The Newtown bee., 1909-10-29
THE ROADS AND THE C0MMUN .. ITY.
 Good Roads Benefit Everybody.

No matter how seltsom anyone may give serious thought to matters which effect themselves as one of a community, the following is at once self-evident upon close analysis: "No development or economy is possible, be it civic, polite, or social, without efficient means of communication be- tween the people of a community. Look at this a little closer,-if you had a house and your share of land five miles from your nearest neighbor
 with only your two feet to carry you through the Woods,-hoW much do you think you would develop as the years rolled by? This is elemental communication! Now let us give you a horse and saddle, then a wagon, then an automobile and lastly the telephone, telegraph, bicycle, motor- cycle and newspaper. How much faster will you and your neighbor five. miles away develop under the latter conditions than the former? Think it over. But we are going too fast. Barring the telephone how are you going to use the remaining ad- vantages. If you have no road, what good is your horse, your wagon, your automobile, your Bicycle, your motor- cycle, or how are you going to get your telegrapEic messages or your newspapers unless your walk that five miles to get them. In the cities different conditions confront us, put in the country or intermediate com munities the road is the great com mon medium over which is trafficked the necessities, pleasures and intelli- gence of our daily lives and conduct. Consider for a moment the uses to which the roads of the town are put to daily. Everything in our homes in the way of household furnishings stoves, cooking utensils, coal and oil, lumber, provisions of all sorts, must be carted over the roaus to the total of thousands of tons yearly. Then we have all the products of the town which must be carted over the roads back to the station again. Also the factories which cart raw material to the shops and the finished products away. On top of this comes the traf- fic of hundreds of people who travel to and fro over the road to their daily work. Take as an example four of the representative factories; these will total up to about 50,OOO pounds daily truckage, which must be pulled from the ends of the town, as in the case of the creameries. Further we must consider the tre- mendous amout of pleasure driving, automobile traffic and transient trav- el of all kinds. Again on top of all this comes the inter-commerce of store and neighbors. Truly this will make an appalling total and if we take time to consider it we can form some idea ol the public road as a means of communication, and it's in- fluence on our daily lives" If then the roads are necessary to use how is it that they be of the best construction lest their imper- fections limit our activity in every field of endeavor. Consider the sub ject from a commercial standpoint. How much more valuable will be the real estate along the Bridgeport turnpike after it is fine state road, thanGt is now? How much easier is it on team to pull heavy load over a dry road than through six inches of mud? How much more business can the town do over good roads than it can over bad?