Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1902-04-02

JOHN L. MACApAM. out our roads, but
lave not improved them. We have
risen superior to the demands for bet
ter means of communication during the
years which have passed; we have
prospered in spite of their hampering
conditions. But We have, however,
reached point where great further
advance In our civilization is impossi-
BILE, unless we give them heed-where,
in fact, we can see the arrest of future
development unless our means of com
munication are made much better than
they now are. To the farmer, upon
whose shoulders rests the weight OF
the nation, three things are vital-good
crops, good prices and good roads. The
first of these conditions is affected by
SO many phases of weather, season,
pest and other things that it cannot be
controlled; the second depends almost
wholly upon the first and third. How
ever. whether the season be favorable
or the reverse, the price in the end de-
ponds much on the facilities for getting
farm products TO market. Most farm.
Ing localities being ut least few miles
from any railroad station, the question
of haulage. then. becomes paramount.
The farmer has paid out for his poor
roads, in yearly repairs, many times
the cost of good roads, which, in the
beginning, would have been more ex-
pensiye, but which would have re-
quired much less cost in keeping them
In proper condition. The benefits from
system of really good roads would
have been so great as to make compari.
son infinitely in their favor.
1t is regarded as Il gratifying Sign of
the times that there seems to be a
movement in all parts of the country
looking to the betterment of rural high.
ways. Experiments made in pro.
gressive communities In Massachu.
sets, New York. New Jersey, Connect.
lieut., North Carolina, Pennsylvania and
some of the other States East and
West, have shown several things. In.
creased values in farm lands in these
communities have been accomplished
with decreased cost in marketing rural
products. Better roads have brought
the people into closer touch with one
another, broader ways of living have
superseded the narrowness which is too
often characteristic of rural com.
munities, and beneficial results have
come In other ways. In every such
locality. those who, on the score of
economy or otherwise. We're opposed to
departure from the old style of road
making. are now the loudest in praise
Of the new regime, and those who fa.
vored it from the beginning feel much
qualification of their instrumentality
in establishing IL custom so productive
of general coed.
The time will doubtless come when
the roads OF. the United States will be
equal to those of France or Switzer.
land-and that will be when the Amer
lean people are brought to a full reali.
cation Of the fact that for the want of
such roads their monetary losses are
not only large. but continuous.
The old-fashioncd dirt road is sus-
ceptible to treatment which will ma.
terially benefit it. but such advantage
is merely temporary. Once year, Mt
least, the road is "worked"-that is. the
DID, wornout dirt which has squeezed
out at the edges of the road is turned
back into the beaten track with the
road machine or with plows and
scrapers. Sometimes. gravel is dumped
into the hollows aud low places, but
this practice has almost ceased since
the advent of the road machine. In
either case the result is the same. For
a time, the road is soft and rutty; then
1t hardens down into n semblance of
What road should be, but its surface
soon works up INTO dust in the heat of
the summer sun. or changes into deep
mud under the influence of even tran