The Iuka vidette. (Iuka, Miss.) 1894-1912, 1909-09-16

Succeeding generations have not done
better, in a majority of countries not as
we'll.
Mississippi needs roads from an eco
nomic standpoint, and that basis is the
proper one upon which to make the cam
paign. If they will save our people
money, then we should have them by all
means. If ton of freight can be
hauled over mile of good roads for
less than it costs to haul it over a mile
of bad roads, then there is an unanswer-
able argument in favor of the good road
The statement that Mississippi pays
annually a mud tax of several million
dollars is undoubtedly correct. This is
a tax from which we receive nothing
whatever in the way of improvement or
hope of relief. 1t goes on from year to
year without diminishing in the least.
On the other hand, it increases as our
population grows and the roads come
into more general use.
By series of investigations it has
been proven that the approximate cost
of hauling ton of freight is, by water,
one-tenth of one cent per mile; by rail,
one cent per mile; good roads, seven
cents per mile; ordinary roads, twenty
five cents per mile, and mud roads, six
ty cents per mile. Mississippi last year
(190s) produced 100000 bales of cot
ton, weighing more than 100000 tons.
The average haul for the farm products
of our State is approximately nine
miles. The difference between the cost
of hauling a ton over mile of mud
road and mile of good road is fifty
cents. Multiplying this 100000 tons
by this difference and then by nine, the
average miles hauled, we have the enor-
nous sum of $1,s00,000 lost on the cot
ton crop alone. But we are not expect
ing good roads" in Mississippi yet
awhile, only ordinary" roads. With
roads of this character the saving would
have been thirty-fve cents per ton, or
s!,26OOOO.
The cotton crop is only one of many
items hauled over our roads, and esti-
mates of loss, or the mud tax, can be
carried much further, totaling many mil
lions of dollars that are paid by our
people annually. Not only the farmer
pays his quota of this tax, but every
one who has occasion to use our high
ways contributes to the fund. Broken
and wornout vehicles, destroyed harness,
rundown stock, loss of time, patience
and, in many cases, religion, is the toll
ruthlessly collected by our mud roads.
Five millions of dollars annually might
pay the monetary loss, but there are
other losses that dollars cannot settle.
The building and maintaining of
roads in our State at cost common
surate with the ability of our people to
pay, is an important problem to be
solved by those who are interested in
the work. 1t is claimed by those OPP
posed to road construction that our peo-
pie are too poor to expend the money
necessary to build ordinary roads; that
it would increase taxes to such a degree
that it would become an unbearable bur-
den. The experience of counties that
are building ordinary roads refutes this
contention. Roads are producers of
wealth in greater proportion than they
consume wealth. The wealthiest States
in the Union have the best roads, and
these roads were an important factor
in making them what they are.
The small farmer with eighty acres
frequently feels that he cannot afford
to pay a road levy of one, two or three
mills to pay contractors or take care
of bonds. If he will estimate his loss