Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1909-07-16
PREACHING THE Co.'S
pei or GOOD ROADS.
FROM Manufacturers Record, BAL
TIMoRE, JULY 1909.

! has taken nOlQ Oh lic COullViy VIII
be very far-reaching in its effect
We are entering upon a period
in which there is to be revolution
nightly affecting social conditions
and educational and religious adj
advancement, a period in which the
loneliness of farm life is to be ban
ished by the closer intercommunl-
cation between the people of the
agricultural districts with each 9TH
er and with adjacent towns and
cities. Bad roads have meant
more than simply an enormous loss,
a wastage of time and effort in get
ting the products of the farm to
market and the merchandise which
the farmer buys from the depot
back to the country place. The
aggregate cost of bad roads runs in
to the hundreds of millions of dol
lars annually, and the farmers and
the people away from the centers
of the population are the ones who
have had to pay the cost.
The automobile, the use of which
is helping to stimulate an interest
in good roads, is only an expression
or exponent of new conditions up
on which all civilization has enter
ed. We have come upon a time
when the gas or internal-combus-
ton engine has started a revolu-
ton equally as important, equally
as far-reaching in its effect, as that
of the locomotive, which for the
last three-quarters Of century has
been the greatest material power in
human advancement. Theinternal-
combustion engine makes possible
the lessening of work on the farm.
1t makes possible the pumping of
water for use in country homes and
for stock. 1t makes possible many
things around the farm in connec-
ton with farm life heretofore i'm
possible except by hard manual la
Dor. 1t makes possible the motor
boat, which is found on everp river
of the land. The development Of
this great engine for human prog
ress will neoessitate a very broad
and rapid building of good roads,
for the automobile in it's present
uses for pleasure is but the forerun-
ner of the auto-truck, which soon
will be found in use throughout the
country wherever good roads and
good streets make feasible the haul
ing in this way rather than by the
slow and costly wagon of the pres
ent.
When one begins seriously to
contemplate the changes which are
being brought on us by the devel-
opment of the internal-combustlon
engine, the benefit of the motor
boat and the motor car, the small
farm engine, the facility of travel
which these things and good roads
will bring about, the imagination is
apt to almost stagger us with the
limitless possible advancement OF
the period upon which we have en-
tered. The man who is working
for the building of good roads is di-
rectly working for the betterment
of mankind. He is working for
the advancement of education and
religion and for all that makes for
the highest civilization. Of what
use are schools and churches in
country districts if for five or six
months of the year country roads
are so impossible that they cannot
be attended? of what value to the
grower are the products of farms
which can only reach the market
at a cost of transportation by wag-
on which eliminates all profit? The
charm of country, the beauty of ma
ture are pictured as reasons why
farm life should appeal to the peo-
pie, but when farm life means
drudgery and separation from
friends by reason Of bad roads, it
is not to be wondered at that the
people of the agricultural districts,
young and old, crowd the cities in
order to get to a place where mod
ern conveniences and modern com
forts of daily travel are available
The construction of good roads will
change this. 1t will add a thous-