The Paducah evening sun. [volume] (Paducah, Ky.) 1906-1929, 1909-09-25
THE PUBLIC FORUM.
What Good Roads Mean for General
Prosperity.

cash prizes, aggregating $500, for the
best three articles received on good
roads. the Manufacturers Record Is
in receipt of a large number intended
for this competition. The three prize
articles, and possibly some of the
Others, VIII be published in a special
good roads number of the Manufac-
turers' Record to be issued during the
latter part of October. For that issue
we are gathering vast amount OF
information which will be of great
value to the people Of the whole
south--to those who are studying the
question OF good roads and to those
who are not yet interested in good
roads. Both will alike be benefited
by a study of that issue. We believe
that our good roads issue will prove
one of the most valuable for the bet
lterment of the south that We have
ever published. Ii will command the
closest reading in every part of the
south, as well as in other sections.
In fact, wherever people are studying
the question of good roads and how
I. to secure them. that issue will be In
demand. Some of its features have
never before appeared In any publica-
ition. Our readers will have the OPP
portunity of learning more about the
road question in the south than they
have ever had.
I oThe building OF good roads is one
of the must Important questions be
fore the American people. II is
vitality important to farmers, to mer-
chants, to manufacturers, to bankers
and to everybody else. No man in all
the country can say that he Is not in
terested in roads. Every wheel that
turns, whether in city or country.
makes the question of roads a vital
one. Transportation in country, in
town or in city by wagons. carts and
vehicles of all descriptions, is simpli-
fed and lessened in cost by good
roads and good streets. The cost OF
hauling is enhanced many times over
what il ought to be by bad roads and
badly paved streets. Civilization itself
is largely dependent upon the ques-
ton of transportation, and transpor-
tation primarily means roads. If We
bark back 1000 years II will be found
that the Romans were far more adj
vanced in the construction of roads
than the people of this country. We
have been almost criminally negli-
gent in the building of roads. We
have added hundreds of millions OF
dollars annually to the cost to the
farmers OF getting their produce TO
market by the barbarously bad roads
which curse our country. We have
made attendance upon country schools
and country churches almost impossi-
BILE in winter and spring by reason
of impossible roads. OF what avails
1t to spend money in building
churches and schools II for one-halt
of the year they cannot be reached
because 90 mud?
The charm of country life has been
the theme of the poet and the writer
through all the ages Men have cease
lessly proclaimed against the tend
ency of the people, especially the
young men and women, to leave the
farm and seek employment in the
city. The trend OF population has
been away from the country into the
whirlpool of city activities. This has
largely been dne to the loneliness OF
country life caused by the impossible
roads in contrast with the convent
ences of city life, where people are
not shut up three or four months in
the year by reason of bad roads. In
stead Of country life having greater
charms than city life, the truthful
writer is compelled to say, despite ali
: the advantages and all the beauties
of the country, that farm life in a
region where the roads are impass-
able has very little charm, especially
for the women and the young people
On the contrary, its loneliness hangs
like a q eat pail over them, and in
desperation they seek to escape TO the
city. The farmer Is, therefore, in a
double sense more deeply interested
In good roads than anyone else. To
him good roads nmeanna great de-
crease in the cost of getting his pro-
dnce to the market and getting his
supplies back. They likewise mean a
lessening of the loneliness of life.
To the people OF every town and
city the building Of good roads Is
almost as important as II is to the
farmers. II means the betterment OF
every phase OF life and a closer inter-
'mingling of the people of town and
city; the lessening OF wear and tear
on vehicles and the betterment of all
the conditions under which business
is carried on. And then the building
of good highways inevitably adds
largely to the value of adjacent prop
erty. II is not too much to say that
road-building is not an expense, but
an investment, paying a larger profit
to every community than anything
else IT can do. The building OF good
roads means an increase in the value
Of the farm products by the lessening
Of the cost of hauling. In this way
It inevitably results in an increased
value to all property adjacent, and
the cost Of roads Is more than made
up BY this gain In prosperity 1t Is a
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