The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1904-02-26
Good Roads.

and very properly so. This is in accord
ance with physiological law, which is
that the blood currents tend to that or
gan or organs which have the most
work to do, and after partaking of
sumptuous meal like this extra work is
put upon the digestive organs. Your
stomachs are filled with oysters, lamb
with mint sauce, dill pickles, etc., con-
seuuently the blood is sent in excess to
the stomach that it may the better elab-
crate, assimulate, and metabulate this
sumptuous repast, and the brain, there
fore, is to this degree deprived of the
vital fluid, and is less capable of pro-
found thought, and is more receptive to
something of mirthful character. The
program committee has made mistake
in asking me to respond to a toast be-
cause I was seldom known to laugh, and
less often do I provoke laughter in 9th
ers. But gentlemen, my subject is not
laughable one, it is earnest, it is real,
anu lHlTIu Is uOG llS SOlu.
During the dark ages road building
suffered decay as did everything else. In
the beginning of the nineteenth century,
Tilford and Macadam in England applied
scientific principles to road building and
these principles with some notifications
have been generally adopted in road
building. The first and most principal
insisted upon by these men was thor
ough drainage. Macadam, whose name
is immortalized by macadamized roads,
claimed that eight to ten inches of con-
solidated material would make a road
over any kind of soil that would carry
the heaviest loads, provided it was well
drained and surfaced so the water could
run off.
eItaly today has five thousand miles
of good roads. France has twenty
three thousand, while in our own country
New Jersey, New York, Connecticut and
Massachusetts, are taking the lead in the
construction of GOOD highways. These
states have appropriated collectively SIX
teen millions of dollars and have about
twenty-five thousand miles of good
roads.
"My first proposition is this, namely,
few things in time of peace will contrib
ute more to the development of indus
tries and to the general prosperity of the
country than good wagon roads. 1t has
been mathematically demonstrated that
it costs more to move a bushel of wheat,
or a load of hay ten miles on the ordi-
mary country roads - we now find them
than - transport the same I've hundred
miles by railroad. OF two thon.ann miles
by water.
practically speaking all agricultural
products have to be moved greater
or less distance by wagon before they
reach rail or water. Statistics teach us
that the annual agricultural products in
the United States, aggregate in value,
s., O00, 000,O 900, hence the enormous loss
to the farmer by reason of bad roads.
''The earliest roads which history gives
any account of are those of Rome. One
of the oldest and most celebrated was
the Appian way, the road which the
apostle Paul travelled over in his voyage
to Rome. This road was commenced
three hundred years before Christ. One
of the notable features OF Roman roads
Another, was their massiveness and So
lidity of construction. Some of them can
be seen today, as they have withstood
the ruthless hand of time.
specifically desire to close with a
few remarks about our own roads. /
mean those in the vicinity, of Mankato.
A few months since had the pleasure
of conversation with the superintend
emit of the good roads train. told him
the character of our soil, about our
stone quarries and the general lay of
the land He replied to me that he
had travelled pretty well over the United
States in the interest of good roads, and
that he knew of no place better situated
to build good roads than we are, taking
into account that good agricultural lands
do not furnish good material for road
building. In this beautiful valley from
South Bend to Kasota there is an in
exhaustible supply of limestone, and a
large quantity of granite. The hills
this side of Kasota contain inexhaustible
beds of gravel; the stone can be crushed
and broken and the farmers could haul
this material on to the roads when
sleighing is good or the summer roads
are dry and am persuaded that through
the influence of these commercial bodies,
the Milwaukee road, for small consid-
GRAFTON, would haul car loads of gravel
from the Kasota hills and dump it at
some convenient place in this city. Then
with the country roads well turnpiked
and drained and this covered with few
inches of broken stone and one or two
inches of gravel we would have excellent
country roads.
II hope to see the time, and that in the
near future, that Mankato will bestir
itself in behalf of this most important