The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1909-05-20
COST OF POOR ROADS.
Waste of Labor in Hauling our Crops
to Market.

Waste of Labor in Hauling our Crops
to Market.
1t cost a little over a billion dol
lars to haul the farm crops Of
America to market last year. With
good roads, roads such as are to be
found in some parts of America and
in all parts of France, the marketing
of the crops would have cost $4OO,-
100000. Six hundred million dol
lars per year, then, is the price we
pay in this land of the free for hav-
ing impossible roads. Did ever a
nation spend so much for so doubt
full luxury before? With American
roads lying open and fathomless be-
fore the eyes of our foreign critics,
what monstrous injustice it is to talk
of American dollar worship!
Most men of middle age can recall
the annual picnic known as mending
the roads. Just why it got that name
no one has ever explained, for in
practically every case the picnic left
the roads in worse condition than
before. The law in many States pre-
scribed that each resident Of a rural
district must pay certain road tax
in labor each year. The payment OF
this tax was done under the super
vision of a local officer, known as the
pathmaster. The customary time OF
payment was in early summer, just
before haying time, when there
wasn't much else for the men and
teams to do. The neighborhood
turned out with horses and ploughs
and harrows, ripped up diverse Sec
tions of highways which the years
travel had packed to more or less
navigable condition, rounded them
up nicely in the middle and scratch
ed them up smooth with the harrows.
You were never expected to work
very hard at these festive occasions,
and the pathmaster who insisted on
real work soon found himself un-
popular. 1t was just as well, for
since nobody had any knowledge OF
roadmaking the more work the
worse results.
What some of these results were
and are we have vivid testimony.
Across Iowa last winter the racing"
autos had to take to the railroad
tracks, because the common roads
were simply impossible. Last March
some misguided creatures began an
automobile race from New York to
Savannah, Ga. 1t was just at the
opening of navigation on the coun-
try roads of the Middle South, the
time when the roads are too thin for
wheels and too thick for boats.
Across Virginia each racing automo-
bile had an escort Of six mules to pull
it out of extra deep mudholes and to
haul it's emergency rations Of gaso-
lene. Usually this was enough; but
when an auto was so thoughtless as
to stay in the mudhole all night, the
mule teams had to be doubled and
all the. negroes of the neighborhood
commanded to service before that
particular contestant could proceed.
The racers averaged four miles per
hour across the Old Domin1on-a
perfectly stunning rate of speed, all
things considered.
And yet the roads Of America are
vastly better than they once were,
and the improvement is going on
apace. The United States govern
ment is lending hand by setting It's
spare scientists to work teaching the
people of different regions how to
make the best roads at the least cost.
The States are doing vastly more.
New York in 1905 voted to spend
$50, 100000 on her highways, and
while no other State is investing In
roads at that rate all are doing some
thing.
Cities are finding it good business
to improve the roads leading out
into the farming region; the farmers
are beginning to tax themselves In q
rational fashion for highway i'm
provement, and many philanthropists
have passed by the conventional col
lege and library donation to spend
their surplus funds on good roads.
historic mudholes are being slowly
filled up, stone and concrete are re-
placing the crazy wooden bridges,
and a hundred inventions have been
made to help get the best results for
the lowest expense.
Some of the last deserve attention.
Macadam roads have long Deen ac-
cepted as the standard of highway
construction. But macadam roads OF
the old pattern, with crushed stones
eight inches thick, cost from $4,000
to $4,000 per mile. Now 1t has
been found that three or four inches
will do quite as well, and the cost is
cut squarely in two. In some parts
of the Central States, where crushed
stone. is rare, it has been found that
the very clay which makes the roads
almost impossible Is the best track
making material when burned. In
yet other regions the farmers have
discovered how to make good roads
by the simple expedient Of rolling
or dragging them after each rain,
and in yet other places mixture OF
sand and clay, costing $500 or $40O
mile, is found almost as good as the
best macadam.
It is well that the roadmaking ma
terials are abundant and varied. For
there are roads enough in the United
States to reach eighty-six times
around the earth at the equator
and nearly all those roads are bad.