Oregon union. [volume] (Corvallis, Benton County, Or.) 1897-1899, 1899-01-20
GOOD ROADS.
MIR. T. A. Macrum Makes this
the Subject of His Lee
ture in Short Course.

course was delivered laSt SdIufUd.
evening by Mr.. l. A. Macrum, of Port
land before the student body and q larg'
number OF citizens at the college chapel
Mr. Macrum took for his subjec
''Roads," and handled it in a most abl'
and interesting manner. At no tim'
has this matter of roads attracted 81
widespread and earnest attention as a
present. Governor Geer made it one o
/ address, and farmers and citizens gener-
ally are most enthusiastic in thei
efforts for progress along this line
Numerous Good Road clubs Throughout
the state are leading the movement fol
improvement of our highways and severa
bills looking to this end will be presented
to the legislature this session.
Mr.. Macrum said in part:
''The only known method for obtain
ing good roads is to procure suitable
material for their construction and have
said material properly placed. That re.
quires money and skill. All attempts to
make good roads with inferior material,
or with good material unskillfully used,
have proved failures. 1t is only by
using proper material and skillfully
placing the same on properly prepared
roadbeds that good, permanent roads
can be made. These are fundamental
principles IN good road building, and any
deviation therefrom will result in failure
/ just in proportion to the deviation.
''The matter of building good roads is
comparatively recent in the United
States. In E1rope there have been good
public highways ior centuries, and in
most of the European countries they
have had good roads for long time, but
| the conditions have been so different
until very recently we have not had
| faith that we could successfully under
take the expense of building permanent
roads, even in our older states. But
largely, during the last decade, the mat
ter of building good, permanent roads
has been undertaken in some OF the
states with such wonderful success that
it Is now becoming quite popular, and its
contagion has already reached the Pacific
coast. Our sister state, California, is
fast becoming prominent among the
states leading in this movement. Promi-
nent among the Eastern states leading
in the good roads movement are Massa-
chusetts and New Jersey. The former
grants to counties and towns building
roads under the direction and in con-
formity with the plans of the state, state
aid equal to one-half the cost of building
such road. The latter stete grants, under
similar conditions, state aid equal to one
Third of the cost of building such road.
There was great opposition manifested
at first to the permanent improvement of
the highways, II beth OF these states, by
the farmers, owing to the heavy taxation
required, but as soon as so many good
roads had been constructed as to serve
as object lessons, the opposition began
to disappear, until now, in less than
eight years, there is little or no opposi-
ton to be found, but, instead, great
enthusiasm prevails, aud the state ap-
propriations are not sufficient to meet
the requirements of the counties asking
to be allowed to make such improve
ments. New Jersey has adopted very
good plan or method in making perma-
nent road Improvements, viz, each
county permanently improves so much I
road each year. The amount improved |
varies in differen. counties from two to |
ten miles in each county each year is the |
rate. The first state appropriation, made |
in 1891, available in 1892, was $4,000;
after that for three years $75, 900 was an
nually appropriated. Since then $780,
900 has been annually appropriated. At
the end OF 1897 New Jersey had about I
240 miles of permanently improved roads.
''At first it was necessary to compel
some OF the counties to avail themselves
of the state aid offered; now the same
counties have applications on file for per-
mission to avail themselves OF the state
aid, that will require appropriations for
the next three years to fill. The state
aid pays only one-third OF the cost OF the
as before stated. But per-
haps you are ready to say that we have
no state aid, and cannot get it at present,
and that we cannot do what a thickly
populated and wealthy state can do. In
a measure that is true, but if We cannot
do so much, we can at least make a
in the right direction, and do
The older states thought they
could do nothing in roadbuilding for
more than century, and those that are
moving have done more in the last five
years towards good roads than during
;he century before.
"Oregon needs nothing so much as
good roads Nothing will so favorably !,
advertise her as good roads; nothing is
80 great detriment to her as bad roads.
No tax is as great as the one of bad
,oads. A bad road is heavy tax on all
who use it, the worse the road the
heavier the tax. Lands cannot be sold {
% advantage along bad roads. Bad roads
cause a decline in agriculture. They
impose the greatest of all burdens upon
he farmer. Bad roads cause people to
gather into cities and leave the country.
Bad roads wear out the horses rapidly