Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1899-05-25
GOOD ROADS NOTES.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Good Roads and state Aid.

Good Roads and State Aid.
The following is an abstract of an
article by Otto Dorner in the Forum
for February, 1899;
''It has been said that before we
could thoroughly realize the difficulty
of hauling on our common country
roads, one of two things had to hap
pen: either the horse must learn to
talk, or else we must take his place
on the wagon; and that the latter oc
Cured when we learned to ride the
bicycle. The League of American
Wheelmen, with membership which
has grown beyond the hundred
thousand mark, is generally acknowl-
edged as the most potent factor in the
promotion of good roads sentiment.
Since 1892 the League has maintained
the Good Roads magazine, which has
been merged more recently into the
l.. A. W. Bulletin and Good Roads,
its weekly Official organ. The j. A.
w. sends its emissaries to good roads
conventions and to the more impor-
tant farmer gatherings, and the high
way laws Of number of States have
been improved through its efforts.
Its latest undertaking is the print
ing of a million illustrated good
roads pamphlets, and their circu-
lation, by mail, among farmers whose
addresses are being gathered by the
thousands of L. A. w. officials. The
first three hundred thousand of these
pamphlets have already been printed
and mailed
'The losses from bad roads in the
United States are enormous. The
United States Office of Road Inquiry
explains that our average load of
crops weighs practically ton, while
in Europe it is upwards OF four tons,
and often six tons. John NJ. Stahl,
editor of the Farmers Call, estimates
that the annual cost of wagon trans
portation of the country is 5000, 000,
900, of which $500, 900, 900 might be
saved. General Roy Stone, Chief Of
the Road Inquiry Office, has verified
this by careful computations, and re-
ports that the total haulage on the
public roads each year is 313, $40, 227
tons, costing 1916, Ala, 665.54, which
constitutes over one-third Of the total
value of farm products. He states
that nearly two-thirds of this cost is
due to bad roads.
''The average farmer resents any
interference with his road building
methods, which he considers pecu-
liarly his own affair No reform,
therefore, can be forced upon him,
and any successful plan of road i'm
provement must leave it optional
with him to avail himself of its pro-
visions. The initiative must be left
in his hands. The State-aid system
seems to have solved the problem to
the farmers satisfaction. This sys-
TEN has been adopted in several
States, but is most successfully in
operation in New Jersey, where it
was introduced through the combined
efforts of the League of American
Wheelmen and the leaders among the
farmers. This system divides the
cost of road improvement between the
State, the county and the abutting
property owners. Improvements are
made only upon petition from the
latter. The feature of the State aid
system which appeals most strongly
to the farmers is the fact that city
taxpayers, large property-holders and
wealthy corporations are made to con
tribute to the cost of improved coun-
try roads, through the taxes and IL
cense fees now paid into the State
treasury. The Farmers National
Congress, the most powerful agricul
tural body in the United States,
passed resolutions last December
strongly endorsing State aid as the
solution of the good roads problem,
and commencing the efforts of the
League of American Wheelmen to
bring about its general introduction.
The National Road Parliament, con-
sisting almost entirely of farmers,
passed similar resolutions at its last
annual meeting"