The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-06-25
Better Roads.
An Argument for Improved Highways

The ignorance and indifference which
once permitted the loss of millions of
dollars annually, and submitted to the
constant hardships and annoyances caus-
ed by bad roads, have today been re-
placed by a widespread recognition of
the value of reliable highways and by
the most aggressive efforts to secure
them. The fact that America has been
notorious for its lack of great highways
and its vast network of crude and peri
odically impossible roads, is due primar-
lily to the lack of knowledge by the
masses of the people as to methods of
making goods roads and their vital neces-
sity. The direct cause is found in the
waste of public money collected for the
benefit of highways. Sufficient sums
have been appropriated and misspent,
and there has been sufficient labor along
futile lines in every state in the union
during the past century to have given
this country the best roads in the world
And yet, barring the recent improve
ment in several states-an Improvement
which affects only about two per cent
of the road systems of the entire coun-
try-theTe are no good roads There are
plenty of fair-weather roads, good in dry
seasons, but these in winter weather are
anything but passable. In many states
most of the farmers and residents of
the smaller villages are completely iso-
lated for periods varying from two to
six weeks during the worst of the win
ter season. And yet among these very
L,
ton to the expense of building a good
highway.
Strange as this may seem on first APP
pearances, 1t is not so strange when the
general ignorance concerning the simple
method Of building and the modest cost
that attaches to a mile of good road is
taken into consideration. Farmers gen.
orally would like to have good roads, but
they imagine that their presence means
an intOlerable burden of taxation. They
do not stop to consider the intolerable
tax they are paying in loss of opportunity
for want of them. Thus the farmers
of New Jersey did not discover what
they had lost until a few model roads
were built in their territory, when the
truth concerning previous disadvantages
became startlingly plain. In answer to
general inquiry sent out by the chair
man Of the New Jersey board of agri-
culture as TO whether the roads had
worked an Improvement in their condi-
tons hundreds of replies were received
all of them afirmations, and some so
concise that they may we'll serve as IL
Illustrations of the value of the whole
movement. One wrote:
I'VE are very proud of the country road
in our neighbOrhood, so recently put in
shape. Even before it was laid by the
state, property near it advanced nearly
so per cent in value A case in point is
which could have been bought for $780,
600 before the road was built and only a
few days ago the owner was offered $780,
600 for the same farm and it is two miles
away from any railroad station. There
are many more cases here of the same
sort. We favor good roads,
Another wrote:
Good stone roads-and stone seems to
be the only way of making roads per
and benefit to US farmers. To make any
profits, we must haul heavy loads. With
the taxes l pay ii is but Just that I be
able to go to and from town with as
great a load as my team can haul
through town, without having to use four
extra horses to insure getting through
the sand. We ought to be able to work
our teams all the year round, instead of
having to keep idle while the frost comes
out of the ground"
The average farmer out West has to
haul his product and supplies about five
miles. His teams are good, but they
haul on the average less than a ton
perhaps not more than three-fourths of
a tOn-a load. The time required to
make the trip averages close upon three