The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1906-06-28
HINT TO THRASHERS
REASONS THAT THEY SHOULD BE
HIGHWAY BUILDERS.

None More Eligible to Become Good
Roadmakers, as They Are General
Iy HustIers How Their Traction
Engines Can Be Used In the Work.
The following paragraphs are from
paper prepared for the southwestern
Transformers convention by State
Highway Commissioner HOrati1 5.
Earle of Michigan. Limits of space
forbid the publication of the entire pa
per, but the suggestion to thrashermen
TO go into the road building business is
an interesting proposition, says the
Good Roads Magazine.
Why good roads are wanted and
why they are needed by the owners of
farms, of factories, of mines and by
producers of any other material re-
quiring transportation can be given in
one wOrd-eliminatiOn.
The reason thrashing machines are
employed to separate the grain from
the straw is for the purpose Of eli.ni-
natiOn-that is, it is cheaper to thrash
this way than by the use of the fail or
beast stamping process, and so a por-
ton of the cost Of thrashing is done
away with and the money remains in
the hands of the grain producer.
There is no sentimental reason for
wishing to cut out a portion Of the cost
Of q, irtr Of +t1n -
simply righteousness, a very com
mendab.c quality in man if only
coupled in right proportions with the
Gollcn Rule doctrine
If it costs 50 to draw one ton to
market over Il bad road and only 50 to
when the road has been made good
.hcn the good road is the machine with
which to DO the thrashing- that is.
with which to eliminate a portion of
Tie cost Of transportation, provided it
doesn't cost more for the machine and
its repairs than is saved by its use.
Livery Lad road is a toll road. Al
though you may not be compelled to
drive unde:. shed and hand to an old
cripple yoJr cash before going through
TIE gate YET the toll is collected just
the sane by Cripple Mud or Cripple
Sand. who are found along the way.
They collect the difference between
the cost of transportation over a bad
roIl and over a good one, and this diff
ference is never less than One-half the
cost &C hauling over Il bad road. So a
farmer who hauls his produce to mar
het over a bad road if it cost him 500
a year to haul has paid $50 of this
amount as toll to Cripples Mud and
Sand.
No one is more eligible to become a
good roadmaker than the thraSherman.
In the first place he IS generally a hus-
tier. He has to be in order TO be sue
cessful in his business, for thrashing
doesn't last the year round, and he has
to be up and doing while it does last
If anybody obcys the old maxim,
Make hay while the sun Shines" it is
the thraShermGn. Next he has a trac-
ton engine whose power can be used
to pull the plow or grader, to haul the
stone and gravel and to crush the stone
and roll the road. He has the time, too,
in spring and early summer as well as
in the fal! to attend to this work.
Every dog has his day" and the
good roads day is here. The thrashcr-
man who gets a sample permanent
road to build and does it well with the
advice and help Of technical practi-
cal road builder will not only learn
| how to make good roads, but will Gre
ate sentiment for them which will
furnish him employment just as long
as lie continues to do well what he I'M
G2"5akes. He can work out the statute
labor for the taxpayer by hauling
| gravel with his traction engine, and as
soon as the taxpayer sees how much
| more good the gravel does than the
worn out earth that he has been scrap
ing out of the bitches year after year
and piling up in the center of the road
lie will not fail to get MI. Thrasher-
man Good Roadmakcr" to do his road
work for him every season.