Woodruff County news., 1902-11-13
GOOD ROADS NEEDED.
They Promote Social Intercourse anF Enable the Ready Marketing of
 Farm Produce.

American SuDJect, put IL IS one WHICH should be of most interest to those sections which have given it the least attention. Naturally, the best built and the best maintained roads are in districts where there are many people and much stone. But good roads do not come always because the region they traverse is populous; region sometimes becomes populous because there are good roads. Then, again, there are bad roads in thickly settled districts-in districts where the roads ought to be good. Good roads in neighborhood indicate progress. They result from progress and they pro- mote progress. They are both cause and effect. Well-kept highways const1- tute a theme which has engaged the attention of many more persons in the last decade than in any previous one.
 The convention of New York repub- licans at Saratoga adopted platform containing a good roads plank. In this division of the platform it was set forth that:
 
 the important features which make for the material welfare and progress of the commonwealth. The canals provide channel for commerce, while better highways bring the markets closer to the door of the farmer"
 The pledge regarding good roads has appeared in the platforms of political parties in New York before, and that state has perhaps a greater mileage of excellent roads than any other state in the union.
 The Baltimore American, in a recent article, in which it made comparison of roads in Maryland to those in New York, said:
 "New York roads, compared with those in Maryland, are the better. New York people are dissatisfied with thoroughfares which would be hailed in many parts of this state as the means of revolutionizing travel and traffic. The result is that New York state has grown marvelously rich. Take out half dozen men who are reputed to have fabulous fortunes. and the state outside of Greater New York is the richest part of the common wealth. The counties in Maryland have a soil as fertile as New York. and the reason why they are unable to make great display of property is due mainly to the execrable roads which are almost general in this state"
 Good roads enable farmers to haul more produce with the same expendi- ture of horse power. The farmer saves in time and in wear and tear on horse. harness and wagon. He can sleep later and get to market earlier; stay later at a neighbours and get home sooner. Good roads promote social in- tercourse, insufficiency of which is one of the reasons why so many persons leave the country for the city, and why so few give up city life for the country, except at that season when nature is at her best in the country and at her worst in town.
 Improved highways have promoted the extension of rural free delivery, and this delivery has aided in the de- velopment of better roads, says the Washington Star.
 The buggy was benefit to high ways. A road good enough for mount ed horsemen and horsewomen, as so many of our predecessors travelled, was not good enough for a buggy. Then the bicycle improved the road ways. A highway good enough for buggy was not good enough for bi- cycle, and thousands of wheelmen rolling through the country did cam paign work for the betterment of roads They told the country folk, and insisted on it, too, that their roads were not as good as some others. This was missionary work, because it is a phenomenon of country life that a man always thinks the road he lives on is very good, or at least not so bad as some others.
 As the bicycle helped along the good cause, so will the automobile or the traction carriage. Autom obilists want better roads.
 Every farmer should help little by using broad-tire wheels. These wheels not only do not "rut" the roads, but help to maintain them. A broadtire wheel ought to bear more weight without strain than one with narrow tire. There is no more friction in the use of a broad tire on smooth road than in the use of a narrow tire on a rough one. A committee of automo- bilists reporting recently on New York roads said:
 Ut is worse than useless to create expensive and valuable highways only to have, them cut to pieces by the use | of narrow tires, as now used for the hauling of heavy loads in this state When you have got a good thing. it costs money, and you must take care of it and change your methods to maintain it. Wide tires are of the greatest value in preserving ordinary l IT T