New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1907-01-30
NEED or GOOD ROADS.
D As6rew ]. Eekstsia.

When the subject OF good roads is
brought up, the mind OF the average
Ioitizendetects in I'll boost for the auto
mobile and the bicycle, and humanity
has placed sort of embargo on sell
fishness for pleasure. Hence, while
admitting the desirability OF good
roads, many persons will condemn the
movement 1t contains that
covert threat OF the influence of the
iautomaton.
But let us get down to facts.
No matter how many lines of rail-
roads we may have, the great high
ways OF the land must still be the coun-
/ try roads. For every hundred miles
Of steel track, we have thousands of
miles of sod, or sand, or nicely graded
pixies. Over these are hauled the pro-
vender and part of the clothing
material of the nation.
The object of the railways is not to
act as capillaries of trade, but as
arteries. The minute vein system
must be, and continue to be, the coun-
try roads. This network of avenues
connects every farm, every forty-acre
| lot with the markets.
| It has been the custom to rate the
value Of a farm not entirely on the
quality of it's soil, for there is much
virgin soil that has little or no COM.
mercial value at all The thing that
counts most, and sometimes almost
wholly, is the distance the farm is
from the markets.
An agricultural community, that is
set back far from the beaten trails,
musthourish in proportion as it's roads
dictate. A well-made road means
quicker haul, and the measurement of
time has come to entirely displace the
measurement of space. There was a
period when we Judged the distance
from one town to another in miles.
Nowwe speak of it in hours or minutes.
81 am only forty minutes from the
heart Of the city, explains the bust
ness man in dilating upon the virtues
Of his suburban residence, or, in
telling the story of new suburban
addition, the realty man says, stem
minute service and q ffteen-minute
ride to Nieollet avenue. That is what
does the talking. It may be five miles
or two miles. That matters not. The
service of transportation is what tells
the tale. It places the price on the
lots, and takes more people out than
all other facilities combined.
The same principle is necessarily
operative in the country districts. If
the roadways make the haul only two
hours duration, and leave the wagons
and buggies in excellent condition; if
the roadways place no taxation on the
/ horses, then the community becomes
Idesirable-the profit in raising crops
increases, and the land rises IN value.
It is Just the same in mining districts
as it Is in farming communities.
There, however, we can get down q
little closer to figures. For example,
We will say that ore is worth $40 o
ton. That ore has to be hauled, at an
expense of s. a ton, some twenty miles
over miserable roads. The roads are
later put in such condition as to facili-
tate hauling, and the ore can be
hauled for $3.50 q ton. Suppose the
mine has opened $4,000 tons Of ore.
That saving, through the benefcient
fleets of good roads, means that the
mine increases in earning capacity
$75, 900, brought about maybe through
the expenditure to that one property
of only few hundred dollars.
Good roads, like good streets, make
habitation along them more desirable;
they economic time and force in trans
portation of products, reduce wear
and tear on horses, harness and vehi-
cles, and enhance the market value OF
real estate. They raise the value OF
farm lands and farm products and
tend to beautify the country through
which they pass; they facilitate rural
mail delivery and are a patent aid to
education, religion, and sociality.
Charles Sumner said: The road and
schoolmaster are the two most i'm
portant agents in advancing ciyiliza.
: tion., The difference between good
and bad roads is often equivalent tc
3 the difference between profit and loss
Good roads have a money value te
farmers as we'll as a political ane
social value, and leaving out convent
ence, comfort, social and refined in
fuences which good roads Away:
enhance, and looking at them onl.
from the almighty dollar side, the.
] are fnnnd To nav handsome dividend