St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1904-02-24
STATE FINANCES
AND GOOD ROADS
Hon. Perciva1 w. Clement of
Rutland, VT, before the Citi-
zens of Windsor, Feb. 5, 1904.


Rutland, VT, before the Citi-
zens of Windsor, Feb. B, 1904.
Much has been said and written the
last few years about a greater YER
mont and new Vermont" 1t seems
10 me that these terms are misleading.
Vermont is growing old like all of US;
1t contains 1855 square miles. 1t is
bounded by other states and a foreign
nation, all jealous of their own pres
tige. It is the most arrant nonsense to
talk about a Greater Vermont. Vermont
never can be any greater, but it can be
and ought to be made very much better
as a place of residence. In the last 30
years our population has only increased
about 1900, and that mostly within the
last ten years. We never shall better
our condition by simply listening to talk
about Greater Vermont or dreaming of
ITS future greatness Let us stop in
talking of Vermont, trying to unravel
the fringe of vivid imagination and
began to do something. 1t is time for
action rather than for words, if we
would benefit Vermont.
BETTER 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
transporta ton. 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 transported ton for freight and
passengers on those lines of road has
been steadily ra6ucad since their rom
Struct1on, but our wagon roads have
stood still for 100 years-not quite as
many stumps 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 on railroads is about $780,
000,0 900 per annum.
The estimated cost of transportation
on wagon roads is $3.50, 100000.
The cost of handling a ton of freight
per mile by railroad is considerably less
than half a cent
The cost of handling a ton of freight
by wagon road is 25 cents in this coun-
try. We cannot, of course ever expect
to handle freight as cheaply by wagon
as by rail-, but we can certainly reduce
ma terially. In Europe the average cost
OF transporta ton of one ton one mile by
wagon is ~ 1/2 cents, or just one-half
of the cost in this country. If, how
ever, we had throughout this country
well surfaced macadamized roads, as
exist in Europe, we would save II LIZ
cents a ton on all freight handled by
wagon, which would mean a saving to
the country of $450,O0O,0o0 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 a each other about the beau
ties of Vermont suppose we go to work
and build a few lines of macadamized
wagon roads from our eastern to our
western borders across the mountain
ranges. By good roads 1 mean some
thing better than a dirt or gravel road
Broken stones rolled into place with a
heavy roller and brought to a smooth
surface by top dressing is the road
which is accepted in this country and in
permanent roadway. This style of road
is called "macadam," taking it's name
from an engineer who strongly advo-
Gated it for permanent roadway. I
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 man in Bennington wants to
go to Brattleboro or Bellows Falls the
easiest way for him is to go down into
the state of Massachusetts, go around
by Greenfield and come up the Connect
lieut. river valley. It is practically
days trip. If there were a good mac
adamized road kept in good condition
every day of the year a man would
make the trim of 40 miles with a 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 a road as that would mean to all
of the farmers and manufacturers and
all people living on the line of it.
HAULING LOADS.
On present roads a farmer living six
or eight miles from Bellows Falls if
this is his market, in good weather, can
make one trip a day with a pair of
horses and a load of ton or a ton
and a half possibly under very favor
able conditions two tons; but there are
many days in the year when his road is
pra ctically napaSSable for a team with
more than half a ton. Suppose that he
had road into your town over which
he could handle three tons with the same
team 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
ealue of all property located OH the lines
of such good roads.
THE ESTIMATED COST.
We cannot have these roads in a mo-
ment. 1t will take time and cost large
amount of money to build them. We