The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-06-01
Eetters tc tbe Gdftcr
GOOD ROADS.
Profitable Agitation Started in TaI-
 lap0Osa.

Profitable Agitation Started fin TaI- Editor Tho Advertiser:
 VIII you kindly allow space in your columns to address the farmers of our county of Tallapoosa on the subject of good roads. This is a subject that has attracted q good deal of my thought TOT several years past. and I really reel that it is a subject of greatest local importance to the farmers of our county We are highly gratified at the improvement already made in the pub. JIG roads of our county for the past lew years but the roads are yet far rom being what they should be and what they can be made with but little more expense when we consider the are now.
 keeping up the public roads has proved from long experience to be a failure or at least to be very imperfect and athnsatisfaSctory. thnsa sf,Sy A great number of rect interest in working the roads. They have no tools of any kind and feei It a hardship to go on the roads on the road this class of so-called road workers prove to be of no value but only time-killers, to detain and annoy desire good roads. This of itself be- gets dissatisfaction in those who are willing to work. They pelled to bear more than a pro rata T. Tn laoor and expense and from this cause lose to greater or less degree the interest in public road work. The farmers of this, the southern. end of our county, are awakening to the i'm portance of better roads and to a change of system in making them. We bankruptcy in wear and tear of wag- ons. buggies, harness and mules to say nothing of time lost in consequence of bad, rough roads. We prefer paying road tax and having good roads to pay ing so much to the wheelwright, black smith and harness maker. We have crease in freight per load the saving in wear and tear of team, vehicles and harness, will amply repay us for any change that may be made along this line The subject of good roads Is att tiacting the attention of the farmers not only of our'county, but from every State in this great Union comes the awakening to the fact that they of all the people need good roads. He has to use the highways twelve months in the year and in their present almost impossible condition he finds the tax too heavy to bear in wear and tear and time consumed from his business at home.
 He finds his family almost cut off from any communication and associa- tioE of town and country for lack of sufficient roads. He has also discov- cred that good roads create value up- on his home and farm and without good roads his farm is of little value except as a stopping place for his fam lily for the present only.
 The lack of good roads is the parent to the indifference so prominent among so many farmers of our county. Homes and farms are the parents of patriots and good roads make homes and farms appreciated. Show me the public roads of country and I will tell you es are without seeing them. The pub lie roads are an index to the aspiration and caracter of the people who daily travel them They are arteries to the country through which they pass and I find the life of a country Is in pro- portion to the circulation. Doctors tell us if the circulation in the human body. Is imperfect or retarded it be- speaks a sickly and frail individual without hope or purpose.
 This is no less so as regards good facilities for travel and freightage or our operation and love of home and farm will wane and lapse into careless ness and indifference, Let us pull to- a plan of equitable taxation arrived at and plan for working roads formu- lated and adopted that will be cheaper and which will give more general sat- isfaction and prove a blessing to all of our country homes and to the general public.
 There should be formulated a good roads club or society in every beat in the State to intensity and perpetuate the good roads movement everywhere. thus becoming more acquainted with ths reasons why we should be up and doing something along this line.
 The world is looking to us, the far mers for food and raiment, and our facilities for supplying this demand Is first in good roads, after which all other requisites will necessarily follow Let us have local good roads societies make excellent members of such a so- cietY or societies in consequence of their present environments on the farm. S. T. Pouncey.