Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1909-07-30
Preaching the Gospel of Good
Roads.

ROdQS.
The good roads movement which has
J taken hold of the country will be very
farreaching in its effect. We are en-
tering upon a period in which there is
to be revolution nightly affecting
social conditions and educational and
religious advancement, period in
which the loneliness of farm life is to
be banished by the closer intercommu-
nication between the people of the ag-
ricultural districts with each other and
with adjacent towns and cities. Bad
roads have meant more than simply
an enormous loss, wastage of time
and effort in getting the products of
the farm to market and the merchan-
disc which the farmer buys from the
depot back to the country place. The
aggregate cost of bad roads runs into
the hundreds of millions of dollars an
nually, and the farmers and the peo-
pie away from the centers of pOpula-
ton 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 upon
which all civilization has entered.
We have come upon time when the
gas or Observation-Disclosures engine has
started revolution equally as import
ant, equally as far-reaching in its eff
feet, as that of the locomotive, which
for the last three-quarters of a century
has been the greatest material power
in human advancement. The internal
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
a farm and in connection with farm
life heretofore impossible except by
hard manual labor. 1t makes possible
the motor boat, which is found on
every river of the land. The develop
ment of this great engine for human
progress will necessitate very broad
and rapid building of good roads, for
the automobile in its present uses for
pleasure is but the foreruner of the
auto-truck, which soon will be found
in use throughout the country wher-
ever good roads and good streets make
feasible the hauling in this way rather
than by the slow and costly wagon of
the present.
When one begins seriously to con-
template the changes which are being
| brought on US by the development of
the Observation-Disclosures engine, the
| benefit of the motor boat and the mo-
tor car, the small farm engine, the fac
ility of travel which these things and
good roads will bring about, the imag
ination is apt to almost stagger us
with the limitless possible advance
ment of the period upon which We
have entered. The man who is work
ing for the building of good roads is
directly working for the betterment of
mankind. He is working for the adj
vancement Of education and religion
and for all that makes for the higher
civilization. OF what use are churches
and schools in country districts if for
five or six months of the year country
roads are so impossible that they can
not be attended? OF what value to
the grower are the products of farms
which can only reach the market at
cost of transportation by wagon which
eliminates all profit? The charm of
country, the beauty of nature are pic
tured as reasons why farm life should
appeal to the people, but when farm
life means drudgery and separation
from friends by reason of bad roads,
people of the agricultural districts,
young and old, crowd the cities in Or
der to get place where modern con-
veniences and modern comforts to
daily travel are available. The con-
struction of good roads will change
this. 1t will add thousandfold to
the charms of country life. 1t will in
crease the prosperity of the farmers.
Ii will be the most powerful factor in
stemming the movement of popula-
ton toward the city and making the
country boy and girl happy at home.
The gospel of good roads ought to be
preached with the zeal of the mission
ary, and the farmer, the merchant, the
manufacturer and the banker, and
above all else, the women of the coun-
try districts ought to be incesant work.
ers for the building of good roads. Let
US not leave unto future generations
that which we should do to-day.
The South, which has fingered so far
in the rear in this work, should take it
up with greater energy than any other
section, and in this way overcome the
! dnficlpncieS of the DaSt and take the