Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1903-02-20
inquiry from the department. of public
workssof London.
Good for Country Roads.

\
| For steel roads in country districts q
single track will usually be sufficient,
| and with a lighter and narrower rail,
the total weight about loo tons per
mile; the rails to rest on foundations OF
stone, gravel or burned clay, and be-
tween the rails few inches of gravel
for the hcise path.
| Outside the grass Will grow UP to the
rails and the turf will be firm enough
| for light vehicles to turn out upon, ana
| for such heavy ones as go contrary TO
the current of traffic, while it will save
| the road from wash and wear On many
of the older stone roads all but a mar
row wagon track is covered with strong
grass which has grown up in the hard
macadam
| Authorities OIL commerce and produce
ton all agree upon the vital need Of
common road Improvement in the Unit
ed States. The chamber of commerce
of New York says: I'VE are handicap
ped in all the markets of the world by
needless waste of labor in the primary
transportation of our products, which
goes far to offset our great advantages
in other respects"
The department of agriculture at
Washington, thru it's 10000 regular cor
respondents, has gathered statistics of
the cost of hauling on country roads,
with estimates of distances and guam
titles moved, and has computed the to-
tai expended at $900,000.O00 annually, OF
which it considers two thirds chargea-
BILE to bad roadside average rate per
ton per mile being 25 cents, against a
TO Of re in artS pf
1t is true that this most incredible tax
has not been unbearable while we are
Swimming the cream of new conti-
nent," but it is so now in many sections,
and must become so generally. 1t is all
ready keeping in hopeless poverty great
regions where the soil is worn or wear
ing out
No one doubts that good roads would
pay-but how to get them is the ques-
ton. 1t is the special weakness of our
system of government that we can not
compel a present sacrifice to secure flu
ture benefit. People who govern them
themselves will not apparently tax
themselves to build the roads which
they know they need, nor will they
generally consent to borrow the money
and tax their children's children to pay
it. altho they could hand down to them
not only the roads themselves. but the
savings of generations in their use.
Good roads must therefore be built, le
built at all, without any decided in
crease in present taxation and without.
imposing burdensome debt upon the
future. This situation might seem to be
an absolute impasse, but there are ways
out of it. and the successful adoption OF
steel for general road construction will
help to open way. 1t will practically
eliminate for a generation, at least, the
question of maintenance, which in
stone roals Is most serious, and will
leave only the first cost to be provided
for, while it will bring in new and
powerful interest accustomed to high
finance to help devise the ways and
means for that first cost.
Probable Cost.
In estimating the cost of the metal
for the roads it will not be necessary to
take the present boom prices, not even
the probable average for term of
years; advantage can be taken of dull
times, since public funds can be raised
as well as we'll then as ever, and the
steel producers would rather have the
new demand come in such times, at low
prices. to help them hold their labor,
than to have it at high prices in flush
times when they are overcrowded with
work In a depressed period, more
over, broad minded producers will
naturally make lower rates for this use
Of steel than for any others, If a gen
eral movement for the purpose can be
inaugurated, knowing that such a
movement would do more than any
thing else possible to revive industry,
hope and prosperity.
In view of these considerations,
therefore, we may safely take the bot
tom prices of the last depression, say
SIS per ton, as the governing rate fer
road metal, especially as it was UNDER
stood that that price still paid profit
to those concerns which were best
equipped and managed, and as since
then the expenses of mining. transport
tation and manufacture have been fur
Their reduced. The cost of the metal and
the railroad freight ere all that need
be counted as cash required to build
country steel roads; the hauling and
laying of the plates and the foundation
of field stones, gravel or burned clay
are all matter of COMMON labor and
can be provided for by contribution of
labor or a labor tax.
Instead of the direct aid to road
building now strongly advocated in
congress and elsewhere the United
States could give more efficient aid in
directly, and give it thru such means