The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1902-08-26
IMPORTANCE OF THE GOOD ROADS
MOVEMENT.
nv J. A HOLMES, SECRETARY OF THE
NORTH CAROLINA GOOD ROADS
ASSOCIATION.

The infinite number of interests af-
fected by the good or bad condition
Of our public roads makes the question
Of their Improvement one of universal
concern. Indeed, so varied are the
objects to which public road improve
ment extends that no man has yet been
bold enough to declare that any harm
has ever come to a person or commun-
ity by reason of having a better pub
lie road. Private interests and public
interests are best subserved by a good
road; pleasure and business are en-
HANGED in the sections where a man
can drive every month in the year
over a firm, smooth road which does
not punish his stock or injure his We
hicle. To contrast the blessings of
good roads with the discomforts of
bad roads would bring into account
the experience of every man who is
compelled to travel over them to carry
on his business, or who rides for the
pleasure to be gained from this sort
of profitable recreation.
To enumerate the phases of life that
would receive benefits from better
highways would be to include the en-
tire list of-human avocations. Any at
tempt to cOnfne the benefits of good
roads to a particular class or com
munity must fail, because if a man
does not use the public road In the or
binary ways of travel he does reap the
advantages accruing from them in the
increased prosperity which has never
failed to come to a section that has
constructed permanent good roads.
No other public improvement is so
generally conceded to bring good to
every inhabitant, and yet no other
great public work seems so thoroughly
neglected or so poorly understood by
a great mass of our intelligent citi-
zens.
Practically every State in the
Union has recently awakened to the
fact that the prosperity of our grow
ing country is to be along lines of
productive and commercial enterprise.
A number of these States are looking
toward North Carolina for lessons in
economic and practical road building.
1t is an acknowledged fact that some
of our counties have as good roads as
can be found probably in the world
while on the other hand, it is also a
fact hat a very large majority of our
counties have roads that are frequent
" impossible and as unsatisfactory
as can be found anywhere. Our hope
Of salvation from this latter condition
is that the public-spirited citizens are
going to take up this roads matter in
a methodical way and overcome the
prejudice in the minds of some citi-
zens who think that a tax for building
permanent roads is a costly expert
ment. Experience and statistics prove
tie reverse to be true; it is the most
profitable and satisfactory investment
any community can make. The old
labor system of working the public
roads is not in keeping with advanced
methods in all other departments of
modern life. A number of the coun-
ties in our State have adopted the
plan of levying a small tax for road
improvement purposes, to supplement
the old labor requirement, and the re-
suits from this combination are of a
highly satisfactory nature. Every
county in the State should at least try
this plan and see if it won't to some
extent improve the condition of the
public roads.
In the South, the producer is espe-
ciaIly hampered because he cannot
proftabIy get his stuff to the great
centres of trade and competition. A
striking illustration of this disadvan-
tage to our North Carolina farmers is
seen in the recent statement from an
authentic source to the effect that a
great many necessaries of life can be
brought from California into our own
State on the railroads and sold to our
city population at less cost than the
same articles which must be hauled
into the cities from points in the same
county Is or 90 miles away! This is
because of the fact that the railroads
can haul produce a thousand miles on
their good roads cheaper than our
farmers can haul it twenty miles over