Lexington gazette. [volume] (Lexington, Va.) 1871-1962, 1904-06-08
HIGHWAY PEP AIRING
LARGE SUM WASTED ANNUALLY IN
THIS WORK.
Money squandered In Patching Up
Our Roads Would Pay the National
Debt-What This Alleged Mainte-
nance Has Cost One Town.


Our Roads Would Pay the National
Debt-What This Alleged Mainte-
nance Has Cost One Town.
The money that has been wasted on
the common patch policy Of highway
maintenance is appalling, says writer
| in the Good Roads Magazine. 1t would
pay the national debt; it would provide
q navy that the nations of Europe and
Asia could not subdue; it would grid
iron the country from the Atlantic to
the Pacific and from Canada to the
gulf with the best of macadam high
ways The money thus squandered In
the eastern and middle states alone
would macadamize every highway in
general use in those sections.
For the past 70 to $50 years, ac-
cOrding to the age of the town, it has
been the practice every recurring
spring to FIX the roads" or work out
the highway tax This means the
throwing on of shOvelful of gravel
or, worse yet, of loan, here and there,
building an occasional water break or
making futile attempt I'm some cases
and in some places to clean out the
cutters, throwing out an offending cob
blestone once in awhile. The first
smart summer shower undOes the half
of this clumsy patchwork, and the fol-
lowing winter or early spring COM
pletes its destruction.
A certain New England town has
for the past 100 years appropriated an
average of $1,000 per year for this al
legged maintenance Of its highways,
and as result its roads are no bet
ter than they were in the most remote
memory of its oldest inhabitant Quite
likely they are no better than they
were soon after the town was first in
cOrporated. A half million dollars
practically wasted in one small town!
This would macadamize every neces-
sary highway there. If permanent
highway improvements had been in
augurated at the outset the towns |
valuation and population would today |
have been doubled.
To compute what this perniciOusly |
wastefu practice has cost the farmer |
and business man in wear and tear
would be impossible. Its RESPONSE
bility for wrecked vehicles, for Grip
pied horses. for broken harness, Is in
calcuable Little use to seek further
the rationale for abandoned farms 1t
may be readily found in Il system that
has produced the worst possible high
ways at the highest possible cost.
1t is not that the poverty Of the
farmer has made the system conse-
Quence. but that the system has made
the poverty of the farmer a conse-
Quence. True good roads associations
the automobile. the bicycle, rOadmak-
ing machinery. scientific rOadmakers
and a somewhat awakened public SEN
tment have done something to Grip
pie this recklessly wasteful patch high
way system. But it ought to be de-
molished root and branch.
Let the motto hereafter be, Every
hing for permanent highway improve
ment: not one cent for patchwork
Let one piece of solid, smooth and per-
nanent highway he constructed every
year and let the balance of the roads
'est without single penny of patch
work expenditure. Where this system
If highway maintenance has prevailed
for so long the roads are bad, of
curse. but they can't be much worse
let the road roller the rock crusher, ,
he grader and the scraper. Let the
expense be divided among two or three
OWNS II necessary And be not afraid ,
# running into debt to purchase them. I
Debt acquired for such a purpose Of .
economy and prosperity is an incen- ,
i've. stimulus. Il gain. Il blessing 1t
S laying uT for Il rainy day. for the =
line when there will be 10 necessity y
or so much expense to keep the high .
Ways in repair and for the time when, I;
that expense may be, 1t will +
re borne easily and cheerfully by the +
rosperous farmer who is living under !
rational highway system