The Waxahachie daily light. [volume] (Waxahachie, Tex.) 1894-current, 1909-07-05
HOPEFUL PROGRESS.

The Dallas News sees signs of
great advancement in the matter of
the construction OF good roads. What
it says has & good ring and is helpful
in tone and it is reproduced below in
fun:
The gospel of progress in Texas is
making headway. One precinct in
Cooke county voted the other day
to issue 100000 of bonds for road
purposes. Tarrant county will vote
on the same proposition shortly, and
now campaign is being planned in
Bell county while in q number of
other counties the good roads senti-
ment is beginning family to bestir
Itself. There is not much hazard in
predicting that the proposition Will
carry in both Tarrant and Bell coun-
| ties, and indeed we venture the
! prediction that before the year shall
! end enough other counties will have
done likewise to run the expenditure
1 on good roads up TO $2,000,000.
! The prospect is gratifying in many
ways. but chiefly, we think. as proof
that they who crusade for better
things preach not in vain. 1t is well
that We stop now and then not only
to note but 10 emphasize achieve
ments lest the preacher get dlscour-
aged and allow the public in its wear
mess to persuade him that his
preachmeuts are vain. Words
words. words" the public cry after
crusade is a month old. Their wear
mess is perhaps eXcusable. but the
words against which they eNclaim
| are not so impotent and futile as
! they imagine. We guess there were
at least ten million words written in
/ behalf of diversification before any
! one diversified The crusade was at
! first interesting to many; then II
Ipassed through a season of cynical
| skepticism Words, words, word,
was cried against the preachers of
/ dlNelSlIltdl ltH' anu lpi 81 'pHS INV
there was so little evidence of pro-
gress that the preachers would have
been persuaded of their own futility
had there been a flaw in their faith.
Yet Investigation is fact very
/ big fact, the biggest Texas fact OF
two decades II the preachers of d.
versification Inflicted ten million
words on the public until it cried out
! in protest Words, words, words!
who would now appraise the least OF
these words as worth to Texas less
than double eagle?
! SLOW as the progress of crusading
lis, the progress of mere instinct is
slower. Eventually Texas would have
diversified its crops if there had been
no preachment of the gospel, but
without the spur Of those persisten
and wearisome words Texas would
hardy be today where ii was ten
wears ago. SO has hitherto been and
viii be the experience of the crusa'
ders for good roads. Ihey preached
Ito an applauding audience at the be
ginning, then to sleepy one, and
had they desisted before the protest
ling carry Of words, words, words
the people Of Texas would have
Ilapsed into somnolence on the sub
iect of good roads. They protested
because they were kept awake ny
the persistent and pestlterou'
ipreachments, and every moment the,
we're kept awake the truth of The
good roads argument was insullint
itself into their minds. Now the con
victlons are being wrought. The evi
dence of II is abundant and every
where. The good roads movement J!
moving Ia Texas, and already 1t Ra'