The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-05-25
\ CONVINCING ARGUMENT.

CONVINCAN6 AH0uMENT.
 l The money value of good roads Is something that is difficult to estimate. because the benefits accrue in so many and various ways that one cannot well put valuation on them. And yet there are data which are too plain and convincing to be set aside. For ex- ample, the Cass County Qnd.) News re- ports that "the assessed valuation of an Indiana county has more than doubled within the past ten years. and one of the main contributing causes was the building of 100 miles of maca- dam roads
 This is kind of evidence that is con- vincing. If the lands are assessed at double their former valuation 1t is be- cause the owners consider them worth twice as much as they were before, the good roads were constructed. As The News further argues. 'Tnis is one of the most important subjects to which the people of . rural community can give their earnest attention, and it too l often receives the least. It is not question of politics. nor of sentiment, but one of dollars and cents that direct lily affects every citizen of the commit nifty. Of course, we are in favor Of good roads, and all are ready to go to I the point of 'resoluting' for them. but few take interest enough to suggest a practical plan whereby the roads them- | selves may be reached. and neither are there many who will lay aside any other duty or pleasure in order to at- | tend a good road meeting"
 That is all true. It Is difhcult, or has been in the past, to get up an in- terest in the subject. A man drives his carriage. buggy or loaded wagon on a good road and knows that he is benefited by the change from the old style of highway, but doesn't know or realize the money value of the change. When, however. he finds that the value of his lands has been materially in- creased and sees that his crops are more valuable because he can get them to market at less expense and in less time. then he can realize that he has been benefited by having a good road built by or near his home. It Is a kind of argument easily comprehended for 1t proves itself. To again use the language of The News. when the peo- pie realize fully the fact that their indifference is costing them many thou- sand dollars annually they will duit 'resoluting' and go to building roads" That, also. is true. We once read l of two communities each of which was in need of a new school building. The citizens of one would meet occasionally and resolve that they would build house. The other community held bone meeting, to arrange methods, and then went to work and built their house. So 1t is in the road building business The State and the county cannot do everything. Both are
 benefited by the increased revenues derived from an enhanced value of landa but the citizen is benefited in almost l every way. and he should join in the
 work of bettering the highways.
 Tn the latter part of April last the
 Interstate Good Roads Association held a convention in Baton Rouge. It pass
 ed resolutions not only recommending federal aid if it >cah be obtained. but
 also the employment or utilization of
 tramp, vagrant and short-term con-
 vict labor in building and keeping up
 the roads. Speaking on the subject The New Orleans Times-Democrat said:
 The system heretofore existing in
 many sections of the country, of re-
 quiring the citizen to work so many
 days each year on the roads or provide
 substitute for the work has proved
 to be a failure, its only excuse for ex-
 isting being that 1t was better than
 nothing. The tramps who use the
 roads of the country should be made to
 work for their improvement, and the vagrant can be kept out of mischief
 and made to earn his keep in giving 1 to the communities better ways of in- tercommunication. All that is neces- sary to secure the necessary improve
 ment in the roads of the country is a
 campaign of education among the peo-
 pie, which campaign has already aus
 piciously begun through the efforts of
 these good roads conventions.
 What our contemporary says of Louisiana applies with equal force
 here, at least in the black belt region
 of Alabama, where the soil is much like that in the rich farming sections
 of our neighbor state. Here, as there,
 the citizens. farmers as well as others. have to contend against the soft and
 adhesive soil that prevails during a great portion of each year, and here,
 too, all classes would be materially
 benefited by having good roads to
 travel over at all seasons It is a
 matter that appeals to all, for all reap
 the benefits. A campaign for good