The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1909-08-07

sitter being leader in the movement.
Our Old Dominion readers should
line up with the Virginia Good Roads
Association and they should also
write State Highway Commissioner
P. ST. j. Wilson, Richmond. Va, for
| expert advice before mapping out a
campaign. In North Carolina the
good roads movement is under the
direction of DR.. Joseph Hyde Pratt.
our aggressive and efficient State
Geologist Chapel Hill, n. c. Few
men are doing more for North Caro-
lima than he, and the last Legislature
placed such funds at his disposal that
he is now able to give more assistance
than ever before to communities wish
ing better highways and also wishing
to get them in the most economical
way.
Get Expert Advice.
One or two bits of counsel in re-
gard to good roads building cannot
be too often emphasized In the first
place, never proceed without expert
advice. In some of the sections of
the South the movement for better
highways has been set back a full
generation because of ignorance and
consequent wastefulness in the use of
road funds. Get your State Highway
Commissioner, your State Geo
logist or some official Of
your State Department of
Agriculture, to advise you as to what
sort of road improvement policy you
should advocate. Many counties are
too poor to build macadam roads as
yet, especially where stone for ma
cadamizing must be brought a great
distance. In such places the merits
and applicability of the sand-clay sys-
tenn should be considered. 1t is much
less expensive than macadam, and
in hundreds Of counties in the State
it is the best system than can be
adopted. And on all clay roads, the
spIit-lOg drag should be regularly
used.
Get Good Roads and Keep Them.
Getting back to the matter of ex-
pert advice, let us urge our readers not
only get expert advice about the ma
terial to use, but also get expert ad-
vice about the rearrans cement of the
roads themselves. Straighten them;
lessen the grades; run them entirely
anew if necessary in order to make
them Of the greatest service to the
people. It is folly to spend thou
sand of dollars in roads laid out by
calves and pigs.
And then, having good roads, keep
them. An expert of the United
States Department of Agriculture said
to- us last week: 1.-The people of the
United States spend more than any
other country to make good roads.
and less to keep them up" This has
been indeed one of our most con-
spicuous pieces of public folly. We
know county which voted several
hundred thousand dollars in bonds
not many months ago in which the
roads are now going to waste because
nothing whatever was voted to main
the roads after getting them-much
as If you should spend $500 to buy a
horse and then spend nothing to feed
him.
A Word About the Telephones.
So much can be said, and needs to
be said, about better schools and bet
ter roads that we have left ourselves
little space to consider the manifold
advantages of the rural telephone. We
have too often written of the social
| and business advantages of the tele-
phone, however. for us to need to en-
large upon this phase of the ques-
ton, and we expect soon to publish
'orne practical experiences from ou.
readers in managing rural lines Per-
haps the best thing we can now do is
TO give this estimate as to cost as
Given out by the general manager of
he Western Electric Company. He
says:
"A number of farmers decide to
huild, for their mutual benefit, a tele-
cone line. Each man agrees to cut
"cel and han! given number OF pole.
thirty poles abo"t 22 feet or 2J
feet long, are required for each mile
of lire. Pefore the poles--which arc
set IL the ground three and a hall
the end of eafh Of which is fastened
glass insulator, are nailed to the