Democratic messenger. [volume] (Snow Hill, Md.) 1869-1973, 1905-07-01
GOOD ROADS IN FAVOR
Counties Everywhere Taking Advantage
Of New Road Law Engineers At
Work In The Counties.


State that the Commissioners of the va
rious counties have taken up, with very
few exceptions, the question of good
roads under the provisions of the Shoe
maker law in some form or other.
Meanwhile the highway engineer, Mr..
w. w. Crosby, and his corps of assist
ants have been as busy as possible pre-
pairing specifications for those counties
that have already applied for State aid
in the matter of building good, enduring
roads on basis of economy and eff
cheney. From the present outlook, it
would seem that next year, when peti-
tions will again be received for the
State aid which the Shoemaker law pro-
vides for every county, the Department
of Highways will have to keep the
"busy-day" sign continually on the out
er door,
DIR. William Bullock Clark. chief of
the Maryland Geological Survey, who
has general supervision of all the road
building in the State, said:
''The people of the State are fast
awaking to the fact that the poor con-
dition of roads, wherever they occur,
has not been altogether the result of
shortness of road appropriations, but
due, in part, to the manner in which
the money has been applied, and that
hn Of g.,
applied will in comparatively few years
guarantee system of satisfactory roads
which the outlay and toll of years has
failed to produce. The State-aid road
law has already aroused more than
ordinary interest, as is shown by the
many applications to the Maryland Geo
logical Survey for plans and estimates
of the cost of modern macadam roads.
which many of the boards of County
Commissioners purpose to make under
the new road law.
1.-The most earnest advocates of sci
entifically built roads have never urged
that a system of modern roads could be
secured at once, but it has been repeat
edly pointed out and demonstrated by
experience that a system of good roads
can be gradully and conveniently built
up by adding each year small pieces of
modern roads wherever the conditions
most demand Improvement AS an ex-
ample of the comparison between the
L. r..I
methods of the past and the results of
scientifically built roads, it has been
shown that had Montgomery county
spent one-half of the amount of money
its roads have cost in the past Is years
in the building of modern roads during
the same length of time, As miles of
good macadam road would now furnish
easy access to all the main points of
the county. But such is not the case.
'It has been shown also that should
the counties of Maryland take up the
total amount of State aid under the
Shoemaker law it would be possible to
build 1000 miles of modern, or State,
roads within 10 years enough to insure
easy traffic between all parts of the
State And the residents of the coun-
ties under the new law have the matter
entirely in their own hands, for they
know that by the pledge of two-thirds
of the property owners along piece of
road to pay 10 per cent. of the cost of
building the road commissioners of the
county can be forced to petition for the
allotted share of State aid Again, it
is well to emphasize the fact that the
Shoemaker law puts within reach of
the real producers in a community
very good thing at very reasonable
price to the county, namely, one-half
the actual expense.
Recent mention has been made of
movements in Montgomery, Hartford,
Prince Georges and Caroline counties
to take advantage of the State-aid road
fund. A number of the counties have
provided themselves with expert road
engineers to handle or direct most of
their work. Prince Georges county is
planning on a large scale; Hartford
county has actually begun some of its
work, and Baltimore county wants to
build mile of State road in each of its
Is districts.
Indigestion Cured.