Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1909-08-20
BUILDING GOOD ROADS.
How a New York Paper Sees the In
terstate Good Roads Movement.

How a New York Paper Sees the In
terstate Good Roads Movement.
Four newspapers, in New York,
Washington, Richmond and Atlanta,
have for some months been scream
ing themselves black in the face over
goods roads movement throughout
the south, with special reference to a
highway from New York to Atlanta
for automobiles. They have been
sending out devil wagons in all direc-
tions, and their columns have been
largely surrendered to long and en-
thusiastic accounts Of the more or
less impracticable roadways and the
alleged ecstasies of the natives over
the prospect Of an early betterment.
Everywhere the special commission
ers" or staff correspondents" or
whatever the newspapers please to
call their respective Wandering Will
lies, have been received by country
mayors, leading tradesmen, and so
on. Farmers have Spelled" their
teams and looked over fences and
cheered on general principles. At last
the readers Of the newspapers in
question know what the residents OF
the various sections in question have
known all the time, that southern
roads are not as a rule adapted to
tourist automobiles from the north,
and the hullabaloo Is gradually sim
mering down.
Meanwhile a vast froth and scum
has been brought to the surface along
the lines that have been explored.
Leading citizens are writing to the
four newspapers to say that they are
heart and soul for good roads, and viii
lage' officials are slowly settling up
for the fried chicken and buttermilk
that have been consumed in the ex-
citement. Letters come from Huckle-
berry Bend, Hog Wallow, Squirrel
Ford, ETC., to say that the writer's are
tremendously worked up over good
roads and ready to stand by and see
them constructed at any cost to some
body else. With one voice they bid
the road builders godspeed, and then
get back to their corn pone and yel-
low legged chicken with sense Of
having acted very handsomely and
literally toward a projected improve
ment in their neighborhood. Nothing
could be more encouraging than the
public sentiment that has been work.
ed up over the feasts Of watermelon
and nearbeer that have blossomed
along the routes pursued by those ar
dent pioneers. Everybody in the dis
trict is ready for good roads. Every
body is waiting for the good work to
begin.
Now that the junketing and the
jubilation are over, however, who is
going to build the roads? There has
been q whole flood Of talk and an air
full of interchanging compliment and
loving gesticulation, but what individ-
ual or what community in the south
is going down into the pocket to inau-
gurate the much lauded enterprise
In nearly all southern neighborhoods
the roads are very bad for automo-
biles, bad even for the local traffic,
not one-half as goo3 as they ought to
be, anyhow; but everywhere they are
as the people desire or deserve. If
the roads around Charlotte and Staun-
ton or around Leesburg and Win
chester are comparatively excellent II
is because the tax payers OF those
vicinities will have them so and see
their profit in it. If they are bad else
where it is because the property hold
ers do not see any money in making
them better. Who expects them to rise
up as one man all along the line from
New York to Jacksonville, via Allan
ia, agree upon continuous scheme
for luxurious highway and pour
out their dollars for it's construction
If the thing is not done in this fash
ion, how is it to be done and who is
going to do it?
Because a corporaps guard Of va
grant reporters go bustling about the
south dilating on the advantages to
somebody of a first-class highway to
the far south, are the Joskinses OF
Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia and
Florida to turn out and pave the way
for joy riders from unknown lands Z?
1t seems to US on the contrary, that
the more these flying prophets talk
about the automobiles = to come the
more the Joskinses will keep their
pockets buttoned and let the automo-
biles and their various occupants stay
at home.-New York Sun.