The Richmond palladium. (Richmond, Ind.) 1906-1907, 1906-09-03
WHY GOOD ROADS PAY
MAKE LAND VALUABLE AND CREATE
HIGH AVERAGE INTEIliGENCE.
striking INSTANCES Of Importance OF
Having Improved Highways Told
by an Arkansas Nan-Serious Effect
of Rad Road Tax on Farmers.

| at L ort smith, H. T. Kelley. according
/ 10 the Goods Roads Magazine, spoke
on Good Roads-Nhy They Pay"
| saying in part as follows:
| Roads are the foundation OF civili-
cation. They form the means of COM
munication between people. and there
/ is no better index of the intelligence of
any community than its roads. Good
roads pay. They make high land val
ues, and in time they create high aver
| age intelligence in the country through
| which they are built. Perhaps no bet
ter example of this can be found than
| IN New Zealand. where the general
| government undertakes the building
and care of all roadside railroads as
| well as the wagon roads. The country
| of New Zealand is much Ike that OF
Arkansas, but the government adopted
| a development policy which is very
| effective and highly profitable. One of
the main lines of business conducted
by the government of New Zealand is
in real estate. It acquired by purchase
| or condemnation large tracts of land.
| The first thing in the way of develop
ment was a highway built through the
| property. Along this the government
Sells OuI ~ SCiliEiS oil AoAA% NAAAiC am
easy payments land in suitable sizes
| for farms and homes. The settlers on
| this land are first given employment
| by working on the roads. After the
roads are in good condition the popula-
ton comes quite rapidly, and il is as
| tonishing what that government Is ac-
complishing in spreading its people out
on the soil. There IS no congestion of
| the population in cities. Each citizen
| is encouraged to get home of as many
acres of land as he can take care OF,
| and the result is a population whose
general intelligence and comfort are
greater than l have seen elsewhere.
THAT good roads pay is a generally
conceded fact. and it has seemed
strange 10 me that an argument on this
subject should be needed. 4 visit TO
any of the rural districts Of Arkansas
is convincing proof that an argument
is required, for the good roads are not
there and cannot conceive OF a great
err contrast than that which the squalor.
poverty and ignorance displayed in our
rural districts make with the intelli-
gence, cleanliness and comfort one sees
in New Zealand rural district. l think
this difference is more due to the roads
than to any other cause. Whether the
lack of roads breeds ignorance or
whether the ignorance breeds the bad
roads is a subject l will not undertake
to discuss. At any rate, both exist to
such an extent in our state that our
first patriotic duty is to either dispel
the ignorance in procuring the roads or
procuring the roads TO dispel the ig-
norance.
II recently purchased a piece of land
near Fort Smith past which ran two
good roads recently built. This land
was timbered. but the timber had been
rated an incumbrance on the land. In
fact, it hadn't been profitable to steal
it and haul it to town, which fact prob
ably accounts for its still being there.
had lot of this timber cut and put a
ather intelligent person looking for a
disposal of 1t. Some time later i was
surprised when he told me that it was
sold at a net price, after paying for the
hauling, which would more than pay
for clearing the land. On looking into
this / found that the good roads made
1t possible to haul a cord or more at a
load of this wood to market and make
about four loads a day, whereas before
the good roads were built two loads OF
one-half cord each Were all that one
team could do. 1t cost 50 cord to
haul this wood before the good roads
were built and 70 cents cord after
ward In other words, the wood was
worth 1925 per cord after the roads
were put in, while it was absolutely
worthless before. l find that the diff
far IN ft.o Of ha. in. ton, OF
hay to market before and after the
good roads for distance of seven miles
is about So One Of my farm teams
over the bad roads will bring n ton OF
hay to town In a day. Over the good
roads they will bring three tons, SO
the product of q meadow of 100 acres
is worth about $500 more with a good
road to it at seven miles from town
than it is with bad road Before this
good road was built the meadow was
worth SO per acre. Since it is built
$50 seems a reasonable price for it
81 have found by actual experience
that the tax the farmers are paying
which keeps them poverty stricken is
that imposed by bad roads. For many
years l tried earnestly to locate an in
dustrious class of farmers in this coun-
ty. On different occasions / did sue
ceed IN getting several such colonies
started. None Of them remain. Usu-
ally they We're n hardy class of Ger
mans such as settled the prairies ami
states to the north and west of us.
One by one they would sell out and go
back to the prairie country. On close
questioning / would find that the lack
of roads and schools was so great these
people wouldn't stay. The country
they came from had tax three times
as large as ours. In fact. many of the
school districts in Kansas where they
had lived levied a school tax much
greater than our total tax. and ii was
not unusual for the total tax 10 be per
cent IN the counties from which these
German settlers came. They would
try it q year or two in our country Of
bad roads and low taxes. then sell out
and return TO the per cent tax rate.
Good city streets pay just as well as
good country roads. and It is almost