The age-herald., 1901-11-22
ORGANIZATION FOR GOOD
 ROADS MADE PERMANENT I
Continued from page 5.

tween points in the interior and the diff ferent railroad stations.
 But is there any reason why our roads should continue to remain in the poor condition in which they have existed from the beginning? While I do not be- lieve in legislation for any purpose other than a governmental purpose, yet it must not be forgotten that from time immemorial the governments of the world have undertaken to furnish the highways.
 Has Not Reformed Duty.
 With us, while the government has assumed the responsibility and duty of laying out and maintaining highways for the benefit of the people, 1t has not per- formed that duty, but has left it to the farmers in the various communities through which the roads run, to work out the roads as best they may. at their own expense, with no help whatever, thus having entailed upon them a great tax, which ought to fall upon all the people and not the farmers alone"
 Speaking of the system of free rural mail delivery, Colonel Falkner said:
 If the people in Birmingham, Mont gomery, Mobile and other places are en- titled to receive the mails at their homes, then the people out in the country on the farms are likewise entitled to have their mails delivered, and the government
 
 timated before, l am a strict construc- tionist of the constitution of the United States, still, wherever 1t is clear that duty is of a public nature, I am strongly in favor of having that duty performed, as I am in having duties of a citizen performed towards the government. But 1t is a fact that we must all recognize that good roads and rural mail delivery go hand in hand. We cannot have the rural mail delivery without hav- ing good roads. and believing that we are entitled to both. and that both of these are public necessities, and such that shoSS engage the attention of the government, I believe that we should leave nothing undone until we secure these as rights which belong to the people.
 Tells Story.
 Colonel Falkner, in concluding. referred to the roads on his country place near Montgomery, and the ones that had been used in that section for years. He said:
 When this movement was first con- menced it was my pleasure to appear on one occasion before our board of rev enue, and in a little speech I then made l said to them, in order to give them some faint idea of the condition of the road along by the side of my plantation that it was only necessary for me to tell them what g;.tleman said was his ex- perience in passing my place. He said he was riding a very tall horse, but not withstanding that fact, hls feet were dragging in the mud; that just opposite my plantation he saw hat in the road, and 1t being a decent looking hat he thought he would pick it up. especially as he didn't have far to reach. On pick ing up the hat he saw a bunch of hair, which got in motion and a voice spoke out. MT. please don't take my hat have got a mighty good mule down here somewhere, if I can just get him out
 Now. at this same place where the mule was out of sight l am happy to say, that with a pair of medium sized mules, ttere IS no trouble in pulling from forr U five thousand pounds after the hardest end most continued tains. end we have many roads ir similar condition. But I am not like the old woman that bought her plot when she said she was in condition where she needn't lend or borrow
 M. A. Hayes. industrial representative of the Southern Railway, addressed the convention briefly. He told of the great industrial development of the country, and sad in no place was this mere mo- ticeable than in Alabama. MT Hayes has cherge of the good roads train, and is an earnest advocate of good public roads.