The French Broad hustler. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1896-1912, 1905-02-09

as q sdSs' Ane e'eeHe W"
Sx4 omy in the expenditure Of
&6aeGG2 public funds that can be
practiced in any locality will never
succeed in making the tax gath
erer a welcome guest. This will be
true because to the mass he brings q
burden and q difficult problem in
finance. To a few his coming is re-
scented because they have no apparent
interest in either the betterment or the
decent maintenance of their home local
ity. Keeping these facts in mind it is
not difficult to understand that the task
of lettering the highway system Of a
State, county or town is no easy mat
ter, and that 1t is m in which the OBJ
stacles increase in proportion as the To-
cality to be improved is removed from
the centres of population and financial
activity. Therefore the honest advo-
cate of good roads, who hopes to sue
coed, must point these facts to the
farmer: that with care and intelligent
treatment a large mileage Of his home
dirt road system q be made to an
swer for years to come; that the only
help the good roads people require Of
the farmer is that he stone, gravel or
otherwise improve such mileage Of his
local highway system as cannot be sue
cesSfully maintained in its present
shape; and that his State stands ready
to-day to aid him financially in the
matter, or will in all probability be able
to do so before the adjournment of its
next legislative body.
The highway system which accom-
plishes the greatest good is the system
which is available for economical
transportation at ~ seasons of the
year. A highway system like the afore-
said is not infrequently the result of
an expenditure which would render
this same system an impossibility in
many farming localities; yet these To-
calities are to-day absolutely in need of
better roads in order that their citizens
may compete successfully.
Localities are not wiped from the
travellers map because the roads which
lead to them are not macadamized, but
they are left out because the roads of
dirt are improperly cared for. Through
lack of expenditure in permanent road
improvement or intelligent mainten-
ance of existing dirt roads how many
localities, directly in the line of profit
able and frequent road traffic, are abb
Solutely cut of because bad roads di-
vert the travel! The citizens Of the -af-
ficted community not only lose. the
probable commercial value Of this
traffic, but win the enmity Of the trav-
eler because their road conditions rob
him Of the opportunity to make his
journey in a direct and therefore eco
nOmical manner.
Not infrequently investigation will
show that the community which per-
mits the condition Of its road system
to stand as q barrier to it's own pro-
gross, and an element of unnecessary
expense to the traveller, simply main
tains that position because it's citizens
honestly believe that they have not
the financial ability to do otherwise.
In all probability that community had
estimates furnished as to the probable
cost Of improving its highways. These
estimates, when received, disheartened
the citizens Of that community so that
they have put. aside the question of
good roads as being for them an unat-
tainable blessing. Whereas, had they
fallen into the hands of really expert
road engineer, their money. no matter
how small in amount. would have been
invested in stoning the bad and direct
ing the treatment of the fair mileage
of their roads, and that community
would to-day have been on the map of
accessible localities. In the past the
crime of it has been that engineers who |
had had no particular training for or
in highway work were con-
suited as to these improvements; the
result was that they seemed to know |
but one specification for road improve
.ent, and that a specification which |
called for such an expenditure Of
money as rendered it impracticable in
four out of every five communities.
The necessities of our nation for bet
Ter roads, and the financial inability of
many of our farming districts to build
them, has forced and FASTENED, in the
work of road improvement, the same
severe economy in design and construc-
Ion practiced in other branches of en-
cheering, with the result that the road
engineer of to-day is not limited to one |
and possesses extended
knowledge of the treatment Of dirt
roads, and so applies it as to render
hem available until such time as the
funds can be raised for their perma-
improvement.
A decade ago the engineers who
handled road improvement insisted on
| uniform depth Of stone in a road i'm
'rovement plan miles in length, and
hiding its foundation on a hundred
md one different soil conditions. The
Dad engineer of to-day would consider
t quite as good practice to follow this
practice as it would be for a bridge
engineer to design a bridge truss with
III its members Of the same dimen-
ions. But the present road engineer
ng practice, sc schooled as to take adj