Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1900-11-13
GOOD ROADS AND THE FARMER.
Big Profit to the Latter If the High
ways Are Improved.


ways Are Improved.
The ignorance and indifference
which once permitted the loss of mil
lions of dollars annually and submit
ted to the constant hardships and an
noyances caused by bad roads have
today been replaced by widespread
recognition of the value of reliable
highways and by the most aggressive
eorts to secure them. The fact that
America has been notorious for it's
lack of great highways and it's vast
network of crude and periodically i'm
passable roads, says Pearson's Maya
zine, is due primarily to the lack of
knowledge by the masses of the peo-
pie as to methods of making good
roads and their vital necessity. Inc
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 sufficientlabor along fruitless
lines in every state in the union dur
ing the past century to have given
this country the best roads in the
world. And yet, barring the recent
improvement in several states-an
improvement which affects only about
2 per cent of the road systems of the
entire country-there are no good
roads. There are plenty of fair
weather roads, good in dry seasons,
but these in winter weather are any,
| thing but passable. In many states
most of the farmers and residents of
the smaller villages are completely is
olated for periods varying from two
to six weeks during the worst of the
winter season. And yet among these
very people has existed the greatest
opposition to the expense of building
a good highway.
! Farmers generally would like to
have good raods, but they imagine
that their presence means an intoler-
able burden of taxation. They do not
stop to consider the intolerable tax
they are paying in loss of opportunity
for want of them.
The substantial improvement of the
roads means that just twice as much
can be hauled by any given number of
horses in just half the time, and that
at any period when horses are not
needed on the farm-a thing which is
never possible with a poor road. For
this is the worst of the whole bad road
system, namely: That when it is good
enough to haul over them, the farm is
good enough to work on, and horses
and wagons are needed there. When
they are impossible, because of mud
and water, the farm is also unwork-
able and horses and wagons are idle
Thus, a double injury is worked.
1t has been figured by an expert OF
the government of Minnesota that il
only the worst places in al the roads
of that commonwealth could be re-
paired (stretches of ruts and hollows
which aggregate only sixth of all the
road mileage of the suate,) it would
enable farmers to haul third more oil
a load and to haul it in third less
time. If he was making money before
it means double profits now; if he was
: running behind it opens the way FOL
him to retrieve his losses and get or
in the world.
All this for the repair of one-sixtt
of the roads of a state, and yet this i.
but suggestion of the actual ant
enormous advantage which invariabl.
follow. &fS
-ts 1t is estimated by the secretary @
the National Farmers congress tina
the wagon transportation of the Uni
: tea States amounts annually to 800
100000 tons; that this has to be NOV
ed an average distrance of eigh
, miles; that it costs an average of S
per ton to move it, and that this i
60 percent more than it would cost
we had good roads all over the cour
try-an extra cost in producing an
: marketing our agricultural product
: of $700,000,000. When it is taken int
consideration that the total value c
7. all agricultural products is only 81
S00,000,000 1t is perfectly plain tina
! one-fourth of the home value of on
farm products is .ost by bad roads.
{ 1t has been figured out in New Jel
sey that land values tend to raise 3
per cent in value wherever good road
are introduced, irrespective of othe
1 natural benefits. They are invariabl
: tn forerunner of other improvement
J, such as the electric railway, free ma
4 delivery, increased demand for coul
Q try residences and so on. The
S create far greater social unity, the
t spread intelligence, they give to til
e isolated citizen a political significane
e not otherwise obtainahle.
J, Internal Revenus Decision.
: Capt. +, Ii. hlOTQdH, I'll ILLS CITY,
in receipt of the decision from j. n
! Kemble collector of internal revenue
that will be of interest to parties VIII
;, are holding property in trust. Mr.. r
> ordan recently gave trustees dee
= for property in Melrose, Monroe coul
. ty. The question was whether or NJ
= such a deed was taxable. The dec
. sion of the collector is that the ia
must be paid. The letter from Go
. lector Kemble follows:
. Burlington, Iowa, Nov. s, 1900.
q P. H. Riordan.
= Ottumwa, Iowa.
- Dear Sir:-I have your letter of tt
:, I'd. From the character of the sam
q would judge that you were holdir
2 property in trust, If such is the cas-
a trustees deed is taxable, unless it
: decided to another trustee for the san
It purposes as now being held by II
~ trustees.
g The quit claim deed you speak
n should be taxed to the amount OF II
# value of the property, which you sta
i. < nm NJ. ck no Yours Nruly +