Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1903-04-29
NILES URGES GOOD ROADS
General Declares Government Should Find
Money to Bald Highways
FARMERS ENTITLED TO NATIONAL AID
Bryan Takes Up Tale, Telling Sc.
Louis Convention HusbAndmen
Have Right TO Insist on
Local Transportation.

ST. LOUIS, April 2s.-The second days
session OF the National and International
Good Roads convention opened with a bet
ter attendance than yesterday. Rev. W.
Banks Rogers, president OF st. Louis uni
verslty, delivered the invocation.
President Moore then introduced General
Nelson A. Miles, United States army. and
president Of the National Highway commits
sion, who made the principal address Of the
forenoon.
General Miles was received with great
enthusiasm by the delegates. He spoke on
Military Roads and q National Highway"
and said in part:
l know of no one element OF civilization
In our country that has been more
bestowing a greater blessing upon our
people than the improvement Of our lines
OF communication and avenues of internal
Our government has expended $5OO.OOo. 600
Tor the Improvement Of our harbors and
waterways and now the attention of the
public Is being called to our postal roads
and avenues of communication are most
useful and important TO all our people.
II such expenditures Of the national treas
ure have been made in the past for the
development of railroads and waterways is
it not now most appropriate time that
the Improvement of our roads should re-
ceive national attention and governmental
aid
The property of the people. the wealth
OF the nation, comes from the ground The
factory and foundry increase and utilize
the products of the soil and mine; aEricul-
ture Is the principal industry so the
great mass of our rural people are our
main dependency; their patriotism. their
public spirit, their welfare must ever be
the salvation and glory of our republic
the national government, the state or munic-
ipality that can promote the welfare of
the people should not be withheld but
should be most earnestly advocated and
most generously bestowed.
Any roads that can be made useful for
utilized for military purposes. We are
not an empire or a military despotism
and therefore are not devising means for
purely military purposes
Justice to the Farmer.
w. J. Bryan took the agriculturalist' .
side, saying:
The expenditure of money for the per-
menent Improvement of the common roads
csn be defined, first, as matter of justice
to the people who live I'm the country
second. as a matter of advantage to the
third, on the ground that the welfare of the
nation demands that the comforts of coun-
try life shall, as far as possible, keep pace
with the comforts of city life.
1t Is well known fact, or fact easily
ascertained. that the people in the country,
while paying their full share of county,
state and federal taxes, receive as a rule
only the general benefits of government,
while the people in the cities have in addi-
ton to the protection afforded by the gov
eminent, the advantage arising from the
expenditure of public moneys in their midst.
The Improvement of the country roads
can be justified also on the ground that
the farmer. the first and most important
producer OF wealth. ought to be in a posi-
ton to hold his crop and market II at the
! most favorable opportunity. whereas at
I present, he Is virtually under compuision
| to sell 1t as soon as 1t is matured because
become at
time during the fall, winter or spring
Instead of being his own warehouseman,
the farmer is compelled to employ middle
men and share with them the profit upon
! his labor.
Has Right Ito Insist.
The farmer has a right, too, to insist
| upon roads that will enable him to go to
! town to church, to the school house and
to the homes of his neighbors as occasion
may require, and with the extension OF
| rural delivery he has an additional need
| for good roads in order that he may be in
communication with the outside world.
! 1t is important for the welfare of our
government and for the advancement OF
| the farm as attractive as possible
Notwithstanding the advantage of free
! letter delivery, telephone gas manufacture
/ ing plants and the extension of electric car
! lines, there still remains a pressing need
! for better country roads, need emphasized
| of city streets.
! AS long as mud placed an embargo upor
| city uaHlC, the FARMER could bear his mud.
made isolation with less complaint, but
! with the Improvement of city streets and
| with the establishment of parks and boule.
| wards the farmers just demands for better
roads find increasing expression.
| The people now realize that bad roads
are indefensible and are prepared to con.
! slider the remedy.
stone Lauds President.
Governor Hogg Of Texas believed good
roads would only be secured through the ait
of the national government. He spoke oi
the insUlar policy of the government and
said II some of the money squandered In
the Philippines could be used here in the
improvement of highways our roads would
be in far better condition.
Sam Hill. brother OF ]. j. Hill, and presi.
dent of the Washington Good Roads asso.
citation, told of the vast amount Of bust,
ness being done with the Orient through Pu
get sound and said the only way of buiIdins
it up and holding 1t from all competitors
was to hold the highways contiguous t.
water and rail lines.
Gen. Roy Stone chief engineer Of tn,
Union Terminal company of New York,
pioneer in the movement, who called tn,
first Good Roads convention In Chicago tel
years ago, presented a strong paper Gen
eral Stone spoke as follows:
Good roads are coming whether by eas,
| ways or hard. Federal aid is I'm the air
Our younger statesmen are eager to pro
mote II and our oldest no longer have tn
cold shivers when it is mentioned II ha
reached the top Within this month 4
president of the United States has sai
what no president has dared to breath
I'm almost 100 years that the federal gov
ernment should cooperate in building com
mon roads. For these brave words ever
advocate OF road Improvement I'm the lands
and they are millions and millions Wi
join me I'm saying God bless the fearIes
! man who uttered them"
AoHo bFnr ron InEnER 49,