Baxter Springs news. [volume] (Baxter Springs, Kan.) 1882-1919, 1904-06-09
THURSDAY, JUNE 9,
THE RAILROADS AND WAGON
pOADS

l.. Craig, general passenger agen,
of the Oregon Railroad and Navi'
CATION Company, before the Oregon
Good Roads Association, Portland
Oregon:
am glad to have the the oppor-
tunity to say few words on so inn
portant subject as "The Railroads
and the Wagon Roads, although |
think, had / been selecting the sub
ject, would have placed the wagon
road first aud the railroad last, that
being the natural order, both az 10
priority and importance.
Centuries before the railroad was
ever dreamed of wagon roads exist
ed, and their Improvement had the
earnest thought of the progressive
element OF the communities
through which their course lay.
Without the wagon roads the rail-
roads could not exist any more than
this city could prosper or even have
it's beginning without surround
ing country to support it.
Railroads arr frequently referred
to as trunk lines. The smile is an
apt ore. If the railroads are the
trunks. then the wagon roads,
stretching out into the adjacent
country, are the roots which bring
TO the trunk the business which
supports it.
To assert that better wagon roads
are not desirable or necessary
would discredit the wisdom of the
brightest minds in the railroad
world.
Railroad managers are spending
millions upon millions of dollars to
do for the properties they represent
exactly what the gentlemen inter
ested in the good roads question
are endeavoring to have done for
our wagon roads. All this expend-
iture means what: Simply that a
given amount of power shall be
able TO haul more tons than hereto
fore and that in the transportation
of the railroads business it's motive
power and rolling stock shall not
be subject to the strain and shocks
that had to be borne when the road
was less nearly perfect.
To use a home example, why has
the Oregon Railroad and Naviga-
ton Company spent millions of
dollars in eliminating the curves,
reducing grades, in building steel
bridges, in more solid embank.
ments and laying heavier rails: Do
you think it is simply that someone
may ride with little more comfort
than heretofore? Not by any means.
While the comfort of its patrons is
always strong element for consid-
Grafton, the main reason for the i'm
provement is that the expenditure
of this money will mean such saw
ing in the expense of operation,
that the result is greater profit on
all the capital invested.
If a single railroad finds it neces-
sary to spend many millions in this
direction, would dare to say that
a proportionate expenditure on the
wagon roads would not be consist
ent with the truest economy?
/ am informed that the greatest
distance a farmer can afford to haul
wheat over existing roads is about
twenty miles. If the wagon road
can be so improved that with the
same number of horses and with
the same wagon two tons can be
hauled where one is the present
limit, il will also be found that the
extreme boundary of the profitable
wheat area would be forty miles, or
double what it is now. That lie, a
farmer under the improved condi-
ton of wagon roads, forty miles
distant from the market, could pro-
duce wheat with as much profit for