Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1906-03-01

Now if Mr.. Clement can only lil
secure the governorship and CD hoiu
it until he has the state 'gridironed
with trunk roads that have been buii'
from the savings and haven't cost any
thing, he will be desperately busy ior
at least a couple OF years to come.
Trunk roads cost money, and lots
oft. Five thousand dollars mile
isa't an excessive estimate. To "grld-
non' Vermont would cost several mil
lion dollars, and il done only as fast
as the work could be carried on with
reasonable economy would take-weH'
rather longer than the two years Of
Percy's term-it he gets in.
But be says be win bond Vermont
for the necessary means, and pay the
interest with the savings he will intro
duee. so that good roads may come
right away. He has it all figured out
He is as nimble as the immortal Col
sellers with "fggers.'
But will he bond Vermont for mil
lions with which to build trunk roads
win he? Perhaps Vermont will have
something to say about that.
Vermont has always had a good,
old-fashioned habit Of paying her bills
as she went along.
She has never ornamented the state
shield with the seal of a mortgage
deed.
And she has seen times when she
needed money. right badly, too.
There was the Revolutionary period,
when she really hadn't anything she
could put up If she had wanted to, SO
she seized the goods OF Tories and
sold them for the powder and ball that
won the fight at Bennington.
Then there was the Rebellion period,
when Vermont voted heavy subsidies
to her soldiers and equipped them Tor
the field.
There have been times, too, when
crops have failed, when hard times
have come, when panic has prevailed
in business.
But through it all Vermont has come
to the very present without dollar of
bonded debt to weigh her down, or to
rest as a burden upon her children at
their birth.
Isn't it rather unlikely that our little
state will 90 back now on so good a
record and saddle an enormous inter-
est bearing debt upon herself in order
TO build Percy Clements trunk roads ?
Trunk roads, is it? Nice things. no
doubt-in way. Very sleek for long
auto spins by summer visitors and
tourists. But of what practical value
TO the mass of our people2 II you are
travelling two hundred miles, would
you take trunk road and drive. or
would you take the cars? DO you,
Mr.. Voter and Mr.. Taxpayer, think
that the few trunk roads that would
ever be really built under this plan in
some distant part OF the state would
amount to a pinch OF snuff to you,
where you live and travel about, and
do most of your business
Good roads. better roads, the best
possible roads to be had with the
means at Communicates everybody
wants just as soon as they can be had.
But the roads wanted are not kings
highways built on some squirt, or
high-fnance plan, with all the good
taste taken out of the mouth by an
enormous debt, but roads bettered and
improved tina. reach out their tiny
webs over the length and breadth of
our state, serving all the people in
their daily needs.
1t is better that one thousand miles
of road should be improved ten per
cent IN one year, ana one hundred per
cent in ten years, with all bills paid,
than that one hundred miles of road
should be bettered one hundred per
cent in one year, nine hundred miles
not improved at all, and debt
shouldered, the effect OF which no one
can ioresee.
If Percy can save anything to the
state, we suggest CD that he let the
people in on the saving, and (2) that
if he can't or won't do that, that he
lind some more feasible, reasonable
and warranted use for the money than
building trunk roads with it or using
it to pay interest on huge bonds sold
for building trunk roads.
Peculiar to Himself