The Rice belt journal. (Welsh, Calcasieu Parish, La.) 1900-19??, 1908-04-24
| farmers EDUCATIONAL
AND
COOPERATIVE union
OF AMERICA -
PRACTICAL ROAD THOUGHTS.
Why Not Put the State Convicts tc
Binding Public Roads,

Building Public Roads?
The American farmer is today con-
fronted with no more serious econom..
ic question than that of good roads
Everything he touches is affected nv
the roads, and all the additional cost
involved in the poorer TRANSPORTATION
facilities must ultimately come ont of
the farmers pockets. We regret that
the following clipping has come to us
without credit, for it is a very yalua-
bic contribution to the good roads lit.
erature Of this period and should fur
nish some rich food for thought to the
members Of thR Farmers Union:
The farmers Of Illinois have assO-
cations looking to the betterment of
highways, but up to date they seem
to have missed the most vital point
in an intelligent agitation.
Convict labor will reduce the initial
cost of good roads to a point where
the tax on local communities would
be almost unnOticeable. The States
cooperation in the building of good
roads is essential. This cooperation
msS take either Of two forms or both
cash appropriations or convict labor.
Some progressive Eastern States
like Massachusetts, cooperate wit
county authorities in road building by
liberal cash appropriations, They
stimulate local efforts by meeting the
initial expense half way. The result
is a system of good roads that shames
less progressive States.
Not until within recent years has
there been an organized attempt to
improve Illinois roads by State super
vision. Even now the State appro-
priatiOns for this purpose are so small
that the road commission can only
point out evils without remedying
them. The roads Of Illinois are
browning disgrace to the third State
in the Union.
Farmers shy at the initial cost of
building good roads. Then why do
they not insist that their legislators
shall aid them by the employment of
convict labor? The latter will not in
crease anybody's taxes. Bad roads
cost Illinois farmers far more every
year than any other single item of
expense, direct or indirect.
Bad roads are a direct tax on agri-
cultural industry, They add to the
cost of hauling every bushel of grain
or other farm product to market
They isolate the farmer and his family
during certain months of the year.
If the farmers would tax themselves
for every dollar that good roads might
cost they would gain financially by
every outlay. But such tax is unnec-
essary They should demand the utili-
cation of the States supply of prison
labor
The perfect roads Of European
countries have all been built by the
cheapest forms Of labor. They are
maintained in most cases at govern
ment expense and under direct gov
eminent semi-military supervision.
Even in the United States we have
scattered object lessons as to the pos
sbiIities of convict labor in building
good roads. Southern convict labor
built the almost perfect roads around
Lookout Mountain. Some of the
Southern States use this form of labor
to the exclusion of general taxation for
road purposes.
Illinois, with a population only eX'
ceeded by New York and Pennsyl-
yania, has many prisons where the
convicts work at various forms or
contract labor. The States proht
from this labor is of far less impor-
lance to the general public than would
be the building of a system OF good
roads. The latter, as a permanent IN
vestment, would pay increasing diVi-
dends and swell the agricultural rlches
of the State.