Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1904-02-20
STATE FINANCES
AND GOOD ROADS
Hon. Percival w. Clement III
Rutland, VT, before the Ci'i-
zenS of Windsor, Feb. >, 1904.

Rutland, VT, before the Citi-
zens of Windsor, Feb. >, 1904.
Much has been said and written the
last few years about n greater YER
mont" and n new Vermont II seems
r., me that these terms are misleading
Vermont IL growing old like all OF us
1t contains 1856 square miles, II Is
bounded by other states aud Foreign
nation, all jealous of their own pres
tige. /, IL the most arrant nonsense I"
talk about Greater Vermont Vermont
never can be any greater, but 1t can he
and ought to he made very much better
M n place of residence. In the last "
years our population has only Increased
about $4,000, and that mostly within the
last ten years. We never shall better
our condition by simply listening 10 tax
about Greater Vermont or dreaming ~
its future greatness. Let M stop u!
talking OF Vermont, trying to uhra'ei
the fringe of vivid lima gination, ana
begin tn saw wood. II is time thGt We
began TO do something. II Is time for
action rather than for words, IL we
would benelil Vermont.
RETrER FACILITIES FOR TRANS
POWTATIO\.
I'm my opinion there is no one thing
that we need at this time more than ht,,
ter facilities for communication ana
| transportation. We have got two main
lines of railroad running through the
| state north and south. on either side ut
the Green mountains. which giv" rs
| good accommodation of that Kind. ana
| the COS, of transportation for freight ana
! passcEgers on those lines Of road has
| been steadily reduced since their con-
struction. hut our wagon roads have
| stood still for 100 yearN--nO, quite as
many Stumps in them now as then. bnt
| they were dirt roads 100 years ago ana
| they are dirt roads now.
! WAGON AND RAILROAD TRANS
PORTATlON.
| The cosr of transportation in this
| country on railroads is ah"" n'zo''-
! nnn ooa rcr ouuuiH,
! The estimated cost Of transportation
| on wagon roads is $4,000 GOO.
/ The cost of handling Il ton Of freight
per mile by railroad is considerably less
than half Il cent.
| The cost of handling II ton of freight
| by wagon road is 25 cents in this coun-
try. We cannot. of course ever expect
to handle freight ms chcnply by wagon
as py Eull l'VI we Gun ltuuNU
the cost of wagon transported ton very
materially In Europe the average cost
of transportation of one ton one mile by
| wagon is IL lI2 cents, or just One-half
of the cost in this country. If, how
ever. we had throughout this country
well surfaced mncadamized roads, as
exist in Europe, we would save IL w
wagon, which would mean Il saving to
tile country of Si5O.00O, 900 per annum,
Just about half of our national debt.
Think of what that would mean to the
farmer. to the merchant. 10 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 at earh other about the beau
ties Of Vermont suppose we go to work
| and build few lines of macadnmize,l
wagon roads from our eastern to our
? western borders across the mountain
ranges. BY good roads ! mean sOme-
ttIng better th""a dirt or gravel road.
i i'r"Ke', .c, stones rolled into place with
surface by top dressing is me faroatl
which Is accepted In this country and In
Europe as being the best surface for
permanent roadway. This style Of road
is called "macadam." taking its name
from M engineer who strongly adv0-
hetef nit far e. P"EMan"nt ROADWAY. T.
showing the advantages of such con-
structiOn of such roads.
ACROSS MOUNTAIN TRAVEL
DIFFICULT.
Now IL a man in Bennington wants to
60 to BrattlebOro or Bellows Falls tie
easiest way for him Is to go down into
ia otn to ~ NaSlaclpsatts n rnnnl
by Greenfield and come up the Connect
lieut. river valley. 1t Is practically q
days trip. II there were good mac
adamized road kept n r""a condition ti,'a
every sv ,r1 e 'e 90 year mies w Ian w %oad
pair of horses In four hours or with an
automobile, which is the coming means
of transportation through the country.
iE less than two hours; and think what
such II road as that would mean to all
of the farmers and manufacturers and
all people living on the line Of 1t,
HAULING LOADS.
On present roads farmer living six
or eight miles from Bellows Falls, IL
this is his market IN good weather, can
make one trip n day with pair Of
horSc:. and load of ION or u ton
able conditions two tons; but there are
many days in the year when his road Is
practically in,sassablc for Il team with
more than half II ton Suppose that he
had II 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 II would increase the
value of MI property located OH the lines
Of such good roads.
THE ESTIMATED COST.
We cannot have these roads In Il mo-
ment. 1t will take time and cost large
amount Of money to build them. We
must have surveys and plans made and
the work of construction should 90 fOr-
ward upon some well defined plan. |
estimat tie that it will cost 5000 Il mile
to build Il thoroughly good macadam-
ICED highway 16 feet wide. and when
built such road requires the minimum
of expense for maintenance. Each road
then, should we build across the state,
will cost approximately quarter of a
million of dollars. OF course the towns
through which such road would run
could not afford to build 1t. That would
be too much Of burden and particu-
larry for the poorer mountain towns. In
other states where permanent roads
have been built. the state has borne
from one-half to twO.thirds of the cx-
pense, and the balance has been as.
sessed upon the towns l don't know
Just what proportion, il any, the tow
tion. That would he worked ont by n
1A.-s lN I.NaA t.