The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1900-08-23

ing than the public highway.
There is nothing which by its absence.
its presence. its goodness. or its bad
ness may so make or mar the COM
munity which uses II or would like
to use it. as the road by which its
people may come together for the dis
cussion of matters of public good or
for that traffic in products which
stamps man as the trading animal.
Therefore, the man who makes two
blades of grass grow where but one
grew before has his counterpart as u
public benefactor in the person who
puts down n good. solid, hOrse-saving,
wagon-economiZing roadbed where at
first only rocks and mud or dust and
sand held full sway. Roads. like peo-
pie, are prone TO wear into ruts. and
many of the ruts in which the farm
er's halfladen wagon jolts are pri-
marlly caused by the ruts in which the
farmer has jolted his representative
in legislative assemblages The farm
or has always wanted good roads. but
he knows that the farmer has always
had to pay for them. consequently
he has generally looked upon any
movement in their direction as a raid
upon his own pocket 1t required
then, some new force to join hands
aud voice with him both in the de.
mand and in the suggestion of ways
and means.
This new force has arrived in the
bicycler Banded under the banner
of the League of American Wheelmen.
the riders of the tirclcss tire have since
their organization. in 1880. raised the
cry of good roads" and have kept
1t up with woundrous energy. They
have through their engineers devised
or selected the best methods of making
the cheapest durable thoroughfares.
but they have conquered many obsta.
cles that have stood between them
and other groups of persons who are
to be benefited equally with them in
securing smooth roads, though these
very groups hesitnted to Join the
wheelmen's movement, for fear it was
selfish and was designed to saddle the
costs up on them. The horsemen who
drive fine road stock and the farmers
have been the two classes which have
required the warmest efforts of the
good roads cranks." as some of the
wheelmen are called, to wipe away
suspicion. But the suspicion has now
cvaporated
The Farmers National Congress has
passed strong resolutions in favor of
the wheelmen's way of getting good
roads. The State aid system.as shown
in the resolution. recites that the cost
OF construction of first-class roads con.
meeting farms with market towns is
too considerable to be borne by farm
property alone; that as the entire pop.
ulation is benefited directly and in.
directly by good roads. all property
ought to contribute through the me.
dium of State tax. The Higbee- Arm.
strong law, by which State aid has
been introduced in New York. pro-
vides for II division of the cost of road
construction among the State. the
county. and the local township, and.
1t is said, many of the towns avail.
ing themselves of ii will secure from
outside sources four or five times the
sum they raise themselves, while in
the large cities, which will pay most
of the funds, the tax will not fall more
heavily than one cent per thousand
dollars of the assessed valuation. 1t
is by making such calculations that
the League of American Wheelmen
has fought its way to the farmers
sympathy.
1t is no wonder that the farmer
feared the cycler at first. The man
on wheels was at first looked upon
as n dude in knee breeches, out for an
airing with his best girl, who demand.
ed that others should, without cost to
him, smooth the roads that he alone
might have more pleasure Then the
Wheelmens League spent vast sums
of money printing illustrated road
books. thousands of which have been
distributed, free of cost. and other
thousands barely at cost In various
quarters they have raised large sums !
to build cycle paths between sections /
OF country, on which the cyclers pass |
to and fro on business and pleasure. |
Money has been spent by them. as in |
Alr. Dorners case, to be represented |
at conventions and to spread what
they love to call the gospel of good
roads, and now in Baltimore Chief
Consul Sans. of Maryland Division.
League American Wheelmen, and
Chairman Auguste Faure, of the Di-
vision Committee on Highways. are
holding out the hand of friendship TO
the horsemen, and endeavorlng to lay
out a combined speedway and cycle
path that shall be II local monument to
the battle of good roads and serve as
n model TO be followed by visitors
from every community who take
spin, a ride, or n drive upon IT, May
their efforts succeed in full measure
Sun.