The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-01-18

l
 No trunk line through the state east
 or west, north or south, laid indepen-
 dently of the main highways now exist.
 ing, would answer the purpose of as
 sistng produce to market as well as
 the now existing main highways. The longest trunk line running | through the state begins at Port Ches-
 ter and ends at Westerly, R. L, follow ing very closely the shore and the rail-
 road for the entire distance.
 This highway covers a distance of one
 hundred and twenty miles, and it may
 be of interest to know that every town
 crossed by this highway, with the ex-
 ception of two, has applied for a state | appropriation this year, and all of these
 towns will be at work next year. The
 major portion of them will use their ap-
 propriation on this highway.
 The majority of these towns have
 used their appropriation for several
 years on this trunk line road, so that
 we may expect in the very near future
 to have a first-class road, properly
 graded and drained, of sufficient width,
 with good surface, covering the en-
 tire one hundred and twenty miles.
 When the main highways now exist ing have all been improved it may be
 thought wise to build an independent
 trunk line, but for the present the state
 money and all our energy should be
 used on what we have to improve with
 out laying out any new work.
 | TOO MANY ROADS.
 | In the commissioners travels through l Al~- ,lx1, 1, 11,r- | been impressed with the fact that our | little state Is overloaded with roads, and that the towns are wasting good deal | of money in taking care of thousands of | miles of roads that are wholly unne- cessary. If the fifteen thousand miles of roads now laid out in the state had been divided by two there is many town indebtedness that would not be as much as it is to-day. Roads laid out here and laid out there, through wood lots, meadows and over hills never should have been accepted as a town charge Even our main highways it is very hard many times to give a very good reason for the layout as it now ex- ists, as hundreds of hills and miles of swamp holes could have been avoided had the town used better judgment in the layout of the road. Many of these roads the towns themselves recognize as being unnecessary and burden of expense, some of them covering dis tance of seven or eight miles on which only one or two houses are built. They cannot be closed up now without excess sive land damages being paid, and thorough satisfaction made to all the parties in interest, so that they must remain to add to the burden of the al- ready overtaxed residents of the town
 But there is a compensation in this universally acknowledged evil that the towns of the state are not making many new roads or accepting any more privi- leges along this line.
 WIDE ROADS.
 It is already apparent that a provi- sion should be incorporated in the law regulating the maximum width of all roads in this state. Quite number of the large towns desire state assistance to accomplish very wide roads, while the poorer towns are very well content with the narrow road. There are ex- tremes in both cases but the maximum width of the travelled part of any road l in the state for which state money is to be used should not exceed sixteen feet
 GUIDE POSTS.
 A very helpful feature to all having to | use the roads of the state is the placing of guide posts at the intersection of roads. With the perfect network of roads in our state, persons driving through the state would have consider q loIa IiffirnltIr fn1ipo thni, witt out the assistance of guide boards. This difficulty, I am happy to say, Is fast becoming removed, for in my trav- els through the state find at the inter- section of the roads guide posts, not only telling where the road leads to, but also the character of the roads. This condition has been brought about by the cooperation of the town off, oials and the League of American The public find these guides so useful that it is difficult to un- lerstand how it was possible to travel without their assistance, and why it vas not recognized as a general neces- ;ity before.
 REASONS FOR DELAY
 It was physical impossibilty to get l number of the towns on account of he divided appropriation, preferred to wait until next spring. Many towns lid not care to do anything until after he October election, while other towns went to work.
 The practice of the commissioner has l ,een to visit town in which the work vas to be done before commencing to | To anything. This was found to be cry wise and has resulted in being cry beneficial to the towns in the treat nent of the work, and while it may ause some delay In getting to work, he results have more than compensa- ed for the lost time and the system will be continued on all future work. ,UR STATE A SUMMER RESORT. | The natural features of our state, iith the elevations found and access to UT splendid water privileges, has made he state very desirable as summer esort, and people are coming to reside within our borders by reason of this ' act, and as a result we find our towns \ re naturally assisted not only in an ap- reciated grand list, but the products of 1e farm find near market with satis- actory prices. Indeed. many of our towns in which , . le summer visitor is found are not the II. 1 J..~ d