Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1910-04-22


the expense of those which did. 1t is
full time the law was repealed, and an
other far better adapted to the wants
and temper of our people enacted, leav-
ing out superfuous Offices, and letting
each town manage their own affairs.
'When candidate for State office
says he is in favor of good roads, he in
effect begs the question Every ntell-
gent man is in favor of good roads.
The real issue is how to secure better
roads. Shall we bond the State for an
immense sum to build roads, or shall we
adopt some other plan?
"A few years ago the road problem
had been practically solved for our
State, and we We're to all appearances
ready to adopt a broad system of OPP
erations in the direction of improved
highways. Macadam roadway for the
cities and towns which could afford the
machinery necessary for crushed stone
highways; gravel roads for the towns
possessing extensive gravel pits of the
right kind, and the adoption of the
most modern methods Of constructing
and draining roadway where neither Of
the two methods named was available
these were the alternatives. With a
State system in operation there was
apparently no limit to the possibilities
save the one of finance.
The advent of the automobile, espec-
tally the scOrcher, which extracts the
binder from crushed stone roadway and
digs ruts in gravel highway, has trans
formed the situation as regards the
good road problem. In Massachusetts,
the home of the best road in New Eng
land, as well as i'll other regions where
permanent roads so-caled, have been
instituted, there has been a return to
the experimental stage in road building.
In some sections it has been discovered
that thousands of dollars have been
practically thrown away through the
use of material unsuitable to the latest
conditions of travel and road builders
everywhere are seeking to devise ways
and means of adapting methods of con-
struction to the unforeseen wear and tear
which must now be met.
"Under normal conditions we would be
in favor of the immediate provision of
trunk lines of roadway for Vermont
A system of good roads connecting the
principal centers would do more to de-
velop our summer business and to pro-
mote the development of home market
for our farmers than any other public
improvement that could be devised
But can Vermont afford to borrow
animmense sum of money to be spent at
once in the building of trunk lines of
roadway before road authorities have
solved the problem as to the material
and the method best calculated to resist
the inroad of the automobiles?
Another obstacle in the path of the
adoption of big bodybuilding policy
by the State is the pronounced inclina-
ton of our towns to stand for home rule
in the matter of the control of high
ways. Many of the towns have spent
thousands of dollars in their own way in
the construction of permanent high
ways: and they will not readily surren-
der to the State in this direction.
All things considered it seems to us
that the people of Vermont will be in
clined to continue to combine the town
system with State aid and State super
vision gradualley extended as settled
problems of road-buildng and financial
conditions will warrant. We want per-
manent roads as fast as we can get
them, but we want to know they are to
be permanent when we pay for them,
and we want to know where the money
is coming from. With these slight
problems disposed of, it will be possible
for any clipper politician to declare
advisedly he is in favor of good roads
for Vermont.