The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1910-04-23
HOW ABOUT GOOD ROADS.


There is distressingly little about the
good roads campaign in the papers of
the State About this time last year
almost every weekly paper in the Com
monwealth was carrying an editorial
article or news story in every issue
arguing the advantages of good roads.
pointing out how they might be had,
and calling on the people of the county
to take advantage of the highway to
progress Good roads meetings We're
being held everywhere; enthusiasm was
at high pitch; those who were work
ing to abolish the mud tax were en-
couraged to hope that the millennium
of good roads was at hand. All of
this is changed, and the few papers
which are still preaching the gospel
of good roads are voices in the wilder
mess.
1t is hard to account for this silence
Our people are not the kind to begin
a fight, push 1t hard for a season, and
then drop it. All that has been gained
in Virginia, for education, for better
government, for progress, has come,
not from short, decisive campaign
but from steady and consistent agita-
ton, extending over long periods of
time. The good roads fight was being
won in the same way.
In the circumstances it hardly seems
probable that our people are begin
ming to doubt the wisdom of good
roads. They certainly have no reason
for doing so. Every county which
has issued bonds or levied special
taxes to secure State aid is thanking
the gay it ever thought of the plan,
and every farmer who is travelling over
smooth roads to a good market is CON
WINGED that good roads pay Nor is
it probable that the failure of the AS
sembly to grant the usual amount for
State aid is responsible for the tenn
porary collapse of the campaign. There
may not be enough money to build
many roads, but there is enough to
keep the good work up, and this money
is at the disposal of the counties when
ever they are ready to call for it.
The probable explanation of the gen
eral silence is that nobody has started
the agitation this spring. Our people
are merely waiting for somebody tc
remind them that there is much worl,
to be done and then they will pro-
coed to do it. If the papers get to-
gether and begin the agitation in ali
the counties of the State it is almost
certain that the good roads fever
will appear again and that the people
Will be seized with it.
II such be the true reason for the
silence of the press and for tho appar-
ent Indifference of the people, it is
time for the friends of good roads tc
start the ball rolling. The spring
rains are about over; the rough wealth
er Is certainly passed. the mud is be.
ginning to dry on the darkest, most
niry stretch of woodland road in Vir-
ginia, The roads teams should soon be
brought out, and the advocates OF bet,
ter highways should begin to assemble
In two months 1t will be too late to be
gin a successful campaign,
The cause Is too great and too vita
TO Virginia 10 be abandoned. Alons
better roads is the great agricultural
i future of this state and along bette
roads every farmer can move to pro
4 gress and afluence, II the work b
4 taken up 2ealously and pushed con
sistently, we can lake Virginia out o
the mud and put her on the macadan
of prosperity. 1t Is time to start.
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i THE OTHERS ARE LIKE UNTt
u THESE.
One of the Republican leaders q
Rhode Island has written forma
letter OF regret at the retirement o
Il Senator Aldrich, in which he review
4 the services of the Senate Boss am
expresses his sense of what his part
will lose when Aldrich leaves publ
life, He concludes with tho hope tina
the man who succeeds Senat tor AL drio