The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1902-10-16
THE NECESSITY FOR GOOD ROADS.


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: a 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 a
neighborhood indicate progress. They
result from progress and they promote
progress. They are both cause and eff
feet. Well-kept highways constitute
theme which has engaged the at
tention of many more persons in the
last decade than in any previous one.
The convention of New York Re-
publicans at Saratoga adopted a plat
form containing good roads plank.
In this division of the platform it was
set forth that
Good roads and canals are two of
the important features which make
for the material welfare and progress
of the common wealth. 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 poll
tical parties in New York before, and
that State has perhaps greater mile
age of excellent roads than any other
State in the Union.
The Baltimore american in re-
cent article, in which it made COM
parison of the 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 a 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 soil as fertile as New York, and
the reason why they are unable to
make as great display of property
is due mainly to the eXecrable roads
which are almost general in this
State.n
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 intercourse, 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.
The buggy was a 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 buggy.
Then the bicycle improved the road
ways. A highway good enough for
buggy was not good enough for q
bicycle, 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 phenomenon of country life that
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 road cause, so will the automo-
bile or the TRACTION carriage. Auto
mobilists want better roads.
Every farmer should help little
by using broadtire wheels. These
wheels not only do not 'rut" the
roads, but help to maintain them. A
broad-tire wheel ought to bear more
weight without strain than one with
narrow tire There is no more
friction in the use of broad tire on
a smooth road than in the use of q
narrow tire on a rough one. A COM
lnittee of automobiles reporting re-
Gently 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 good
thing If costs mopav opd Won mn "a