The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1909-11-11
TRUNK LINE HIGHWAYS.
(St. Adams Messenger.)


"In some parts of the State there
is considerable bowling for trunk line
permanent highways in Vermont.
Trunk line highways are all right
when they are all paid for. But to
start in now to build several hundred
miles of that kind of road would be
folly. The immense increase in sal
aries and appropriations within year
has placed this State close to the point
of being obliged to levy direct tax
to defray current expenses. 1t would
hardly be wise to plunge into debt
trying to compete with more wealthy
states in the matter of highways. I'm
der our present system trunk lines will
exist in time, for the county highway
commissioners are seeing to it that the
State money is expended on the main
thoroughfares; and our roads are
surely, though gradually, becoming
better and better each year. 1t is bet
ter to let good things come slowly
than to plunge heavily into debt for
them. Londonderry Sitter.
The Messenger hasn't heard any
"howling" for trunk line highways but
it has heard some very earnest men
talk very earnestly in support of the
idea, and it has on occasion been glad
to join with some of its contemporar-
les in earnestly advocating trunk line
highways too. If to be in earnest is
1t is true that it is one thing to
propose some departure in the way of
building public improvements and
quite another thing to show how the
proposition can be financed. Theory
is, indeed, oftentimes easier than prac-
tice But the trunk line highways pro-
position is not a new and INFESTED
theory; it is born of the everyday,
matter-of-fact, commonplace business
experience of some of the most pro-
gressive commonwealth in the Union.
How does a man start in business
when he has no capital? He borrows
money. How does city build res
ervoir or city hall building or lay it's
sewers or pave its streets? 1t borrows
money. 1t is considered good plain
common sense to borrow money to
start in business when there is rea-
sonable prospect that the business
will repay the loan with interest and
leave the borrower with his own bust
ness all paid for in tthe end. Indeed,
so complicated is modern commercial
ism that it is well-nigh hopeless for
any man to think of venturing into
trade without sufficient capital at
the start to put him on fair terms of
competition with men already estab-
lished In that trade, and most business
houses are now and have been for
generations founded upon borrowed
money.
What is considered to be good plain
business sense for the individual Is
logically to be considered common
sense for a group of individuals max
ing up a community, when the under
taking proposed by that community is
also business venture and offers as
reasonable prospects of being a sue
cessful one. No city can expect to do
business today without an up-to-date
sewer system, plenty of pure water,
well paved streets, and various other
investments. Property owners in that
city know that if they do not main
tain these things they are certainly to
hold their property at direct loss be-
fore very long. They consider 1t good
plain common sense to borrow money
on their city bonds to use in buying
the citys stock and fixtures and mu-
nicipal economists undertake to show
that, in the long run, the prudent ex-
penditure of such borrowed money not
only helps to save money on private
property already owned in the city
but actually tends to enhance its value
to a point that enables the city ulti-
mately to pay back the borrowed
money and have something left ahead