge of
the good roads movement, says that
the amendment proposed by Represen-
tative Stone will be the chief topic for
discussion at the next meeting of the
national league for good roads, and
that the League of American Wheel
men also proposes to make an energet-
ic crusade in favor of its adoption
Gen Stone says he is receiving letters
from all parts of the country and from
many organizations expressing their
approval of this proposition not only be-
cause it insures good roads, but will
keep the money deposited in the postal
savings banks in the country districts
and expend it for the benefit of the de-
positors.
1.-The greatest objection that has been
raised to postal savings banks" said
Gen. Stone, lis that it will be likely to
drain the country districts of money
for investment in government bonds
and other securities that will lie idle
and bring no apparent benefit to the
people. But nearly every man I have
heard from who has raised this objec-
ten admits that the investments of the
money in the improvement of the high
ways of the country will satisfy the
opposition and strengthen public senti-
ment in favor of the bill.
1.-THE postmaster general objected at
first said Gen. Stone, because he
thought it was Populism, but since he
has made an investigation he has
changed his mind and now gives the
proposition his Endorsement. The mem
bers of the Republican national com
1nittee have also taken an interest in
the matter and will encourage it as a
political issue. I believe that a great
deal more money would be brought in
to the postal savings banks if the de-
positOrs realized that it is going to be
invested in their own locality to i'm
prove their property and condition"
Gen. Stone will go before the post
Office committee when the bill is taken
up and make an argument in support
of the amendment.
Under the present system Of road
building, and road Improvement in
which a small tax is levied each year
and expended in a haphazard way the
money is all but wasted. There is new
er a sufficient amount available at one
time to make any permanent improve
ment and such work as is done is of so
temporary and shpshod a character,
that it is usually necessary to do it over
again the next year.
There are roads in the vicinity of To-
peka that have been worked" every
year for a generation and they are far
from good roads yet.
The system of caring for the public
highways, in vogue, resembles nothing
else so much as the governments man
uer of improving the Mississippi river
PEd protecting the country adjacent to
-