The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-01-29

great public utility tndL naS ever been tried. It means that the people have at last realized the ineficiency and extravaganza which has charac- terized the management of the most valuable and useful class of property that they own in common. It means reform in the methods which have been tolerated for more than a century of national growth. These methods have involved a direct annual loss in the United States of from $6,000, ,0OO, ,0G0 to sS,0O,O00,0OO year after year, and their indirect blight upon education, progress. and public spirit has ben in- calculable
 When the pioners rolled back the wilderness, they followed the water courses and the trails made by the moccasioned feet of the Indians. The settlers maintained these trails, cut I ting new roads as occasion required. These pathways were cut to meet the needs of the present without regard for the requirements of the future. They led the wayfarer over hills and through sWamps or tracts of shifting sand. The winter frosts undermined them and the spring thaws converted them into impossible stretches of mud. The autumnal rains washed them away and the snowdrifts blocked them to traffic. For two or thre months each year in all the Northern States the farmhouse which depends upon these roads, for communication with the rest of the world was cut off all most as effectually as though its oc- cupants had been marooned upon a desert island. Every wear In the spring and fall the farmers were compelled to turn out to repair the ra- wages of frost and rain, clumsily re- storing the roads so that they might get their crops to market
 To do this they were compelled to neglect their own tasks in the busiest seasons of the year, and as the popula- tion increased, millions of days of work were expended anually upon the roads. The result at best was make shift. Tremendous effort, ignorantly directed, produced miserable tracks, heavy with mud and sand and render ed still more difficult by step grades. Bad as these costly roads were, the farmer was fortunate if ghe was able to use them for nine months in the year. Then came the frosts and the rains, and the work was all to be done over again. These primitive conditions were established when the country was settled, and they have existed ever since. Of all the roads in the | United States only nine per cent are good, while ten per cent are passable and eighty-one per cent are bad,
 It has been estimated that the labor system of caring for the roads caused waste of $10,00O,O0O,000 during the last century. The work was done un- der the supervision of salaried officials chosen by the voters These men were usually ignorant of the most elemen- tary principles of road building, and the elections tended to place the most incompetent men in charge The official who compelled his neighbors to contribute the full value of their tax in the form of labor was certain to pIONG uilpOpuldlt dllNl III lllC llNNA NlSI- tion a man would usually be replaced by some rival who was willing to per- init the work to be done in a slovenly and inefficient manner. Rotation in office prevented any road official from learning much about road improve ment and maintenance. and the most incompetent officials were likely to re- main longest In office. Every taxpayer tried to do as little as he could on the days when he was working out his tax, which was measured in days of work instead of in accomplishment. Thus the labor system" directly en- couraged incompetence and shirking.
 According to the United States cen sus. New York State has 24.0O00.000 acres of farm land, and about 100000 tons of produce of all kinds are hauled annually over the wagon roads of the State The average haul is six miles and the average cost is twenty-six cents ton for each mile. The aver age cost of hauling ton over the good roads of European countries is ten cents a mile. In other words, the pro ducers in New York State are paying premium of sixteen cents mile upon each ton moved over the high ways for their negligence In allowing the roads to remain in bad condition Upon the entire traffic of 10000, GOO tons the annual loss is $S3, 100000 year for the average haul of six miles, The average product of farming land is half a ton to the acre, so that the bad-roads tax upon farm products ir the State is $1152O000 a year, The advocates of road improvement argue that the saving of this waste would enable the Eastern farmers to reentel the markets and would repeople thous. ands of abandoned farms.
 Some of the more progressive of tho railroad managers have joined the goodroads movement on the theory that its success vii increase the freigh shipments by stimulating production The widespread introduction of motol vehicles has aided the agitation, be- cause they cannot be used over hat 2 roads.-Appleton' Magazine,
 UNBURYING A CITY.
 Herculaneum, the rich and splendid