Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1901-03-08
TEE ROAD Question
A Topic That is Of Interest
To Ali Our Readers.

To All Our Readers.
Last week when the grand jury o
the county was in session, Judg.
Chalkley ill delivering his charge tt
them, had the following to say IN re
gard to the road question:
But above all. gentlemen, the roat
law is fatally defective and vicious
because it does not provide for more
than the maintenance of our present
mud roads; because it does not pro
vide for any immediate or future i'm
it furnishes no ideal road to be worked
for, to be striven for; because it leaves
! the people in 4 condition of utter stag
nation and hOpelesSness as to any fu.
ture improvm ent of present conditions.
We are in the same position, working
under the same laws, and suffering the
same intollerable burden of loss and
waste that other countries rebelled
against and repudlated two hundred
years ago. Have We learned nothing
in that time? Do We know nothing
more about the making and mainte-
nance of roads than did our ancestors
who lived in the times of Charles 1 {?
Have not our surroundings changed :?
Have we not new questions and con-
ditions of our own, different from
theirs and to be settled by ourselves?
Railroads were introduced and per
fected in the 18th century. The peo-
pie welcomed them, and went to work
with tremendous energy to build them
everywhere; each man thought he
would have railroad station at his
own door, and all the wear and tear,
loss and waste of labor and time were
forever gone, and at last a solution
was found that would solve the prob
lem of cheap and easy carriage of
freight. Railroads have about reached
the limit necessary for this country,
and what is the result? The people
have learned that they have been fol-
lowing a will O. the wisp-that the cit
les have grown larger and more pros
porous; have monopolized all indus
tries except farming; have sucked from
the solution of their own problems
the capital and energy of the land;
while the farmers are toiling on under
the same conditions of patient and Ia
borious- stimes almost hopeless,
depression and subsection to the dicta-
tion of others. The railroad centres
are prospering and growing fat on the
advantages which easy, swift and
cheap transportation of the 10Th CEN
tu'y gives them. The farmers are
sticking in the mud and mire of the
18th century. But they are beginning
now to realize that in the absorption
OF watching and applauding the enor-
nous increase of railroads, and in the
excitement of their novelty, they have
been overlooking the true solution of
their own difficulties, as the philos0-
pher who kept his eyes on the stars
and regarded nothing that lay at his
feet, until he fell into a well, which
brought him to his senses. In order
that the farmer may take advantage
Of the railroads, he must be able to get
at them, he must make the connection
between his farm and the railroad
station, and that conn ection must be
the best the ingenuity and experience
of man has been able to devise. What
is not the best is not worth working
for. 1t is degr aiding, cOwaIdly and
unmanly not to strive to have the best
that experience has devised. If we do
not, some one else will, and SO under
mine us that our work will be lost.
We must have clear object before us
or we shall accomplish nothing; and
that object must be the highest ideal
which we are capable ofimagining. A
short time ago the papers published
what purported to be an interview
with Mr.. WI, the Chinese minister at
Washington. MIR. WI said that the
teachings of the Chinese morality were
to be preferred to the Christian doc
trInes because it was easy for man to
live up to the rules of Confucius. but
it was impossible for any man to real
ize in bis acts the teachings OF Christ
Certainly no Christian, when he COM
pares the Chinese people with Chris
tian peoples, will blush for striving
after an ideal which he can never at
tain. But, gentlemen, we ale living
within Chinese wall of self satisfac-
tion as to this road question, and | am
urging you to appropriate to yourselves
all that Christian civilization has
| gained. The road law gives them
no relief or prospect of relief from the
mud and intollerable grades and they
are looking every day for relief il
building new roads which is perfectly
idle and vain. They need to be put OF
1.-The right track, Farmers wish what
is just and right and what will relieve
them from a share of their burdens ant
help to restore them to prosperity
And the people of Augusta county ART
begging for it-crying for solution
of their difficulties. All that is needed
| is that the intelligence and courage o.
the county shall take hold IN earnes
and when they do, a scheme will b
devised that will make this grand ole
county with its glorious history an(
traditions bloom with glory in th'
present worthy of that in the past
We must get rid of the belief that w
can be legislated into prosperity-th
legislature will do nothing for US. W.
must do it for ourselves. You all re