The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1906-10-12

,ne farmers. the very class OF pev-
pie who should be most deeply in
terested in such questions.
Even on these prairies a slight i'm
petus was given to the good road
movement by the adoption of the BIZ
cycle. The use of the bicycle has
somewhat died out as a recreation
among people of wealth, culture and
education, and as a consequence the
use of 1t has ceased to be so much of
factor in the creation or preserva-
ton of good roads.
The automombile has been more
than substitute as an incentive to
interest in the subject of good roads
everywhere among that class of peo-
pie who are known as "hustlers"
and who make things get along
some" when they want to obtain any
desired object. The probability is
that a dozen automobile enthusiasts
in any community will do more in
accomplishing the creation and pre-
servation of highways presenting a
smooth, round, hard surface and few
difficult grades at all seasons of the
year than 500 farmers, although the
latter should be more strictly inter-
ested in the same problem. But the
farmers seem to lack organizat ton
and Just how to go about 1t to obtain
the objects desired or else they real
ly have not considered the subject
enough to get enthusiastic over 1t.
In other words, think the diffusion
of the automobile throughout the
country is going TO be the principal
factor in the furtherance of the
Sbvement in favor of good high
ways.
OF course a campaign among the
farmers ought never to be neglected.
They use the roads more than any
other class of people, and good roads
are more vital problems with them
than with any other class. Those in
terested in the subject of good roads,
therefore, ought never to neglect an
opportunity to hammer away at the
mass of the people on the subject
and convince them by every possible
means that the problem of good
highways for pedestrians, horsemen,
bicycles and automobiles is one OF
the most essential factors in the up
building of the wealth and property
of the country. / think instruction
on the subject ought to be given in
public schools. and especially in the
country schools, so that every boy
might understand how important, in
a commercial way, this subject is
and how to go about it to improve
the local condition of the roads in
his immediate neighborhood.
The demonstration by machines,
etc, of the making of good roads by
special trains going through the
country and stopping here and there
in different localities is, of course,
an excellent proposition, but it would
take a century if this were the only
means to accomplish anything in the
way of results. The country is too
vast.
The agricultural department puts
out large quantity of literature on
that subject which is accessible to
any one having interest in it and
who will send for it, but very few of
the class of people whom it is de-
sired to reach know about it or will
take the trouble to send to the de-
partment for literature. Instruction
upon the subject ought to be forced
upon them through the columns of
70 NO i
popular magazines which are every
where reaching the homes of the
western farmer at this time. No po-
litical speech, Fourth of July grafton
Memorial day address or ThanksgiV-
Ing sermon ought to be considered
or allowed to be delivered unless It
contained a good rousing paragraph
or two on the right side of the good
roads movement