Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1904-02-26
STATE FINANCES
AND GOOD ROADS
Hon. Perciyal w. Clement of
Rutland, VT, before the Citi-
rens Of Windsor, Feb. >, 1904.

hst rev years sbOut greater Ner-
Hsont" sni a new Vermont" Ii seems
10 me that these terms are misleading.
Vermont is growing old like all Of us;
" eontsins s.5ss square miles. Ii is
bounded by other states aud a foreign
nstien, all jealous of their own pres
flx-. II is the most arrant nonsense to
talk shout a Greater Vermont. Vermont
never rsn be any greater. but il can be
and onght to he made very much better
80 plsc- of residence. In the last 30
yesrs our population has only increased
shout i3.oo0. and that mostly within the
last ten years. We never shall better
our condition by simply listening to talk
shout Greater Vermont or dreaming of
its future greatness. Let rs stop in
taking Of Vermont, trying to unravel
the fringe Of q vivid imagination. and
begin to saw wood. Ii is fine that We
began to do something. Ii is time for
action rather than for words, il We
would benefit Vermont
RETTER FACILITIES FOR TRANS
PORTATION.
In my opinion there is no one thing
that We need at this time more than bet
ter facilities for communication and
transportation. We have got two main
lines of railroad running through the
state. north and south. on either side Of
the Green mountains. which give us
good accommodation of that kind and
the cost Of transportation for freight and
passengers on those lines of road has
been steadily reduced since their con-
struction, but our wagon roads have
stood still for 100 years-not quite as
many stnmps in them now as then, but
they were dirt roads 100 years ago and
they are dirt roads now.
WAGON AND RAILROAD TRANS
PORTATION.
The cost of transportation in this
country Oh railroads is about $780,
900 900 per annum.
The estimated cost of transportation
an wagon roads is $3.50. O00. 900.
The cost of handling n ton of freight
per mile by railroad is considerably less
than half cent.
The cost Of handling ton OF freight
by wagon road is 25 cents in this coun-
try. We cannot, of course, ever expect
10 handle freight as cheaply by wagon
as by rail, but we can certainly reduce
the cost OF wagon transportation very
materially. In Europe the average cost
OF transportation of one ton one mile by
wagon il IL lI2 cents. or just one-half
Of the cost In this country. IT, how
ever. we had throughout this country
well surfaced macadamized roads, as
exist in Europe, we would save IL 1/2
cents a ton on all freight handled by
wagon, which would mean saving to
the country Of $3.50 000, 900 per annum
| just about half OF our national debt
| Think Of what that would mean to the
| farmer. to the merchant. to every man.
| because every man would profit by that
| saving in proportion to his business and
capital.
MORE GOOD ROADS AND FEWER
BOUQUETS.
| Here in this state instead of throwing
bouquets at each other about the beau
ties Of Vermont suppose we go to work
4 and build few lines of macadamized
| wagon roads from our eastern to our
| western borders across the mountain
| ranges. BY good roads | mean some
| thing better than dirt or gravel road.
Broken stones rolled into place with a
| heavy roller and brought to smooth
surface by a top dressing il the road
which is accepted in this country and in
| Europe as being the best surface for a
Is called IN acadam." taking its name
| fIom an engineer who strongly advo-
| Gated it for a permanent roadway.
need not take up much of your time in
showing the advantages of such con-
struction of such roads.
| ACROSS MOUNTAIN TRAVEL
DIFFICULT.
Now if a man in Bennington wants TO
80 to BrattlebOro or Bellows Falls the
i easiest way for him is to go down into
the state OF Massachusetts, 90 around
/ by Greenfield and come up the Connect
4 lieut. river valley. 1t is practically a
days trip. II there were a good mac
adamized road kept in good condition
every day Of the year n man would
make the trip of 40 miles with good
pair Of horses in four hours or with an
automobile, which is the coming means
of transportation through the country
In less than two hours; and think what
such road as that would mean to all
Of the farmers and manufacturers and
aH people living on the line of it.
HAULING LOADS.
On present roads a farmer living six
or eight miles from Bellows Falls. il
this is his market. in good weather. can
make one trip a day with "A pair OF
horses and a load of ton or toi,
and half. possibly under very favor
able conditions two tons: but there are
many days in the year when his road is
practically impossible for team with
more than half ton. Suppose that he
had road into your town over which
he could handle three tons with the same
.eam in any day in the year. what would
that add to the value of his farm?
won't undertake to estimate the in
creased value in figures, but You can
readily see that it would increase the
Satue of all property located OH the lines
Of Snch good roads.
THE ESTIMATED COST.
We cannot have these roads in a mo-
ment 1t will take time and cost a large
amount of money to build them. w.
must have surveys and plans made, ant
the work of construction should 20 for.
ward upon some well defined plan
estimate that it will cost $4,000 a mil'
TO build thoroughly good macadam
lied highway 16 feet wide, and whel
built such road requires the minimum
of expense for maintenance Each rcat
then. should we build across the state
will cost approximately a quarter of !
million of dollars OF course the town
through which such road would rul
toufd not afford to build it. That woult
he too much of a burden and particu
larly for the poorer mountain towns. II
other states where permanent road
have been built, the state has born
from One-half to two-thirds of the ex
pense, and the balance has been as
sessed upon the towns. don't know
Just what proportion. if any, the town
should bear of the expense of construc
ton. That would be worked out by
legislature; but certainly the stat
, should bear the greater part of the cost
That has been the plan adopted in Flu
|, rope. France is following that plan
and some Of the finest roads in Franc
were built as military roads. The Cor
niche road. overlooking the Medterra
mean in Southern France, is today !
| ma gnifcent condition, and 1t was bull
by the FIRST Napoleon as national mi
itary road So the plan of having tn
3 st.ta hnild roads through the town