River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1907-09-19
GOOD ROAD A cIvlLIzER.
Why the Improvement of the High
ways Should Be Encouraged.


Civilized nations have good roads
Savage nations have no roads. Prob
ably the road is the greatest index or
civilization. The communities living
in savagery do not desire intercourse
with other communities and do all
possible to make intercourse difficult.
A nation must be well advanced in
civilization before it undertakes the
building of roads. We do not have
to go back many thousands of years to
find the Caucasian race living with
out roads and depending on trails in
the fields and forests.
One of the great drawbacks about
country life has been its isolation.
This isolation has been rendered more
intense by the badness of the roads
which have kept families apart. They
have not only kept the families from
visiting, but by making progress slow,
have compelled tho men hauling loads
to town to consume twice as much
time as was necessary. This extra
wasted time has to come out of some
place and that place has to be the
time that should be devoted to socia-
bility. The years of time that are
wasted pulling loads over muddy
roads is a great obstacle in the path
of civilization. The lost time is such
a factor that the farmer in commune
ty of poor roads must spend most of
his time in drudgery to make UP for
it.
Fortunately now there is move
ment all over the country to improve
the roads and to reduce them to a
condition of permanent hardness.
This is a movement in the interest of
civilization. The good road will do
more for civilization than almost any
thing else The road that the farmer
had to take two hours to traverse can
now be traversed in one, where the
roads have been improved.
If we mistake not the general move
ment, the United States government
will in the near future do much more
for the construction of roads than 1t
has ever before done. In the recent
sessions of congress there has been
much talk and some action in this di-
rection. 1t is evident that the ma
tional government can build inter-
state roads for military purposes II for
no other, and we may expect to see
some such roads constructed. Every
mile of such road will be civilizer
and stimulus to the communities
to build good roads.
1t is impossible for nations to have
good roads while the populations are
sparse, but as soon as the populations
become dense the relative cost or
building is reduced. The population OF
this country has now reached the
point where it is feasible to construct
roads throughout the length and
breadth of the land.
Every dollar spent in the construc-
ton of good roads is dollar spent in
the interests of higher civilization.
The good road opens the school to the
use of the pupil and increases the av-
erage attendance The good road
makes it possible for many child to
| obtain an education that otherwise
would have half of one. The good road
increases the attendance on the
church and on every other religious
and social agency.
In some sections we hear of the
farmers opposing the construction of
good roads. But, declares the Farm
ers' Review, that is only because in
their case the cost is so great that
they do not believe the demand justi-
fies it. There is such thing as put
ting in a too-expensive road. What
would be the right kind of road for
one place would be the wrong kind of
road for another place. Circumstances
alter cases. Every community is in
telligent enough to settle the matter
of details for itself. Every community
is not, however, awake as to the value
of good roads and this is Why such
articles as this appear. The matter
should be everywhere agitated in the
interests of a broader and grander civ
| ilization.