The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-02-14
Federal Appropriations
For Road Improvements
Continued from First Page.)

souri,, is more primitive in its roads than
any portion of your South. But they
have begun to wake up to the question.
The other day there was placed in my
hands copy of your Sunday paper, and
! was astonished. / thank you for the
assistance which you have given me. J
am going to take that paper and circu-
late it all over my territory, and tell
them that it is to the South they can
look for inspiration upon this great
question" (Applause)
Mr.. Abbott spoke of the great wheat
interests of the West, showing how the
limit of miles that could be traversed
TO the railroad would be more than
doubled by the good roads.
On this line. he said:
"If we could put the matter in the
same state it Is in France 1t would save
the people no less than enough to pay
the national debt"
Referring, to Secretary Hays poem.
Jim Bledsoe. he said:
when Col. Moore started on this
movement it was forlorn hope, but,
like Jim Bledsoe, "he seen his duty, and
done 1t thar and then"
Speaking of the newspapers, he said:
when ] get back to the Pacific slope
am glad that shall get messages from
you, telling of your work and helping US
out in ours.
II have tried hard to get the papers
TO take up this. question. and I have had
hard work to do it. But. up in Spo-
kane. large paper has promised to
publish an editorial every Sunday, if
furnish them the material for 1t.
BEST EVER PUBLISHED.
This is not necessary here in the
South. That paper of yours that went
out last Sunday is the best good roads
edition of any paper that has ever been
published in the United States" (HeaT-
ty applause.)
Just as Mr.. Abbott concluded, Senator
+. NJ. Simmons entered the hall and was
escorted to the platform.
PRESIDENT WINSTON.
President Geo. r. Winston, of the A.
and NJ. College, was then introduced. He
said:
My subject is The Economy of Good
cost Of bad roads. 1t has been calcu-
lated that the people of North Carolina
are taxed about $1O,0O0,00O annually. AS
Prof Holmes has put it, they are pay
ing annually q $10OO0,0o0 mud tax.
Mr.. Dodge stated that the people
were paying a per capita tax of about
$40. If these figures be true, the people
of North Carolina are paying out an
nually $19,000,00O. But there is no tax
collector to get this money.
I'VE find burdensome the tax to the
State of less than one dollar, and yet
we pay this tax of SO without knowing
it. In everything we do we are paying
the road tax
This was brought out by showing how
the efficiency of our horses, vehicles,
etc, Is diminished by bad roads, and
thus goes toward paying the invisible
tax. No sheriff, no collector need come,
this tax collects itself.
No wonder that the young men. the
doctors and the preachers, came to the
help of Capt Alexander in Mecklenburg,
for they are the ones that have to travel
the roads. and pay this awful tax.
Speaking of the young men In this
connection, President Winston said:
II think it can be shown that bad
roads are detriment even to matri-
mony.
"One- tenth of that tax would increase
to ten months the school term in every
county in the State.
THE farmer must not merely pro-
duee, he must put his product where it
can be sold.'
He spoke of the favored portions OF the
country around the great lakes and the
seaboard, saying that these sections were
SO wealthy because they did not have
this tax TO pay.
When Dewitt Clinton" he said,
built the canal to the Great Lakes, he
knew the value of good roads. and he
made. them out OF water, and thereby
made New York the great metropolis
that she is.
1T is not by accident that the great
cities of the world are on the water.
They have sought natures good roads.
and thereby escape the mud tax. Then
when men made artificial good roads of
iron. cities were built up near railroads,
where they, too. avoided the road tax.
"One hundred years ago four-tifths of
the people in the United States lived in
the country, and they owned four-fifths
OF the property in the country. Now
one-half lives in the city and owns four
iifths of the property. The most potent
reason fer this is that the half that lives
In the city does not have to pay the in
visible road tax.
1 say the payment of the $l000O.00O
annually is not the chief drain OF the
country. You remember that the city of
Thebes was compelled to send every
year an offering of choice maidens and
young men to the Island of Cyprus TO be
devoured by the MinotauY. That is the
sacrifice this country is making. 1t is
sending its choice maidens and young
men as sacrifice to the city. I know
that if some of the country boys did not
90 to the city every year. the city would
soon lose its power. 1t needs the vigor,
the power of the country boy"
President Winston concluded with an
eloquent plea for the conserving OF the
great epergies of the country boy by the
good roads movement.
CONGRESSMAN E. w. POU.