The suburban citizen., 1901-11-30
G An Awakening in the South.

~ NE Of the most forcible evil
dences Of the prosperity Of
the South, and an assurance
that that portion Of the cOun-
try has been brought to a realizing
sense Of some of It's needs, is the en-
thuslasm manifested over the subject
of improved highways. 1t will be
hard to find one point on which the
South has recently experienced a
greater awakening. Last June, when
the good roads train under the initia-
tive of the Illinois Central Railroad
made a "trip, starting at New Orleans
as the southern end of the line, it left
behind it a trail of leagues and asso-
Citations, State and local, devoted to
improving the highways Of half a
dozen States. The recent convention
at Buffalo, which attracted delegates
from all over the Union and even
across the Atlantic, had an equally
good result, although in a different
way. Now comes the announcement
that the Southern Railway Company
has inaugurated great movement in
its desire to improve the road sys-
tens converging to its tracks. The
company is to run a good roads spe-
cial, fully equipped, along its lines,
stopping at various points to build a
half mile or a mile Of good road, and
show the people what can be done
and how to do it.
This initiative should receive cordial
cooperation. Rivers, the natural, and
railroads, the artificial, highways, are
of little use If the people only short
distance away from their lines are TN
able to reach them. In many ways
the people of the South have been held
back for want of decent transportation
facilities by the ordinary highway.
In the rules governing the new rural
mail delivery system one of the re-
quirements is the ability to travel
twenty-five miles day, and the i'm
possibility Of doing this has in many
cases delayed the extension of the sys-
TEN. This is equally true Of business
opportunities Of all kinds, more espe-
cially the disposing OF produce on
rising market. 1t has been estimated
by a man fully acquainted with mar
ket conditions in the South and South
west that opportunities for more than
million dollars increase in profits
have been lost to farmers in the last
two years through inability to get to
market quickly at a critical time.
And this not alone of the South and
the Southwest. Right here in New
York State farmers have been kept
away from profitable markets by roads
which were bogs or quagmires instead
of paths fit for a man to ride over or
horse to travel in. But New York
has seen the light, and to-day the inn
proyement Of the highways is a ques-
tion which is seldom allowed to drop
out Of sight. 1t is an omen Of good
for the Southland that the people are
Of their legislators more
and more attention to the highways,
and that the cold business part of the
is seen in its right light.
Road building, although of national
is a local work, and must
be carried on under local conditions
1t is in this regard that the good roads
trains are doing well. They strike all
sorts Of soil and all kinds of difficult |
ties, and show the people how to i'm.
prove their travel facilities at the least |
possible expense, in the shortest posi- |
Die time and with the smallest amount |
Of trouble.
That the railroads have an eye to |
The main chance in developing the !
ands along their lines in no way de-
tracts from the ultimate benefit Of
heir work to the farmer in the imme-
late neighborhood, as well as to the /
lweller in the city which the farmer
wishes to reach with what he has to
,n1l -Navy NOp1r rTt,ih11na