The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1905-10-28
GOOD ROADS A PUBLIC BHNEFAcrIoN


GOOD ROADS A PUBLIC BENEFACTIoN
Articles have been printed from time to time
showing the cost Of bad roads to the country
and how good roads would annually save mil
lions of dollars to both producers and con-
sumers in the United States. But the value of
good roads does not rest upon money stand
ard alone. There are other and equally as inn
portant considerations. For several decades
the census figures show that the cities have
been increasing much faster in population
and Drawn from the farm is going to the cities
because Of the isolation of farm life. Man is a
social creature and If he can't get association
in one place he will seek it in another. The
wealth Of the nation depends largely upon the
farmers. They are the wealth.creators, and if
we would increase our farm products and i'm
prove the land we must keep our young men
at home, instead Of sending them to the cities.
The way to destroy the isolation Of farm life
now so discouraging to young men is to build
good roads. Many young people in the coun-
try are deprived of fair education because of
bad roads leading to the school houses, and
because bad roads render impossible the con-
soidation and lettering of the schools that are
accessible. Good roads would get more of the
boys and girls in schools and lessen the aver
age Of illiteracy in most of the states Of the
Union. Bad roads keep thousands from at
tending church and Sabbath school and thus
are bar against civilization and the spread of
the Christian religion. Good roads are needed
to make life desirable upon the farm, to in
crease the average Of intelligence by putting
people in close touch with the world and each
other, and for the advancement of education
and for Christianity.
How are we to have good roads? With the
burden of road construction and maintenance
thrown almost wholly upon the farming
classes our highways, as rule, are no better
than they were fifty years ago. Thus has time
and experience proven that local systems are
inadequate-are failures. We can have good
roads only when the expense of building and
maintaining them is somewhat equally dis
tributed. All the people contribute to the Ma
tional treasury. because the money in the treas
ury is largely derived from taxes on consump-
ton. National aid to good roads, as provided
in the Brownlow Latimer bill, promises the
only solution of the question and the solution
ofthe question is National obligation. Every
country on earth that has good roads secured
them by recognizing road building as a legiti-
mate function of government, and it is safe to
say we shall never have them in the United
States without the Federal Government leads
in the movement. If every citizen who favors
the Brownlow- Latimer bill would write per-
sonal letter to both bis Senator and Represen-
tive demanding support of the bill, it will be-
come law during the life of the 59th Congress,
soon to convene. Also write to your Senator
for copy of Senate Document No. 2O4 Fifty
eighth Congress, I'd session.
u. S. SENATOR RAYNER has placed
himself on record as a violent oppo-
nent of the Poe constitution nal amend
ment. He says: IT am utterly op-
posed to this amendment, with the
strongest convictions of my life
against the principles that itembodies,
and believe that its adoption would
bind the chains of political slavery
around this State, would sound the
death-knell of our political hopes and
aspirations in Maryland, and would
be as great a calamity as could posi-
bly, be inflicted upon our people.
This is my deliberate judgment, for
which no one else is in the slightest
degree responsible. This is the
prompting of my heart, the dictate
of my conscience and the result of as
patient an investigation as I have
ever devoted to any matter that has
fallen under my consideration.
ONCE MORE let US allude to the helpful hen.
The eggs annually produced in Kansas bring
in more money than wool does or than sheep
do and are greater earners of money than oats,
potatoes, barley, fax, sorghum or fruit crops.
According to the latest statistics the hens of
Kansas lay eggs worth s7,226,111, which is the
interest at per cent. for one year on s144 742,-
900. There are not many commercial interests
which have larger business than this. Be-
sides egg raising is not generally main indus
try and principal object, but is side issue
which occupies only the spare time of the
farmer or of the women of his family. To this
important addition to the States agricultural
income is to great extent found money" A
hint to the wise should be sufficient.
A SINGULAR thing occurred at Huntington,
Va, on the 10th instant. A well known stock
dealer named Col. William Simms was en-
gagged in game of poker with several friends.
The game was big one and considerable
sum of money was on the table. When the
dealer helped the hands Col. Simms drew one
card and, after looking at it, gave gasp and
fell back dead. The dispatch making the an
nouncement of the occurrence said: when
examined it was found that he clutched in his
stiffening hands what is known in card par
lance as royal flush, having the ace king,
queen, jack and ten of diamonds. The affair
created intense excitement"
JOHN NJ. SHIPPERS, the man who shot and
killed Hon. Albert Constable at his home
ucdr IIlkIOu, nuQ, last year, anu tucu AOUOS0
him of his gold watch, was hanged in the Jail
yard at Elkton, on Friday morning, Goth in
slant. He was a selfconfessed murderer ard
went to the gallows without once 6inching
Just before leaving his cell for the last time
Shippers wrote letter addressed to his mother
and sister in which he said: II send you this
to let you know that am perfectly happy,
for have made my peace with God. And
hope and pray to Him that He will grant us
that we may meet in Heaven"
AMONG THE last of the most prominent DEM
ocrats of Maryland to declare against the Poe
amendment is ex-Gov. William Pinkney
Whyte. He says: II have long since con-
tended that my time for appearing on the hus-
tings has passed. In private conversation
have had no hesitancy in stating my objection
to the Poe amendment to the Constitution,
which is now before the people, and my deter
mination to vote against its adoption, but
have persistently refused to make any public
addresses on the subject, although pressed by
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