Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1910-02-25

4 Like good streets they make habita-
ton along them desirable. You never.>
! or rarely and then not for long, see
| shabby home by the side of a modern
road, where everybody passes and sees
how you live. Statistics prove that In
nearly every case the states having the
| highest percentage of good roads show
4 those roads to be a powerful factor in
encouraging the settlement of unusued
| lands. Roads also have a far-reaching
influence in holding men to their farms
| and in restraining them from drifting
to the towns AS the price of land de-
ponds as much on accessibility to market
| as on productivity, ii follows that road
Improvement by holding people and at
ltracting Others directly tends toward in
crease in values of all farm lands with
| I'm touch of the improved highways.
1t is shown that in states where the
average price of land is less than $40 an
acre the percentage of improved roads
is only is, whereas, in states where the
average value is more than $40, the aver
| age of improved roads is per cent OF
i the total mileage.
| Time was in England when food would
be rotting in one place while people suf-
fered for the lack of IT in a community
few miles away. because it was impos-
sible to transport the products of the
| farm In the United States today some
who knows how large a percentage or
the cost of living is chargeable to mudT
thing of the same condition obtains, and
The present high prices of necessities.
Iaside from other considerations are caus-
ed i'm part by impossible country roads
lin all parts of the land. 1t costs each
Iyear $500. 100000 to haul the products of
/ the farm to the market towns. the cost
per mile being twice much as in Eu-
i rope, where they have excellent high
ways, n
HOW TO GET GOOD ROADS.
! The question comes, How to get good
i roads? Shall we vote a direct tax or
i shall we issue bonds? Shall we pay as
1--WE go, or shall we pay part now and
let future generations pay part?
Il To my mind the whole question comes
down to whether we want good roads
lnow or whether we are willing to build
a few miles now and let another genera
ton build a few more and another u
few more until i'm the course of human
events we secure good roads throughout
the nation after every person now at the
Il age of accountability is dead and gone.
IMecklenburg county, in my state, has
ibeen building roads 80 years, and she has
j about EOS miles, using direct tax. Gull
ford county has been building roads six
years and she has 100 miles, using bonds.
! we are too far behind to depend on
ldirect tax, We must go ahead and issue
thonds. build the roads, increase our
wealth and reap many-fold the cost of the
roads.
Should a county issue bonds, before
e dollar is expended a competent civil en-
gineer should be secured and put to work
mapping out the county, He should be UNI
der either the county commissioners or
highway commission, composed of the
commissioners and other men selected by
the people 1t is absolutely necessary that
IAN engineer be employed even though he
lcost considerable salary, for the Local
Itfon, construction and maintenance Of
roads are operations that no man or set
lof men without the aid Of an engineer
can conduct in the proper way to get the
best results at the least cost.
The money raised for roads by bonds
should be kept intact until it has been
hascertained exactly what class of roads
will best meet the requirements of the
location and what type Of road 1t is best
to build. These facts can be secured
through the aid of the national govern
ment. The office of public roads stands
ready to give gratuitous advice and sup
lply skilled highway engineers who are
amply qualified to tell what type of road
would best meet requirements and to de-
Imonstrate those suggestions by supervis-
ling the building of stretches of model
highways, after which local officials may
take pattern. When county officials learn
to appreciate the fact that road building
Is an art, they will rely more and more
upon expert advice and scientific demon
lstration, and when they have learned
what class of roads is desirable they will
construct them and then guard them.
BELIEVES NATION SHOULD HELP
J am an earnest believer in federal and
tate aid and cooperation in building good
roads, and / believe that the time is at
lhand when the government will hit upon
NIL MI wi
the state, and the state with the county
in the work.
] II has been argued that II Is unconsti
tutional. Why should 1t be more so than
the expenditure of money for river and
harbor improvements, which often takes
the form of a private enterprise? AS a
matter of fact, IL has been shown con-
clusively in congress that far from be-
ing unconstitutional, the government in
its vey beginning began the construc-
ton of good roads and expended more
4 than 100000 on the old Cumberland
road from Maryland to st. Louis, a dis
lance OF 700 miles, and the work was
abandoned only because there arose a
question of authority and responsibility
as to who should maintain and repair
the road, the states the federal gov
ernment.
What does the government do for the
farmer?
We spend millions annually on the
army-a dead loss, though doubtless nec-
essary.
We spend some hundred millions on the
navy.
We have spent s5OOOOO,COO on river and
harbor improvements.
During ten years we spent more than
SC, 900, 900, 900, of which about $47,O00O 900
went to the agricultural depArtment.
It'll, H. -
good roads, a common blessing for all
the people. During 90 years of all the
vast sums our government has disbursed
for one thing another, not a dollar
has been appropriated for roads