The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1909-02-04

= eAS PCoPAe. II is largely
IN Your hands progressive farmers
and you are progressive or Won
would not be hereto shape legis-
latlon as you want it.
Should nc speedy relief come from
the law making bodies, what can
you and private citizens-do to
improve our highways. Briefly:
Use nothing but woe tire wagons
ourselves and discourage the sale of
any other.
Remove all stones from the road
adjacent to your land.
When l ssy remove L don't mean
roll to one side; for next year the
road may not be in the old track,
but on the side. When dug, haul
them out of the sc TT. highway or
pile them around the telephone pole.
III you know more about road work
than the boss, and its ten to one Won
90, ask him to let you repair or
oulld a certain piece of road which
you use o for your road tax
ne to give you receipt when he is
sallsfled you have earned it. If.
Wnen you have worked out your
$500, Or $1,000, or s3O.OOtax. the
3ob is not tinlshed-finish it if it
does take as much more time. Do
nate the work for the public good.
ior Your w good. Try it once and
III you do not say it is the best in
sestIhent you ever made, L am not
a prophet.
| said finish the road. BY that
L dldn't mean scrape a lot of dirt
into a ridge and call it a finished
road. When the dirt is in place.
qfas 1t smooth. If soddy use a disk.
induce the travelling public to use
the road at once by driving over it
a tune or two yourself with your
wide tire wagon making a straight
track.
During the next week or two when
other work is not pressing make a
Spit log drag-not your own style,
put the standard, for you can't i'm
prove on the plan adopted by the
government. AT the close of this
meeting will be pleased to give all
VINO will use it a copy of the Govern
ment bulletin, also the Farmers
Good Roads League bulletin, descrip-
tive of the split log drag. If you
nave the timber it will cost you as
much as so or IS cents. If you have
TO buy the timber it may cost YOU
w or three dollars but make it at
any cost. When made and you are
gong along the same road to the
lleld, to a n%eighbors, or to town,
hook your team on the drag and
work the road as you go and return.
DO this several times during the seas
on. After a heavy rain put on rub
her boots and try the drag rounding
the road up we'll in the center while
stu muddy, to give it drainage.
Nearly all there is to making a good
road in the prairie part of South
Dakota is good drainage. Get the
water Off in a hurry and you will or
dlnarily have good roads.
If the dirt is working away from a
bridge or culvert or if a rut is start
Ing in the road, the next time you go
to town take the spade and throw in
a little dirt. 1t won't hurt YOU to do
so, and it will make a wonderful
Improvement in the road.
a word in closing to the rapidly
increasing class of automobile own
ers. You are here and you are here
TO stay. You are a nuisance and a
menace to the farmer and his wife
whose right to the highway no one
dared to question until you came on
the scene. Now YOU arrogance and
hSSpS llldIlS d JllllO
woman at home or makes her choose
an unfrequented path in going to
town. The fact hal she is unduly
nervous does not help the case. You
are doing more than your share to
retard the day of good roads. The
idea prevails that the agitation for
good roads is instigated by you and
in order to punish you or rather to
discourage your running, many farm
ers oppose progressive highway i'm
provement. But good roads or bad
you are going to use them. You
have as much right to the highway
as the farmer whose team you fright
Ell, as long as o keep within the
bounds of common sense and deem
cy. You have no right to rush by a
eam without giving warning. 1t is
your duty when going to meet a
"a and more especially il driven
by a woman to slow down, pull to
the side and if the horses are fright
ened stop your engine. If still dan
ger, go and lead the horses slowly
by your machine, talk to them and
let them stand and look at it and
make it's acquaintance. Next time
Don't think that because you can
buy an automobile you own all the
highway for you don't, you have a
right to all of it but when you meet
a team to only half of it. The hogs
are not all over in the stock pavilion
o are they all running automobiles.
You'll get along through life and
over u country roads much better
if you are civil and courteous and
carry a short short crow bar and a
short handled spade. The bar to
pry that stone hat clips YOU sprock-
ct and will break your brothers ma
chine of less clearance; the spade
for use when you get stuck and in
cidentally to throw some dirt up on
the sides of the bridge and culvert,
and to fill the newly made badger
hole.