Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1900-11-10
OUR COUNTRY ROADS.
HALF A CENTURY BEHIND THOSE OF
THE OLD WORLD.
Progressive In Nearly All other
Fields of Human EndenvOr, Our
Highways Are AbOminnblc-AutO
mobiles Mny Hasten Improvement.

Fields of Human EndenvOr, Our
Highways Are AbOminnblc-AutO-
mobiles Mny Hasten Improvement.
The Chicago Inter Ocean has been
promoting the great automobile meet
and exhibition held in Washington
park this month in the belief that the
interests of the horsclcsS vehicle can
be best served by n thorough demon
stration under best conditions - the
good qualities of the autos. In addition
to being Il demonstration of the auto
mobile the meet served to emphasize to
the farmer and the country residents
the great importance of good roads.
1t will no doubt be slow work to
teach the farmer that his best interest
lies with better roads and that the
present system of construction and oc-
casional repair will not meet the re-
Quircments of future methods of trans
portation. The owners of automobiles
have already found it to their interest
to take hand in this good work. and
with their help extensive additions to
the decent highways of this country
may be expected within few years.
what is needed" says a writer in The
Hub, lis a stiff law in every state put
ting a premium on smooth roads and
tax on bad ones. establishing n system
of rebates from the county taxes on all
wagon tires three inches or more in
width and providing the necessary ma
chnery for the uniform enforcement of
such statute. Even the most bcnight-
ed community can appreciate the logic
of road tax, and with intelligent, hon
est supervision to see that the road
work is properly done most Of the
denominations now called country roads
should soon give place to hard. smooth,
we'll kept highways, bringing business
to the farmers and opening up the
country to a higher state of settlement
and profitable operation"
Regarding the great question of econ
omy in good roads, the following statis-
tical matter from The Scientific Ameri-
can is significant:
'There is food for thought in the re-
port of the Maryland geological survey
for 1899 In the first place, we are told
that the people of Maryland have eX-
pended during the last ten years upon
the SO called construction and repair of
their own roads the sum of no less than
! 100000 1t seems that the greater
part of this money has been frittcrcd
away in the attempt to repair roads
| which have been poorly laid out in the
/ first place and for the lack of certain
necessary engineering qualifications
I ;,, tI,n - II ln
made into good roads. AS an instance
of this it may be mentioned that many
| of the common roads have no natural
| drainage. We are told that most of
them are in a poor condition for part
| of the year and some of them for the
whole 10 months.
"As the result of q careful estimate
made by the survey it is shown that
the farmers of the state of Maryland
| eXpCnd $3OOO,00O year more on their
/ hauling over the present poorly built
| highways than would be necessary il
! the hauling were done on first class
roads These figures are to be COM
pared with the information collected
by the department of agriculture in
1895, when, as the result of data re.
! ceived from over 1000 counties in va
rious parts of the United States, it was
! ascertained that the average cost of
/ hauling one ton for one mile over coun-
try roads was % cents, which was just
three times as much as the average
| cost of hauling over the improved mac
adam roads of six European countries.
If this large sum of money represents
| the loss to the state of Maryland from
| poor roads, it is easy to say that the
/ total loss throughout the whole United
States represents figure so great that
it must have an important bearing up.
on the prosperity of the country ut
large and practically upon the farming
| interests as such.
'At first sight it seems incredible
that in Il country so progressive as ours
/ the condition of the common roads
| should be over half century behind
/ that of the old world. 1t is true that
the vast extent of the United States
and the great mileage of our roads in
some states relative to the density of
the population may be offered as an eX-
cuse for our backwardness, but while
| this plea may hold good as regards the
thinly populated western and southern
states it cannot be applied to the older,
more pOpulous and wealthy sections of
/ the country"