Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1909-05-11
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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 dollars
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 s4OO, 100000. Six hun
dred million dollars per year then Is
the price we pay in this land Of the
free for having impossible roads. Did
ever a 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 1t 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 practi-
cally every case the picnic left the roads
in worse condition than before. The
law in many states prescribed that
each resident of a rural district must
nav a certain road tax in labor each
year. The payment Of this tax was
done under the supervision of a local
officer, known as the pathmaster. The
customary time of payment was in ear
ly summer, just before haying time'
when there wasn't much else for the
men and teams to do. The neighbor-
hood turned out with horses anu
ploughs and harrows, ripped up diverse
sections of highways which the years
travel had packed to a 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 occasions, and the path
master who insisted on real work soon
found himself unpopular. 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 ana
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
impassable. Last March some mis-
guided creatures began an automobile
race from New York to Savannah, Ca
It was Just at the opening Of naviga-
ton on the country 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 its emergency rations of gasolene.
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 contest
ant could proceed. The racers aver
aged four miles per hour across the OLD
Dominion-a perfectly stunning rate
of speed, all things considered.
And yet the roads Of American 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 s50,00O,000 on her high
ways, and while no other state Is in
vesting in roads at that rate all are
doing something.
Cities are finding it good business to
improve the roads leading out into the
farming region; the farmers are be-
ginning to tax themselves in a 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 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 accept
ed as the standard Of highway con-
struction. But macadam roads Of the
old pattern, with crushed stones eight
inches thick, cost from $4,000 to $10,-
900 per mile. Now it has been found
that three or four inches will do quite
as we'll, 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 impossible Is
the best track making material when
burned. In yet other regions the far
mers 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 5000 or $4O0
mile, is found almost as good as the
best macadam.
IL 10 "Sll liidl TIC iOduiiidhhi6 iho
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 advocates
Of good highway will find ample room
for their missionary enterprise for a
generation to come.-St. Louis Times.