The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1908-01-16
LEGISLATIVE WORK THAT IS
WORTH WHILE.


Governor Crothers could not possibly
have chosen a better subject to put to
the front at Annapolis than that of pre-
viding the State with system of good
roads. The time is ripe for making a
new step forward in this direction. Men
OF intelligence and public spirit, in every
part OF the State, have become familiar
with the fundamental ideas of the suit
ject, and are ready to follow them ur.
These fundamental ideas are, first, that
good roads are not matter of min,
Importance, but are essential to Il
welfare and progress of civilized COM
munity; and secondly, that good roads
cannot be obtained by any haphazard
and patchwork method, but only as tie
result Of systematic work, planned and
carefully executed under expert direc- |
ton. 1t was in recognition of these |
things that the Shoemaker bill was
passed, providing for State aid to coun-
ties in the making of good roads, sub |
Ject to the approval and supervision of |
the Highways Division of the Sta
Geological Survey; and what Govern r
Crothers now contemplates, and Il e
resolution brought forward by Messrs.
Benson and Williams seeks to promote, |
IS greatly to enlarge the scope of the |
States good roads work, and, in pa T.
ticular, to provide for the construction
of main arteries Of travel at the ex-
pense Of the State without cooperation
of the counties.
The only difficulty about..the good |
roads proposition is that of getting I'M
imaginative people to realize how much |
1t means to the community. The max
ing of fine, smooth road-one that re-
mains a fine, smooth road in rairy
weather and in drought, instead of
alternating between mud and dust-is !
missionary work of the highest order.
That IS makes lOcomotion and transpor-
tatlon easier and cheaper, that it saves
wear and tear of vehicles and horse |
flesh, is only its first and not its most |
important effect. 1t is moral and !
physical tonic to the whole populati, n |
OF the countryside. 1t turns sloth and |
untidiness into activity and neatness.
1t stimulates people to care for the an
pearance of their fences and their front |
yards, and even their houses, who care d |
nothing about these things when tie |
road IN front of their places was I'M !
kempt and Notwithstanding, mudhole |
after every rain and a breeder of |
cyclones of dust during every drought.
And the beauty of it is that this change
OF spirit is contagious. Not everybody
is conVertc d at once, but some one per-
son IN a neighborhood has his ambition
stirred by the improved look and feel
OF the road, and mends his fences and
paints his house and improves his
grounds; and then another and another
and another follows his example. The
movement to convert the main roads of
Maryland into fine modern highways is
movement to put new blood. new life, |
new prosperity, into the whole popula-
ton of the State.
1t is most encouraging sign of the
times to find this sort of thing coming
to the front at Annapolis. 1t is begin
ming to look as if we were outgrowing
the idea that the machinery of govern
ment is chiefly means of grinding out
favors for some man or clique or party.
We are very far from the millennium
still, no noubt; and there will be devel-
opments in the Legislature of a verv
different kind. The hunger and thirst
of the professional politicians and their
hangers-on is not thing that can be
disposed of in the turning of a hand.
But nothing is better calculated to
keep all that sort of thing within bounds
than the spectacle of other work going
on that the people will realize as being
the real work that Legislatures and
Governors and Mayors and City Coun-
ellis are created to do. People will be
less likely to tolerate the degrading
squabbles of spoilsmen when thew are
reminded by concrete examples of the
kind of thing that they have right to
look for, the kind of thing which really
touches their interests.