Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1904-11-11

| WIFI cuufcu anu ScuOOl, IL fODS the
people of many comforts and attrac-
lions, and makes life narrow. In this
way it drives from the village and
farm to the cities the young men and
women, with their productive posi-
bilities. It's whole tendency Is to con-
gest population in the cities, and more
than anything else has forced one
sided development in our National life.
These are some of the evils and the
burdens and the effects of poor roads.
What of the influence and effect of
good roads? Fortunately we do not
have to go to foreign lands, nor even
to other sections of our own country
for their value. They have reduced
the cost of farm production wherever
built, they have increased the value of
farm lands from twenty-five to 100
per cent, they have made available
for cultivation wider areas of territory,
they have attracted immigration, they
have given to old farms thought value
less a good value, by enabling owners
or tenants to make them profitable;
they have made the village merchant
more prosperous, they have built fac
tories, they have aided in the growth of
cities; incidentally they have added
to the traffic of railroads. OF other
benefits of even greater Importance
they have made better class of citi-
Zens; they have brought about better
methods of agriculture; they have i'm
proved the schools by increasing pub
lie revenues and enabling teachers and
schools to serve a larger area; they
have added in every way to the CON-
forts of the people. They have in a
measure turned back the tide toward
the city by bringing people from the
city into the country districts for
homes.
They may be somewhat startling.
What is there to support them? The
development of this country has al
ways followed the lines of easiest
communication, of the best tTansporta-
lation kept close to the waterways.
The building of the Erie Canal
changed the current of industrial ac-
tivity. Along the old roads built
down through the Southern States
nearly hundred years ago We're To-
Gated the most prosperous plantations,
the homes of the South's most enter
prising and substantial farmers, and
along these roads were found seats
of social life under the old regime. The
building of railroad lines to the great
West sent to that region for invest
ment the capital of the East, the most
ambitious of the sons of the East and
South, and attracted there the millions
of immigrants from other lands, who
have done so much to develop that
section, to develop it while the South
lay quiet. Much is heard of the new
South. If the term be appropriate
the new South began when your rail-
road systems began to give you mod
ern trains and efficient service. So
far as railroad facilities go, the Uni
ted States has had a remarkable de-
velopment. No other nation has to-
day so great, so efficient and so cheap
a system of railroad transportation.
The roads serve, perhaps, take it all
in all, the people who live near their
lines as well as it is now possible. But
railroads, like everything else, have
had their limitations, as they have
| their characteristic influences upon the
development of the region. They have
naturally fastened the development of
the region lying directly along their
lines, while that of districts removed
from them has as naturally had their
development retarded. No one desires
to go to a place removed from good
transportation facilities if he can To-
cate where they are to be had. The
tendency is always, and naturally, to
give the best advantages, the largest
returns to the people, the town or in
terest where there is the least burden
to bear, the least tax upon industry,
the smallest cost ON the production or
traffic charges. So much cheaper is
transportation by water or rail than
over common highways that produc-
ton has been lessened where distance
from rail or water is considered, meas
ured either in miles or conditions of
highways. There is a point distant
from every line of railroad beyond
which, under present condition of the
ordinary common roads, its influence
in aiding production, acting as dis
tributing agent, is of little effect. The
railroad development of the country
has reached point where its future
is comparatively limited. 1t will not
| be practical, from q business stand
point, to reach a much wider area of
territory. 1t is necessary, therefore,
in order to give all sections the adyan-
tage of cheap distribution of products
to market to enable the outlying dis
tricts to reach the railroad station or
the wharf at cost which production
cannot only bear, but under which it
will thrive, and at all seasons of the
year. The ordinary road Of the South
yes, of the whole country-puts tar
iff upon all traffic of twenty-five cents
or more a ton per mile, as against 70
| mills on the railroad. 1t is burden
| which cffectually stiles production, ex-
eept when all other circumstances and
conditions are most favorable At
certain seasons of the year it is abso-
lutely impossible to do much handling
over many country roads. 1t is easy
to see how production over great areas
of our country is kept down by these
conditions. Another point in this con-
nection. The bad highway forces the
movement of all traffic with the farms
at seasons of the year when the farm
ers teams could be more advantage
ously employed at other work; it
causes a great congestion of traffic at
certain seasons, not only lessening the
selling price of the farmers product,
causing greater expense and annoy
ance to merchant and manufacturer,
but compelling railroads to go to