The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-10-31
FOR GOOD ROADS.


 convention of good roads advocates com ing to Montgomery, will be of benefit is not to be doubted. There will be with us | men who have made business of road making and who are fitted, both from study and by practical experience. to educate our people on subject about which there is certainly much to be learned. We are behind most parts of the civilized world in this respect, and the time has come when we cannot afford longer to remain behind other progress sive communities.
 It has often been remarked that the peasants of France owe much of their prosperity to the ease and facility with which they can market the products of statement, on what appears to be good authority, that a pair of the Brittany horses can pull from three to five tons over one of the roads in the vicinity of | the large cities. This would be the | equivalent of twelve to twenty bales of | cotton.
 Compare this with conditions which exist in thls country. and with which our farmers generally are familiar. While, under favorable circumstances, a pair of mules may pull three or four bales of cotton, 1t isSwell known that two bales will be a fair average for our country roads, and sometimes one is suf- l fcient to tax the strength and endurance l of two mules or horses.
 The Southern Railway. in providing for | running their good roads train" through the Southern country is doing this entire section a service, but our own people must meet them half way and take ad- vantage of the opportunity for getting information which will he presented. As The Chattanooga Times remarks, if our part of the country lis even to have any roads worthy of truly civilized country, they must be gotten through some poten- tiality other than the State Governments There isn't a road law on the statute books of any Southern State that Is worth the paper 1t is printed on."
 This may he a little severe. but there is too much truth in 1t. Our road laws are not effective, whether the fault he in the laws themselves or in the manner of their enforcement-or non-enforce- ment. They keep the roads in pas sable condition, and that Is all. That is, the roads can be travelled. but it would be n gross cxaggeraticn to speak of them as good roaGs, even at their most favorable times. The nominal fines pro- vided by the road laws of Alabama, even if they are imposed and collected, are | only sufficient to affect men who have plenty of time and little money. In | other cases the citizen had rather pay the small penalty than do the work, and then the roads suffer.
 Those who live in and adjoining this city have had some object lessons within a recent period that 1t would be well for all citizens of Alabama to see. They have seen wagons coming into town over the good roads lately built, loaded in a way that nobody would have ever dream ed of few years ago. A wagon com ing in from the prairie regions of Mont gomery County with ten or twelve bales of cotton on it Is a palpable and indis- putable evidence of the advantage of hay ing highways made on scientific and en- during lines, and the time must come when such roads as we have, or better ones, will be the rule all over the State. We hope the road convention will be well attended, and that 1t will be com posed of intelligent and observing citi- zens who can understand and appreciate the information which will be at their disposal, and can make good use of what they learn.