Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1908-02-18
As to Our Roads.
Editor Democrat:
/ read in the Democrat recently that a

Editor Democrat:
read in the Democrat recently that a
portion of the state road, so-called, in
the town of Paris, had been changed by
the County Commissioners so that in
stead of running direct from the Norway
town line through South Paris village,
the pine woods, Pleasant Valley and
SHOWS Falls to the Woodstock line
above Trap Corner, it now takes the
highway over Paris Hill, by Long Look
Farm to Pleasant Valley near the
Luther Stone farm, and thence as be-
fore. Now this seems to any one not
interested to be foolish change, as 1t is
a much more billy route and harder
piece to build and keep in repair; and as
we suppose the object of the so-called
state roads was to create better through
highways between different portions OF
the state, we think that this object has
been lost sight of in making this change,
as any one familiar with the two routes
would invariably take the one first laid
out, as it is much more level.
In writing of our state road l cannot
help expressing the opinion that we
have made bad mistake in our method
of building a permanent highway. A
dirt road is better than sand road, and
a gravel road is better than common
dirt road, but best of all is the macadam-
lied or crushed rock road, and probably
cheaper in the end though expensive at
first. This seems to be the gist of all
expert opinion, and where tried it has
proved to be perfectly satisfactory, as a
good macadamized road when once
built needs very little repairing. Pro-
gressive towns are more and more tax
ing up this question and it will only be
settled by buying rock crusher and
roller and taking up road building in
the most scientific manner. This means
quite a large outlay at first but good
roads in the future. We have enough
material to cover all of our highways a
foot deep with crushed rock, and this is
a conservative estimate.
Our highways have been steadily
growing worse year by year, and the
man who su ffers most is the farmer who
has large quantities of produce to draw
to market. Poor roads mean heavy
tax on the farmers. Heavy grades
means drawing one ton where two could
easily be carried if the hills were cut
down, thus making low grades. At the
north end we have suffered especially
from steep grades, having two quite
steep hills in going to our railroad sta
ton at West Paris. A few years ago we
got a vote of the town to have those
bills graded, and the selectmen were in
structed to use as much money as they
deemed necessary for that purpose, but
like most of the work we have done on
our highways it was half-done and then
left.
1t is a well recognized fact that in this
town at least we had better roads under
the old highway surveyor system, be-
fore the advent of the machine road
builder, although this means nothing
against the efficiency of the road ma
chine, as there is no doubt that when
properly used roads can be built and re-
paired in making dirt roads cheaper
with a road machine than in any other
manner.
Ii seems strange that in the light OF
our twentieth century knowledge and
improvement, we have been progressing
backward in the matter of our highways,
a thing so essential to our advancement,
but SO it is. The enlightened nations OF
all ages have recognized the vast i'm
portance of having good roads to stimu-
late commerce and facilitate travel and
the. movement of troops. The roads
that the ancient Romans built in Britain
and on the continent, the magnificent
highways that Napoleon created in
France, Italy and over the Alps, prove
that they recognized the vast Importance
of having and maintaining good roads.
As have remarked, our highways
have been steadily growing worse, and
it certainly seems as if the climax was
reached last year, for our roads were the
worst we have ever known. One citi.
zen of an adjoining town remarked
that our main highway was not as good
as his cart road across his farm, and
that was not much exaggerated either.
1t is mistaken policy to try to get
along cheap one year, for whatever
cause, as it means increased expenditure
the next year. We need liberal policy
of expenditure of money on our high
way, whether we have high or low taxes
to pay, and have the road money wisely
expended. Z. E. FIELD.
North Paris.