The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1909-07-07
IMPORTANCE OF
GOOD ROADS.
The Atlanta Journal.

The Atlanta Journal.
The Importance of good roads to tht
people of the south and indeed to tht
people of the whole country is convin
cingly set forth in an able and exhaus
tive article by Logan Waller Page, di'
rector of the United States office OF
good roads, in the department of agri'
culture, published in the July number
of the Worlds Work.
Many of the facts and figures are
more or less familiar to those who
have followed this discussion, but Mr..
Page takes broader range than usual
in the discussion of the general ques.
tion, and shows the Importance oi
good roads, by facts and figures, in re-
lations which have not heretofore been
dwelt upon in detail.
| He shows that, according to the fig
ures of the interstate commerce COM
mission, the railroads Of the country
haul approximately two hundred and
|sixty-fve million tons of agricultural,
forest and miscellaneous products a
year, and he makes the conservative
estimate that two hundred million
tons, or less than eig ghty per cent OF
these products are hauled over the
country roads. This does not take in
to account the millions of tons of min
eral products which are hauled by
wagon, or the products hauled back
and forth betWeen the farms and
mills
The average haul is known to be
nine and four-tenths miles, and aver
age cost twenty-three cents per ton
per mile, las against twenty y-fye cents
ten years ago1 so that the cost of this
transportation over country roads to
railroads amounts to four hundred al
thirty-two million, four hundred
thousand dollars, to which must be
added the products hauled to canals,
wharves and docks for shipment by
water
, Half a billion dollars is O conserva-
tive estimate of the rural freight bill.
The average cost of. hauling on the
improved highways Of England,
France and Germany is about ten
cents per ton mile, but even If we
could reduce our present rate one-half,
or to eleven and one half cents per ton
mile, we would effect an annual saw
ing of two hundred and fifty million
dollars year.
To this should be added a waste of at
least forty millions of dollars year be.
cause of antiquated and wasteful sys-
TENS of road administration, and we
have an aggregate Of not less than two
hundred and ninety million dollars
which might be saved to the farmers
of the country every year.
If we estimate the wear and tear OF
vehicles and the useless number oi
horses and mules, the sum will 60 uI
several million dollars more.
Seventy years ago the charge fol
hauling on the old Cumberland pike
was seventeen cents per ton mile, and
this admitted of a profit, and yet today
it is costing the average farmer siz
cents per ton mile more than that.
There are four hundred and twenty
five million acres of uncultivated lanC
in this country. The possibility O
bringing this land under cultivation
by good roads, and by an intensive
system of farming to get the best re
fact that the average revenue per acre
from wheat Is only seven dollars ant
three cents, of corn only eight dollar
and seventy-two cents, while the aver
age revenue per acre from small fruits
in 1899, was eighty dollars and eighty
cents, and of vegetables, forty-two dol
lars per acre.
There are eight hundred and fifty
million acres of improved and unim
proved lands in this country, and it il
estimated that good roads would en-
hance. the value of it anywhere from
two to nine dollars an acre. At an av
erage of five dollars this would increas,
our national wealth by four billion
dollars.
Bad roads are q menace TO health
and an obstruction to our educatioDa
developement. The direct influence
upon the growth of population in
given locality is an interesting and in
structive study. In twenty-five coun
ties, selected at random, possessing al
average of only one and half per cen
of improved roads, in 1904, the decrease
in population averaged over thirty.on'
hundred during the ten Fears between
1890 and 1900. In twenty-five othe
counties, selected at random, having
an average of forty per cent of i'm
proved roads, there was an average IN
crease in population of over thirty-on'
thousand in each county.
A loss .of thirty-one hundred al
against a gain of thirty.one thousant
is al eloquent testimony of the impor
tance of good roads in relation to popu
lation. .,
Good roads enable the school chill
dren in the rural districts to attenc
school more regularly than in the less
fortunate communities, and this is
matter which comes home to the peo
pie of Georgia. 1t is found that in five
states with practically thirty-five pei
cent of improved roads, seventy sever
out of every one hundred pupils en-
rolled attended the public schools reg
ularly. But in five states-of which
Georgia is one-having only one and
half per cent of improved roads, only
lfifty-nine out of every one hundred pu
pils enrolled attended school regularly
The relation of goodaroads to Hitter
acy is still further evidenced by the
fact that in four states with conspi
ciously bad roads, having population
of seven millions in 1900, there were
three hundred and seventy.five thous
and white illiterates born Of native
parents; whereas in four states con
spicious for good roads and having
population of more than six millions
there were only twenty thousand illit
crates.
Figures like that should stir our peo