The Waxahachie daily light. [volume] (Waxahachie, Tex.) 1894-current, 1909-07-02
BIG TOLL PAID TO BAD ROADS
Good Roads Would Save Over Two
Million Dollars Every Year.


mud road in the endeavor to draw
half load affords a striking object
lesson when compared to team
drawing a heavily loaded wagon at
a comfortable trot along a stone sur
faced road This isolated example
must be multiplied by 3 million in
feet of bad roads upon traffic In the
United States Not less than $50
million dollars is the useless tribute
annually levied upon the people of
the United States by its bad roads. In
1896 widespread inquiry made by
the office of public roads indicated
that the average cost of hauling on
roads in the United States was TWEEN
ty-fi e cents ger ton per mile. In
of statistics ascertained from their
2,S00, county correspondents that
the average cost per ton per mile was
about twenty-three cents and the
average length of haul "a miles.
This rate is exceedingly conservative
and can be safely accepted as basis
of calculation.
The report of the Interstate Com
merce Commission for the year end
ed June 80. 1906, shows that the
railroads handled more than $40
million tons of freight originating on
their respective lines. OF this amount
agricultural, forest and miscellan-
eous products constituted about 32
| per cent, or approximately 265 mil
lion tons, or less than so per cent of
this total, was hauled over the coun-
| try roads, the cost at twenty-three
cents on an average haul of "a
miles would be $432, 900. To this
must be added the enormous tom
mage hauled from farms to canals,
wharyes and docks for shipment by
water If the cost of this hauling is
placed at only 81 = million dollars,
the total would reach the startling
sum of half a billion dollars annual
ly, and this does not include the pro-
ducts hauled back and forth between
farms and mills. TO meet the posi-
BILE contention that 80 per cent is a
high estimate of the agricultural
! forest and miscellaneous products
hauled by wagon, attention is called
| to the fact that many million tons OF
mining products are hauled by wag-
on, and these are not considered in
| this estimate.
Is this cost necessary and legiti-
mate? The experience of France
| England and Germany affords the
answer to this query. In those three
countries, the average cost of haul
ing is reported by our consuls to be
about ten cents per ton per mile
Leading writer's on highway en-
gineering state that the cost of haul
ing on broken stone roads, dry and
in good order, should be eight cents
per ton per mile. When it is consid-
cred that the roads of England
France and Germany are, to a large
extent, surfaced with broken stone
the consular reports seem to be in
entire agreement with the engineers
If the cost of hauling can be reduced
! in the United States to one-half the
present average, or eleven and one
| half cents ton, the resultant saw
! ing would be 250 million dollars a
year. And, if wise and equitable
road laws and good business man
agement are substituted for the
present antiquated and wasteful sys-
| tens, an additional direct saving OF
| 40 million dollars in the administra-
ton of the roads will result; so that
| by the simplest possible process OF
reasoning, it is apparent that the
people of this country have it within
their power to save themselves 200
million dollars a year in the two
items of hauling and road admins
| tration.
Railroad rates were seven and
one-third cents per ton per mile in
1897. Sixty-eight years of progress
| has resulted in bringing the cost OF
hauling by rail to rs miles in 1905
or about one-ninth the original rate
Seventy years ago, the charge fol
| hauling on the old Cumberland Pike
was seventeen cents per ton pei
mile, and this allowed a profit. Oul
railroad and steamship rates have
gone down and our common road
rates have gone up, until it now costs
the farmer 6 cents more to haul {
bushel of wheat "a miles from his
farm to a neighboring railroad sta
| ton than it does to haul ii from New
York to Liverpool, distance of 8,
! 100 miles These are condition.
which should hasten the era of roaC
| building Logan Walker Page, Di
lrector of the United States Office o.
Public Roads, Department of Agri
culture, in the Worlds Work fol
| Ip1v