The Union times. [volume] (Union, S.C.) 1894-1918, 1898-01-21

reQuiSito lot U 8OOu TOdO, anU f1OraCe
states that they were less fatiguing
to people who travel slowly" They
were remarkable chiefly for their
lavish disregard of every obstacle. and
are monuments rather of military
despotism than of engineering skill.
During the reign Of lawlessncss
following the breaking up of the EN-.
pire these roads were infested with
robbers and cut.throats, and were
avoided and neglected by the people
and soon became impossible, and such
intercourse as was maintained was
conducted over rude paths. With the
reconstruction of society the roads
became passable for pack animals and
the rude vehicles of the time; but no
serious attempt was made anywhere
to replace thepublic highways until
the middle of the 18th century.
ROAD BUILDING IN FRANCE.
Road building was taken up in
France about 1860 by Louis XIV,
who had several fine roads made in
the vicinity Of Paris. They were very
wide, but were paved only in the
centre. The people very soon began
to appreciate the advantages of good
roads, but it was not until the advent
Of Napoleon that the modern system
of magnificent highways was insu.
gurated. 1.-The material and financial
prosperity, thrittiness and content
ment of the French people has long
excited the admiration of the world;
neither internal revolutions nor defeat
from abroad appear to have entailed
upon them burdens too heavy for
them to bear. Students Of economic
problems ascribe this marvellous con-
dition to the far reaching and splen.
didly maintained system of highways,
on which the Obstacles to economical
transportation have been reduced to
the minimum.
ENGLAND's SAD EXPERIENCE.
The almost incredibly bad state Of
the roads in England toward the lat
ter part of the seventeenth century
appears from the accounts cited by
Macaulay, His., c. lily The En-
cyclopedia BritannicE says: at was
due chiefly to the state Of the law,
which compelled EACH parish to main.
tain its roads by sta ute labor" A
hundred years later 1t does not seem
to have been greatly improved. Mr..
Arthur Young. writing in 1770 of
one of the principal highways, says !:
II know not in the whole range of
language terms sufficiently expressive
to describe this Internal road"
1t was attempted to relieve this in
tolerable condition by system of
toll roads, and about $4,000 miles
were built by the end of the century:
but they were so badly built that they
were soon in as bad or worse condi-
ton. They were managed" says
the Encyclopedia Britannica, "by
ignorant and incompetent men, until
Telford and Macadam brought scien-
tiic principles and regular system to
their construction and repair" The
name of Telford is associated with a
type Of road which had been used by
Tresagnet in France fifty years before;
"and the name of Macadan often
charac.crizes roads on which all his
precepts are disregarded." Contem-
poraries, and in some respects rivals,
to these two men England owes her
present admirable system of roads.
Dickens says: "Our shops, our
horses legs, our boots, our hearts,
have all been benefited by the intro
duction of Macadam."
Most of the paragraphs above have
been condensed from "IIighway Con-
struction," by A. Y. Byrne and the
Encyclopedia Britain n ica. Il hey
would have been quoted outright had
SPACE permitted.
IN TIE UNITED STATES
the road question came into promin-
ence ut very early date. At the
beginning of the present century
Congress set aside certain part of
the proceeds of the sale of public
lands for road building The 9th
Congress passed an act providing for
tie construction Of the Cumberland
Road, from Cumberland. Md, into
Ohio, and from 1910 to 1916 appro-
pria,ions were made for continuing
this work amounting to $3.50, 900
and $50 miles were built.
In 1917 John G Calhoun intro