The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1902-11-07
GOOD ROADS NEEDED.
They PrOmpte Social Intercourse and
Enable the Ready Marketing of
Farm Produce.

American subject, but it 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; 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 pro-
mote progress. They are both cause
and effect. Well-kept highways consti-
tute 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:
''Good roads and canals are two of
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 greater mileage
of excellent roads than any other
state in the union.
The Baltimore American, in 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 a dozen men who are
reputed to have fabulous fortunes, and
the state outside of Greater New York
is the richest part of the comm on
wealth. The counties in Maryland
have 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 socialin-
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 a
buggy was not good enough for BIZ
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. Automobiles 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 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 narrow tire on a
rough one. A committee of automo-
bilists reporting recently on New
York roads said:
''It is worse than useless to create
expensive and valua BILE 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, it
costs money, and you must take care
of it and change your methods to