Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1900-08-25
NATIONAL DISGRACE.
OUR ROADS A REPROACH TO OUR
CIVILIZATION.


General Stone Suggests n Great M.
tiOnnl Highway Across the CONT
nent-How the Cost Would he Dis
tributcd.
At the recent semiannual meeting OF
the Good Roads association in Brook
Ign General Roy Stone, who was the
principal speaker said in part:
During the last decade OF the clos,
ing century the best effort of a great
body of earnest men has been devoted
to awakening the American public tC
the fact, already patent to the rest OF
the world, that the condition of our
public highways is n rcproach to our
civilization, a bar to our progress and
stain upon our system of govern.
mcnt.
1.-TWO plans have occurred to me as
hopeful in the course of many years
study of the subject. The first plan,
which | will only indicate, is to use the
postal savings. Every civilized nation
but ours and some of the half civilized
give their people the benefit of govern.
ment savings banks. We refuse it to
ours ostenSibly because we cannot find
n proper Investment for their money,
but really because the private banking
interests of the country stand In
watchful opposition to the measure.
When this opposition can be overcome,
nnStol yinUS Inn no tnI Il oh
ed to the great advantage of the rural
districts and the general welfare, and
the money can be invested in country
road bonds. guaranteed by the state,
these bonds bearing a rate of interest
so low that it can be generally paid
out of existing road taxation and run
ming so far into the future that their
final payment will not be n matter of
serious concern.
THE second plan is based on the
experience of our country in building
railroads. We have built half of the
railway mileage of the world without
taxation, except in rare instances, and
have spent in doing so three times as
much money as is needed now to make
good wagon roads for the whole coun-
try. How have we raised this vast
amount? Mainly by anticipating the
benefits of the railroads, borrowing
the money to build them and letting
them pay for themselves out of their
earnings or pay such rate of interest
on the money borrowed as will con-
tent its owners to let it remain on long
loans or in pcrpctuity. The benefits
of improved highways do not show in
earnings, since their Use is free, but
they appear quite as plainly in the en-
HANGED value of adjacent and neigh
boring lands, and if this class of bcne-
fits can he anticipated and made avail
able to procure the means of road
building, we shall be able to build
roads as easily as we have built rail
roads. But this requires the interven-
ton of the government, state or ma
tional, and the use of the public credit
in some form to carry the work
through until its local benefits are re-
allied and the beneficiaries are enabled
to assume its cost. Meanwhile, how
ever, the government can secure itself
by lien on the property benefited
and ultimately will be repaid for its
risks through q notable increase of
taxable values and the development
of general prosperity.
"What can the national government
do as worthy lesson in this line? Let
it be national highway, continental
boulevard, the greatest and best road
in the world! Briefly stated, its east
ern division should join all the states
on the Atlantic by a coastwise line
and its western division the same on
the Pacific, while its continental di-
vision should connect the eastern and
western divisions by line from Wash.
ington through the central cities to
San Francisco. These lines would
traverse or touch two-thirds of all the
states in the Union.
1.-THE road should be worthy of its
builders and of the age-broad steel
tracks for carriages, bicycle, bride and
foot paths, plenty of shade and foun-
tainS, plenty of room on the borders
for ornamentatiOn, trees and plants,
not set in stiff rows, but artistically
grouped or scattered and forming for
all paSsersby continuous and practical
lessons in forestry, Horticulture and
landscape art.
"All things considered, it would not
be wise to estimate its cost at less
than $4,000 a mile.
1.-The equitable distribution of the
cost would not be so difficult as ii
might seem. The general government
would naturally build through the pub
lie lands and reservations and the Dis
trict of Columbia and the territories in
their portion. Through the state fair
distribution according to the benefits
would perhaps be one-fourth to the
federal government and the same to
the state and one-half to the lands in
the zone of local benefit. This zone
would not be less than five miles in
width and on each side of the road,
making G,400 acres to the mile of road.
Ten thousand dollars for this area
would be about $1.50 an acre on the
average, but the assessment should be
adjusted according to proximity and
value, ranging, say, from So on the
best abutting lands down to 80 cents
on the poorest or most distant. To
tighten even this burden to impecuni-
Gus land owners the government could
safely advance the money at low
rate of interest, taking liens on the
property and let the owners pay it Off
at their convenience by paying the i'll
terest and little more annually. On