The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-06-07
THE NATIONAL ROAD HIGHWAY TO THE WEST Built By the Government Before the Days
 of Railroading.

 ordinary daring of George Rogers Clark, the young American republic, at the end of the Revolutionary war, found itself possessed of the vast and enormously rich region which lies north of the Ohio river and between the Alleghany mountainO and the Mis- sissippi. That region now forms the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michi- gan and Wisconsin.
 All the country was open to Ameri- can occupation and settlement. But under the life and travel conditions of that early time, possession was one thing and occupation and settlement were quite another. Bear in mind that there were not only no railroads, TO canals and no steamboats In those days, but in the mountains and west of them there were no roads, no bridges across streams, no facilities Of any kind for the journeying adventur- CT. He who undertook to penetrate the west must take his life i'll his hand, plunge into trackless wilderness, dare every sort of danger, and endure every kind of hardship.
 Tn order to make the journey at all the enigrant who sought to take his family into that region for the purpose of settling there must carry with hlm not only all the food and all the appli- ances of living which he was likely to need on the ourney, but enough besides to support his family in the wilder need on the journey, but enough besides lands could be cleared of their forest growth, fields made, and crops grown among the stumps of the giant trees. Indeed, emigration to the west was at that time so appalingly difficult and dangerous that wise man said that II a man had the courage to make his way into the west, there could be no danger anywhere great enough to daunt him.
 Yet from the first there were men and women and little children brave enough to dare these dangers and en- dure these hardships in the hope of bettering their condition and that of those who were to come after them. They were a hardy race, a resolute one -one worthy to found an empire, and to become the grandfathers and great grandfathers of those who have since made our west great by their energy, their sagacity, and their sturdy char acter.
 The one supreme need was of a highway over the mountains and through the wilderness that lay be- yofid; and the wise statesmen of that time set themselves to provide such a highway at national cost, satisfied that with road the rest of he work of na- on-building might safely be left to take care of itself in the hands of the energetic and all-daring emlgrants. Ever since George Washington in col- onial days had taken possession of Fort Duquesne, where Pittsburg now stands, he had urged the building of the great national highway He had himself blazed a pathway through the woods to the head of the Ohio river. He had helped in the building of what was known as Braddock's road to the Ohio. During his two terms as Pres ident he ceaselessly urged upon con- gross and the people the necessity of creating a great thoroughfare, not only over the mountains, but through the marvelously rich wilderness be- yond.
 Three years after his death his la bors began to bear fruit. The re- public was young then, and feeble, especially in it's finances. But the en- frightened statesmen of the time had caught George Washington's thought and adopted his ambition for the coun- try's future. He had taught them the great lesson that the western lands were a limitless mine of wealth and a limitless source of strength and glory to the republic.
 Accordingly, beginning as early as 1S02, a succession of laws was passed decreeing that part of the money re- ceived for western lands should be de- voted to the building of the badly needed highways over the mountains and into the west. The route decided upon was the shortest one that might connect the navigable waters of the east with those of the west-from Cumberland, Md, on the Potomac, to some point on the upper reaches of the Ohio. It was decreed that from the Ohio the national road should be extended as fast as possible west ward, to the Mississippi river, which was then for all practical purposes the extreme western boundary of the United States.
 This would open a way into the very heart of the woodlands of Ohio and Indiana and the prairies of Illinois It would facilitate and encourage emigra- tion westward and quickly convert that vast fertile wilderness into a re- zion of farms and homesteads, with villages for trade, schools in every neighborhood, and a rapidly growing population of stalwart farmer boys, who should stand ready not only to defend their native land with arms in case of need, but to bring to it's aid in the courts in congress and in state legislatures clear-headed statesman ship, honest minds and souls courage ous for the right,
 In 1911, and during the following four years the wisdom of this policy was abundantly justified by results. It was the western farmer boys who overeame the Creeks and Seminoles in the south, the hordes of Tecumseh and the Prophet at Tippecanoe, and the flower of the British army under Pax enham at New Orleans, thus saving to the republic the control of the Mis- sissippi and all the vast region be- yond.
 The plan was to make the national road broad one, after the manner of fla Roynans u-baco ar,,riro bniidipor