The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1903-08-05

| times worth many times tnaC
amount. but never less. They are
worth more than that to haul straw
on rainy day, and sometimes worth
that much or more to give them
davis rest, and in this day OF 6eep
blowing and thorough tillage during
! fall and winter there is no telling
| how much they are worth; $l.5O per
day for "a days makes $500. Now
on a good road, such as $500 per mile
will build, one and a half tons of fer
| tilizer and six bales of cotton is a
light two-horse load. So the saving
to this individual farmer on these
two items alone is 12 days, or $500.
Out of this saving he can pay his $51a
tax and have a balance clear OF $l4.00,
Can anybody tell me where another
| Investment can be found that will
! pay yearly dividend Of 800 per
cent? I have. mentioned only two
items, the hauling Of cotton and fer
tilizer, nothing has been said about
the hauling of cotton seed to the oil
mills and the meal given in ex-
change, nothing about the half days
which may be saved in the weekly
trips to market with peas, chickens,
eggs, water melons, peaches, and the
various other surplus farm products
which all live farmers make to q
greater or less degree.
It is not a question as to how much
the good roads will cost, the great
consideration is, what are our bad
| roads costing. The cost OF good
roads is mere trifle, the cost of bad
roads is serious obstacle to human
progress. A stretch of boggy roads
often costs broken harness, damaged
vehicles and sometimes the strain
and injury of q valuable horse.
It is said that when Henry Clay
was boy living in Hanover county,
Va, he was swinging on the gate in
front of his home one morning when
| a stranger accosted him and asked
the distance to Richmond. The dis
tance was given, and being at the
forks Of the road the stranger asked
which road to take. The future
statesman replied: 1.-The distance is
the same and it makes not the
slightest difference which road you
take, for before you get half way you
will wish you had taken the other. !"
And the same condition prevails IN
our country to-day; the roads are as
bad as they were in the boyhood days
Of Henry Clay. It matters not
which road you take, before you get
| half way you will wish you had taken
the other. !,
In a speech delivered before good
roads convention at Greenyille,
Tenn, Nov. 12, 1901, Mr.. M. o. Ell
bridge, assistant director Of the
Office of public road inquiries OF the
United States government made this
statement, referring to Mecklenberg
county, N. C.: "This county has
made more progress and h a 8
built more miles of road under this
system than any other county in the
e: S. Twelve bales Of cotton can be
easily drawn over the stone roads OF
this county where formerly two bales
| was a good load. Since the good
roads have been built farm lands
have advanced in value from $l2 and
SIS per acre to s75 and s100 per acre,
and notice from q recent dispatch
that the county is soon to issue an.
other 100000 worth of bonds to build
more roads. Why have they done
this? Because it pays to do it,
All experiments in road building
| have without exception been attend
ed with this significant result, an
enormous increase IN the value OF
real estate. In Richland county
| lands along some of the improved
roads have doubled and in some
cases quadrupied in value. In Meek
lenburg county, n. c., lands along a
certain road have increased in value
from $l2 and sl5 to $75 and sl00 per
acre. Now it is reasonable to sup
pose that results which have been
realized in Richland and Mecklen-
| burg counties may also be realized
in Sumter county. But we need not
! have such enormous profits, an in
crease in value of 40c. per acre would
be sufficient 20 pay the entire ex-
pense OF building 1000 miles of good
roads at cost Of $500 per mile.
There is another pnase Of this
economical question that it may not
be amiss TO mention. IF our county
should sell 100000 worth of bonds
this money would be used here
among us, it would be paid out for
labor, provisions. material, ETC..
flowing into the channels of trade
!! and benefting all classes.
| Senator Jno. w. Daniel, Of Va. in
a recent speech to good roads con-
vention in Lynchburg used these
words: II never meet with body
assembled to consider any question
| in which transportation is involved
in which I do not feel like quoting
| this fashlight sentence of human
wisdom. Man can create nothing;
| he can only move something" Not
all the conquerors Of earth from
Darius down to the latest military
hero, not all the giants of earth that
lived before or after Goliath, not all
the scientists and skilled mechanics
of the world, not all the greatest
brains that ever evolved human
thought can create even an atom.
We have all got to deal with things
as our Creator made them without
adding one single atom to them y
II therefore lay down the broad gen.
eral proposition that transportation
is the basic art of human develop