The French Broad hustler. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1896-1912, 1909-10-21

feasible, pracLlcaD1e anu enu0A AAA7 49,
great and universal system OF roaos
which is to bless our country!
Suppose the state were first to COM
nit itself to great Enountain-to-tne--
sea turnpike, beginning, say at Ashe-
vile and terminating at wilmington
Suppose that to encourage the con-
struction Of feeders to this great ar
terial highway it were to issue 1ts
bonds in adequate amount, and oe-
post them with the state treasurer 20
be delivered in proportion to Donds
issued by the several counties Tor
roads within their borders, planned
and surveyed in accordance with the
comprehensive suggestion and ADVICE
of an expert and far-seeng highway
commission? Would not such a plan
stir the local pride in each county!
Would there not be rush on the
mart of the people to obtain their pro-
portionate benefit of that for which
they would all be proportionately
taxed? Would the counties and the
people not catch the fever OF doing
the right, thing, as we'll as seeing the
right thing to do while neglecting to
do it? 1t would be up to- the peo-
pie. 1t would be intelligent self-help.
1t would mark the end of pickering
and usher in the era of concerted &C
ton. Each county would have It's
vote, each township would have its
say, each citizen would have his
voice. The result would be the results
of the majority-Vox PopuH making
a sober, instead of it's too-often
drunken choice.
Hope of West.
It is out of some such policy as
this-which 1 have roughly suggest
ed-that 1 could conceive must come
the hope of Western counties for ad-
equate roads. We have here the rich
est heritage of nature, but nature
seems to guage the measure of her
rewards to men by the measure of
mems toll. Through the years in this
mountain country we have been APP
preaching a destiny limited only by
the way in which we meet the con-
dition that holds it in lease. The con-
dition is transportation. Transpor-
tation is spelled in syllabIes of road
ways When we of the mountains
look upon our massive hills, when
we consider our rich but deep-lying
valleys, when we contemplate the
wonders of our high-lying yet fertile
isothermal coves, wnen we gasp in
calculation of our water powers and
the wealth of our pungent forests,
when we dream of the mineral riches
that core the hearts of our eternal
creSts; when we translate these OPP
portunities into terms Of transporta-
ton, we are apt to sigh for the lev
els of the east in anticipation of our
own Herculean task, Forgetting in the
realization of the work the infinite
quality and quantity of the reward
So far, we are as miners working
placer gold in pans. We have not such
shaft. So far, and truly, we have
not had the capital upon which to re-
alize our heritage. We need help.
in no spirit of charity for others, but
as a right that we have as part of
this great state to offer our invest
ment and to ourselves snare equally in
the returns.
Railroads and Manufacturing.
Here and there a railroad has
burrowed into our mountains. Along
the railroads we have prospered in
manufacturing, in mining, in the
smallest proportional way in the
transportation of our products. The
railroads are the arteries of trade,
leading from the mountains to the
plains and the sea. Where are the
veins of that trade, the lateral system
wherein must circulate the blood of
our body civilization? Shall we keep
them clogged, as now, with humOrs
and misgivings? Or shall we take a
physic for our health? Is it to our
to join the state in the eff
fort to bring our resources into easy
reach of all men? Is it to the states
interest to share with us the expense
of accomplishing speedily and for all
time what we, unaided, could accom-
plish only specifically and with ira
vail?
No policy such as has been limited
could, of course, escape two classes Of
critics who are always with us. We
might safely count, am sure, on the
objection of some constitutional law
yers and on objection, on the same |
ground, from some legal laymen fond |
of referring to Magma Carta and the |
Bill of Rights as the greatest doc |
uments ever written We might also |
count, to a surety, on the vociferous !
objections of certain parties at home |
and elsewhere who, at the !
mention of bonds for any purpose, are |
apt to froth at the mouth between |
loud cries of pay as you co." and !
grasps of Putting a burden on pos
terity.'
In answer to the constitutional stu |
dents it might be suggested that state |
aid to roads is founded on precedents
into and behind the Dark |
Ages" and so good that some Of the |
roads that resulted stand today as /
models after the passage of time so |
vast that not even hieroglyphics can |
record its beginning. Also that the |
of the United States |
would be a better working document |
Gid the present government do more |
toward extracting the usefulness out |