Orange County observer., 1906-05-03
GOOD .
= ROAD S.
A w.steful Highway System.

Roads Magazine. 1t would pay the ma
tional debt; it would provide a navy
that the nations Of Europe and Asia
could not subdue; it would gridiron
the country from the Atlantic to the
Pacific and from Canada to the Gulf
with the best of macadam highways.
The money thus squandered in the
Eastern and Middle States alone would
macadamize every highway in general
use in those sections.
For the past IS to $50 years, accord
the practice every recurring spring to
''fix the roads, or work out the high.
way tax" This means the throwing
on of shovelful of gravel, or worse
yet, of loan, here and there, building
an occasional. water break or "thank-
you-marm," making a futile attempt
in some cases and in some places to
clean out the cutters, throwing out an
| offending cobblestone once in a while.
| The first smart summer shower un-
does the half of this clumsy patch
work and the following winter or early
| spring completes its destruction.
| A certain New England town has for
! the past 100 years appropriated an
! average of $1,000 per year for this al
legged maintenance of it's highways, and
as result it's road are no better than
| they were in the most remote memory
of its oldest inhabitant Quite likely
| they are no better than they were soon
| after the town was first Incorporated.
| A half million dollars practically vast
ed in one small town! This would
macadamiZe every necessary highway
! there. If permanent highway improve
ments had been inaugurated at the
outset, the towns valuation and popu-
lation would to-day have been doubled.
To compute what this perniciously
wasteful practice has cost the farmer
| and business man in wear and tear
would be impossible. Its responsibility
for wrecked vehicles, for crippled
horses, for broken harness, is incal-
culable. Little use to seek further
may be readily found in system that
has produced the worst possible high
ways at the highest possible cost.
1t is not that the poverty of the
farmer has made the system conse-
quence, but that the system has made
the poverty of the farmer a conse-
quence. True, good roads associa-
tions, the automobile, the bicycle, road
making machinery, scientific road
makers, and a somewhat awakened
public sentiment have done something
to cripple this recklessly wasteful patch
highway system. But it ought to be
dem olished root and branch.
Let the motto hereafter be: Every
thing for permanent highway improve
ment; not one cent for patch work.
Let one piece of solid, smooth and per-
manent highway be constructed every
year. and let the balance of the roads
rest without single penny of patch
work expenditure. Where this sys.
tenn of highway maintenance has pre-.
vailed for SO long the roads are bad
of course; but they can't be much
worse. Get the road roller, the rock
crusher, the grader and the scraper
let the expense be divided among two
or three towns if necessary. And be
| 1Ol stII d1O VI AS 1uiO uCOI W pun
chase them. Debt acquired for such q
purpose of economy and prosperity is
an incentive, stimulus, gain, a
blessing. 1t is laying up for rainy
day-for the time when there will be
no necessity for so much expense tc
keep the highways in repair and fol
the time when whatever that expense
ma. be, it will be borne easily an6
cheerfully by the prosperous farmer
way system.