The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1908-12-24
Published Weekly. 500 per
Annum IN Advance.
The Political Economy of Good Roads.

Poor roads impose an unnec-
essary financial burden, not only
upon those who most constantly
use them, but upon the men and
women who consume the pro
ducts grown IN the rural sections
and brought to cities and towns
by farmers.
No study can be more convinc'
ing than that of the economic
waste placed upon the shoulders
of the 85,000,000 people of this
land from the almost crlminally
shameful condition of 2,000,000
miles cf road. Every pound of
farm products brought from rur-
al sections to thickIy-populated
centers has placed upon 1t tctl-
uous value, because 1T costs the
farmer more to transport it than
it would cost HIM we're the roads
in passable condition. The price
of the lamb chop that Brooklyn
eats for breakfast is based, not
upon the real value of the lamb,
but upon the cost of bringing
that lamb from the western fields
to the Brooklyn breakfast table.
The cost of the breakfast roll
would be trifling did it not cost
the farmer who grew the wheat
from which the roll was made 1.8
cents a bushel more to draw that
wheat from his farm nine miles
to a railroad station than 1t cost
to carry bushel OF wheat from
New York to Liverpool, distance
of 3,100 miles. The cost of a
soft-bolled egg, which is also
closely related to the American
breakfast, Is established by the
cost of transporting the product
of the hen to the hotel, and not
because the egg was at all lntrln-
sically worth what was charged
for 1T.
Everybody who thinks must
cOncede the evident fact that If a
farmer with two horses can draw
but 600 pounds TO market IN five
hours, he. would save money II
with one horse he could haul Il
200 pounds In two hours. We're
the roads in good condition, he
could do that and more. Any
saving in hauling ton of farm
product would bring benefit
not alone to the farmer, but u
the consumer, and if the produc'
hauled each year was large, it II
not hard to figure that the say
ing would be large. Figure
have been Assem- bled to prov
that owing to the frightful condl
ton of almost all American roads
it costs 25 cents ton mile +
haul. The superb roads Of tn
old countries of Europe make pos
sible the hauling Of farm pre-
ducts at II cents ton mile
Therefore, every ton hauled cost
the American farmer 13 cent
more per mile than the farmer
of the old country are forced t
lay. The average length of har
of farm products in the Unite
States IS 9 A miles; therefore
were our roads as good as thos
of France, the farmers gal
would be 9 4 times 10 cents, {
approximately $l.23.
Let us see what that amount
to IN a year IN hauling but a po
ton of the products which trs
verse the country roads in wal
ons. The U. S. Department
Agriculture, through It's Office
Public Roads, has collected ii
figures. and they may be accep
ed as approximately accurat
During the crop year of 1905
IS, ,4S7, 100000 pounds Of far
products. consisting of barle
corn, cotton, haxseed, hem
hops, oats, beans, rice, tobacc
wheat, and wool, were haul'
from the places where they or
ginated to shipping points. Th
vast weight did not, by al
means, include all OF the cro
produced. the most notable g.
ceptlons being truck produc
and orchard products, the TO