The Brandon news. (Brandon, Miss.) 1892-1961, 1904-03-24

Lz<\----Z Ell poulcS HAS Hldue sucH Idp-
!. p.ee,. ,ss in SO short time as the
good roads movement in the South.
While this movement is general
throughout the country and seems to
De attracting all elements to its sup
port in the South, where great natural
resources are being developed at an
Unprecedented rate, and where facili-
ties for transportation are a matter of
immediate, pressing concern, largely
made SO during the past three years,
this subject Of improved country high
ways is. taking deeper root with the
people than in most other sections.
The commerce of the world comes
primarily from the ground, and, as Il
rule, the cost of transporting product
is relatively higher in the initial stage
from the field or mine to the railroad,
river or canal-than in any other part
Of its journey to the worlds markets.
The most expensive and the most op-
pressive kind of transportation is~Wa
gon transportation, where it is accom-
plished over bad roads, but this fact is
often lost sight of by communities
which address themselves to the work
Of correcting alleged inequalities in
the freight rates charged by railroad
and steamship companies.
A village in the West, which had its
own peculiar grievance touching
freight rates, was so situated that all
the incoming freight delivered by the
local railroad had to be hauled up a
steep hill in wagons, on which only
half an ordinary load could be drawn.
This condition was complacently sub
mitted to for number Of years, when
it occurred to somebody to suggest
that the point Of attack might be pro-
6tably shifted from the railroad, or
it's attitude on the subject of freight
rates, to this hill. When this sug-
gestion was acted upon, finally, re-
sulting in the cutting down of the
grade, the reduction in cost of local
carriage One-half, and a corresponding
saving in cost of transportation great
err than could possibly have resulted
had the railroad granted all that was
asked, the business men Of this vii
lage realized that they had been guilty
Of an error Of omission in not having
figured, at an earlier day, the cost of
transportation to and from the doors
Of their stores and warehouses instead
of between station on the railroad, and
that it is possible for a short piece of
neglected wagon road to be an import
ant adverse factor in the relations of
their community with distant markets.
The encouragement given to the good
roads movement in the South by the
Southern Railway, beginning III 1901,
when it co-operated with the United
States Agricultural Department and
the National Good Roads Association
in an expedition for building object
lesson roads in the southeastern Sec
tons of the country, is a consistent
part of the policy which aims at the
development OF its territory.
One of the most promising and graf
flying features OF Southern develop.
ment to-day is the activity displayed
by commercial bodies in promoting
road building in the country, assuming
part of the burdens in many instances,
and thus recognizing what has been
so long largely ignored-the mutual in
terest and interdependence of town
and country in one of the most import
ant movements Of tho time.