Mountain Home maverick. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1906-1911, 1910-04-21
BELIEVES IN
GOOD ROADS
NORTH CAROLINA EDITOR TELLS
HON. TO GET THEM AND
KEEP THEM UP.
Galveston to Spend Half a Million
For Roads-Wonderful Progress in
theSOuth-Bond Issues Made i'm
Many OF the Counties.

The following is an abstract from
an address by Henry b. Warner, editor
OF the Lexington IN. CO. Dispatch,
one of the most earnest and consis-
tent advocates for good roads in the
south. before the National Editorial
association at New Orleans recently;
Building good roads is the para
mount issue before the people of this
country. Nothing hampers develop
ment, material, moral or spiritual, so
much as mud. and nothing could pos
possibly speed development more
than good roads 1t is idle for me
to attempt an enumeration of the
benefits good roads confer ON a peo-
pie. Every man, no matter how un-
Iettered. instinctively knows that a
good road is far better thing to have
than a bad road We naturally have
il in us to know the value of and
to construct an easy pathway, but un-
fortunately the devil Of tax steps
in and tempts us to bear the ills we
have rather than fly to blessings we
know of and greatly desire. Our
-rsople all believe in good roads, but
there are some who are unwilling to
!. pay the cost.
Good roads mean progress and
prosperity. and are benefit to the
sAople who live in cities. and an adj
vantage to those who live in the
country.
Like good streets, they make hab-
itation along them desidable. You
see a shabby home by the side of q
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 those roads tC
be a powerful factor in encourag-
ing the settlement of unused lands
Roads also have a far-reaching in
fuence in holding men to their farms
and in restraining them from drift
ing to the towns. As the price oi
land depends as much on accessible
ity to market as on productivity, il
follows that road improvement by
holding people and attracting others
directly tends toward increase il
values Of all farm lands within toucf
of the improved highways. 1t is
shown that in states where the aver
age price Of land is less than $40 al
acre. the percentage of improved
roads is per cent of the total mile
age.
1.-THE present high prices of nee
.essities, aside from other considera
tions, are caused in part by impas
sable county roads in all parts of thu
land. tt costs each year $5OO,00O,00'
to haul the products of the farm t
the market towns, the cost per mile
being twice as much as in Europe
where they have excellent highways
HOW-TO GET GOOD ROADS.
"The question comes, how to &c
good roads? Shall we vote a direc
tax or shall we issue bonds? Shal
we pay as we go, or shall we pa,
part now and let future generation
pay part?
ITO my mind the whole question
comes down to whether we want goo'
roads now or whether we are viii
ling to build "a few miles now AM
let another generation build a fey
more and another a few more, unit
in the course of human events W
secure good roads throughout the ma
tion after every person now at tn
age of accountability is dead an
gone. Mecklenburg county. in m
state, has been building roads thirt
years. and she has added about 20
miles, using direct tax Gulifor
county has been building road 81
years and she has 100 miles, usin
bonds. We are too far behind to dc
bend on a direct tax. We must 2
ahead and issue bonds. build tn
roads, Increase our wealth and rea
many-fold the cost Of the roads.
should a county issue bonds. be
Tore dollar is expended a competen
civil engineer should be secured an
put to work mapping out the count,
He should be under either the count
commission, composed Of the commi.