The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1909-02-04
SUBJECT OF GOOD ROADS
Roads of South Dakota Handled in
q Splendid Manner and Showing
What Must be Done.


in this state. He has had consider
able experience and has given much
study to the question of good roads
and has ~endeavored to secure some
legislation for the roads in the state
legislature. His paper is an interest
ing n and is given in full as fol-
lows:
Roads are a measure of civiliza-
ton.
The food supply of the world pass
es over our wagon roads.
The tonnage on our country roads
far exceeds hat of the railroads.
Our road laws are out of date.
They encourage INCOMPETENCE,
shiftlessness and make petty graft
easily possible.
Under them only farm property
is taxed for the building of country
roads.
The automobile demands better
roads and is here to stay, whether
the farmer is willing or not.
No state in the union can have
better roads at less cost than South
Dakota.
The greatest load which can be
hauled over a road is the load that
will go through the deepest mud
hole or up the steepest hill.
The earth road with gravel top
where possible is the practical road
for South Dakota conditions.
One of the great social and eco-
nomic questions before the public
to-day is that of improving our high
ways. At the recent National Corn
Exposition, DR.. Cushman, of the De-
There is one state in the union |
have in mind which has more litter
ates within it's confines than the
combined illiterates of twenty-five
other states. The TART poor roads
play in this tragedy is remarkable.
The roads of that state are so poor
that the children cannot go to school.
A mule must struggle to make head
way, and it is with the greatest diff
Guilty the people go to church. 7
have never yet visited a community
where there were poor roads hat I
didn't see poorly fed. unkept. ignor-
ant children"
We are just now working out the
last possible revolution in the
geography of the world, cutting the
land of the western hemisphere in
two with the Isthmain canal. Gil
gantic as is the undertaking, the
United States is equal to the occas-
sion and eventually we will put it
through at sea level to avoid all
possible contingencies in peace and
war. Yet great as is this work, of
vastly more Importance to the peo-
pie as a whole is the general improve
waterways, irrigation of the semi
arid lands, the Observation-Disclosures
way, are minor matters compared
with the building of good roads.
can hardly over state it's Importance.
The condition of the country roads
AFFECTS the markets of the world in
all It's range from a dozen eggs in
the corner grocery to the money mar
ket of Wall Street. On account of
roads, worse than usual in the corn
producing states the farmer is UNI
able to market his crop of corn.
Feed becoming short stock unfinished
is rushed to the market at a loss.
causing a decline; and a successful
corner is made possible in the corn
pit. The feeder, the farmer, and the
country dealer in either case is
caught between the upper and neither
milestone.
Men of national reputation go up
and go down ranting owe excessive
railroad rates and public service COR
porations. Yet never tell us that we
pay two and often three times more
to haul our farm produce over poor
roads than we would over good
roads, and we will cntinue to do so
until a solution comes.
The question before us is "what
Is the remedy?" We face a condi-
success in the making of good roads
is reached. People must be educat-
ed and public sentiment must be
created. The economic Importance
of better roads must be taught to
the farmer. I say it kindly but adj
visedly and truthfully when I. say
the farmers, who use the roads most,
are responsible for present condi-
lions. The attempt on the part of
the business man to have better
country roads is resented in many
instances as an interference with in
herent rights.
The history of road building
shows actual money saved resulting
therefrom to be several times
greater than the cost of building. A
good road along the main highway
will add at least five times it's cost to
the value of adjacent farms. 1t will
pay $3.50 per year interest on the
investment after paying for mainte-
nance. A country could borrow none
on It's bonds for building roads at so
The state could do it at 40. The
United States at go.
This is the day of doing big things.
Through my town, where every
other day a mixed train pulled its
weary way along, within the last
two years there has been hurried
to the front the men and material to
build a transcontinental railway.
FIFTEEN hundred miles of the best con-
structed line, here resting on foun-