The age-herald., 1900-08-05
GOOD ROADS BRING
 MORE POPULATION.
A Plea for Improving the Pub-
 lie Highways.
BOND ISSUES ADVOCATED
The Counties That Have Built Good Roads Are Leading in the Indus trial Development of the State
 and Growing Rapidly

The question of better public roads is one that has for some years past been agitated by the people of Alabama, and is still be- ing agitated.
 The counties that have built good pub lie roads are leaders in the industrial de- velopment of the State, and are growing rapidly.
 Jefferson County, with her 200 miles of macadamized road, contains one-fourteenth of the population of the State and pays nearly one-sixth of the taxes; Madison County, with several miles of pike and macadamized roads is filling up rapidly with people from other sections of the United States; Montgomery County has spent s100OO0 on her public roads within the past three or four years; Colbert Coun- ty has expended almost as much, while Calhoun, Morgan, Jackson, TaIladega and other counties are dcing much towards bettering the condition of their roads,
 In nearly all the counties named the roads have been built by money borrowed on bond issues, and the profftableness of such investments has never once been questioned by the people living in those counties
 
 ication on the subject of good roads, and borrowing money to build same from a prominent citizen of Bibb County which is as follows:
 'The merchant who advances goods on a crop lien or mortage, taking the farmers note, is to that extent capitalist lending to borrower. large proportion of the cotton growers are .bor-o wers, either from merchants or owners of the land they rent; i; and very often the landowner derives his ability to make advances to his tenants from loans on the same crops, obtained from merchants of central cities, who in turn borrow from banks in great commer- cial centers, where large amounts of cap ital are concentrated.
 "A confidence of one man in his fellow man runs through the whole line, streng th- ened by the probability of the harvest. All this is legitimate regular, right and prop CT. It Is the needy, the industrious, the en- terprising, using to his benefit the surplus of others, paying reasonably for it. This universal practice yields income to the lender. Without it surplus capital would be useless. In most cases a mortgage. ac- companied by a note or bond, is given by the borrower to the lender.
 Railroads are built with money obtained in this way, the payment of interest com ing from earnings; commercial steamships traverse the seas by virtue of this use of capital, available at moderate rates of in- terest paid out of the profits. In like manner cities are supplied with water works, electric lights and cars, and well paved streets. By this use of surplus mon ey loaned at low rates of interest, most of the inhabitants of the United States have the benefits and enjoyments of en- frightened civilization.
 How Money IS Secured
 Many counties have risen out of the old time prejudice, and with money bor- rowed at low rates of interest, are inn proving their highways, macadamizing and building steel bridges at dangerous lords. Realizing that the present generation has need of these blessed advantages quite as much as any future generation may, and that the interest on the cost of these things will seem light, compared to the heavy old burdens of ten days each on the public roads, of one bale of cotton stalling a mule, of broken harness and worn-out wagons, of joltng rides down dangerous hills and past dreadful gullies, enroute to church or to town.
 Jefferson. Montgomery, Mobile, Madl- son. Morgan, Jackson-these are the names of the counties making themselves illus trious in enterprises in their names. Every county having these Improvements will rapidly increase in wealth, by the easements and advantages to all classes and attraction of immigration"