Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1909-07-17
COST OF POOR ROADS
Waste of Labor In Hauling Crops
to Market.
WHAT THE MUD TAX FIGURES.
Six Hundred Million Dollars Is the
Price We Pay Annually For Our
Impassable ighways-What Is Be-
ing Done to Improve Them.

to haul the farm crops of America to
market last year. With good roads,
roads such rs are to be found in some
parts of America and in all parts Of
France, the marketing of the crops
would have cost $4OOO0O,0 900. Six hun
drcd million dollars per year, then, IS
the price we pay In this land of the
free for having impossible roads, says
writer In the st. Louis Times. Did
ever Il nation spend so much for so
doubtful a luxury before? With Amer
lean roads lying open and fathomless
before 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 prac
tiCally every case the picnic left the
roads in worse condition than before.
The law in many states prescribed
that each resident of rural district
must pay a certain road tax in labor
each year. The payment of this tax
was done under the supervision Of
local officer, known as the pathmaSter.
The customary time of payment was
In the early summer. Just before hay
ing time, when there wasn't much else
for the men and teams to do. The
neighborhood turned out with horses
and plOws and harrowS. ripped up
diverse sections of highways which
the years travel had packed to n more
or less navigable condition. rounded
them up nicely In the middle and
scratched them up smooth with the
harrowS. You were never expected to
work very hard at these festive oCca-
siOnS. and the pathmastcr who insisted
on real work soon found himself un-
popular. 1t was just as we'll. for. since
nobody had any knowledge of road
making. the more work the worse re-
suits
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 be-
cause the common roads were simply
impossible. Last March some mis-
guided creatures began an automobile
race from New York to Savannah, Ga.
1t was just at the opening of naviga
ton on the country roads of the mid
die SOUTH the time when the roads are
too thin for wheels and too thick for
boats. Across Virginia each racing
automobile had an escort of six mules
to pull 1t out Of extra deep mudholeS
and to haul its emergency rations of
gasoline. Usually this was enough, but
when an auto was 50 thoughtlcSs as to
stay in the mudhole all night the mule
teams had to be doubled and all the
negroes of the neighbOrhOod comman-
deered to service before that particu-
lar contestant could proceed. The
racers averaged four miles per hour
across the Old Domlnion-a perfectly
stunning rate of speed. all things con
sidcrcd
And yet the roads Of America are
vastly better than they once were, and
the Improvement Is going ON apace.
The United States government is lend
Ing a hand by setting Its spare scien-
lists 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 $4,000 900 on her high
ways, and, while no other state Is in
vesting In roads at that rate all are
doing something.
Cities are finding 1t good business to
improve the roads leading out into the
farming region, the farmers are begin
ming to tax themselves in rational
fashion for highway Improvement, and
many philanthropists have passed by
the conventional college and library
donation to spend their surplus funds
on good roads. Historic mudholes are
being slowly filled up, stone and con-
crete are replacing 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 been ac-
cepted as the standard of highway
construction. But macadam roads of
the old pattern, with crushed stone
eight inches thick, cost from $4,000 to
SlU,OUO per mile. NOW IL mas Deen
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, 1t has been found that the very
clay which makes the roads almost i'm
passable Is the best trackmaking ma
terial when burned In yet other re-
giOns 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
a mixture of sand and clay, costing
$500 or $4O0 mile, IS found almost
as good as the best macadam.
1t is we'll that the roadmaklng 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. The advo-
Gates of good highways will find ample
room for their missionary enterprise
for n generation to come.
The Auto a Road Builder.
oil I'm