The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1910-07-21
GOOD ROADS SPEECH.
Hon. VIM. SulZer Makes an ELOQUENT
Plea in Congress for Better
Public Highways.
The Good Roads Movement Is Not
Confined to Any State.
It is Nation Wide.

When the postal savings bill was
under discussion in the national
house of representatives on June 9,
Hon. VIM. Sulzer of New York en-
braced the opportunity of delivering
an eloquent speech on the subject of
lettering the public highways and the
manifold advantages to be derived
thererfom. Annexed hereto is the text
of Mr.. Sulzer's speech:
For years, Mr.. Speaker, I have
been an earnest advocate of postal
savings, parcels post, and good road
building. They are sure to come, and
I shall briefly discuss some of their
advantages. Good roads mean pro-
gross and prosperity, benefit to the
people who live in the cities, and ad
vantage to the people who live in the
country, and it will help every section
of our vast domain. Good roads,
like good streets, make habitation
along them most desirable: they en-
nance the value of farm lands, facili
tate transportation, and add untold
wealth to the producers and con-
sumers of the country: they are the
milestones marking the advance of
civilization; they economic time, give
labor a lift, and make millions in
money; they save wear and tear and
worry and waste; they beautify the
country-bring it in touch with the
city; they aid the social and the reli-
.gious and the educational and the in
dustrial progress of the people,; they
make better homes and happier
hearthsides; they are the avenues of
trade, the highways of commerce, the
mail routes of information, and the
agencies of speedy communication;
they mean the economical transporta-
ton of marketable products-the
maximum burden at the minimum
cost; they are the ligaments that bind
the country together in thrift and in
dustry and intelligence and patrio-
tism; they promote social intercourse,
prevent intellectual stagnation, and
increase the happiness and the pros
perity of our producing masses; they
contribute to the glory of the country,
give employment to our idle workmen,
distribute the necessaries of life-the
products of the fields and the forests
and the factories energy
and husbandry, inculcate love for our
scenic wonders, and make mankind
better and broader and greater and
grander.
The plain people of the land are
familiar with the truths of history.
They know the past. They realize
shat often the difference between good
roads and bad roads is the difference
between profit and loss. Good roads
have money value far beyond our
ordinary conception. Bad roads con-
stitute our greatest drawback to in
sternal development and material pro-
gress. Good roads mean prosperous
farmers; bad roads mean abandoned
farms, sparsely settled country dis
'tricts, and congested populated cities,
where the poor are destined to become
poorer. Good roads mean more cul-
tivated farms and cheaper food pro-
ducts for the toilers in the towns; bad
roads mean poor transportation, lack
of communication, high prices for the
necessaries of life, the loss of untold
millions of wealth, and idle workmen
seeking employment. Good roads
will help those who cultivate the soil
and feed the multitude, and whatever
aids the producers and the farmers OF
our country will increase our wealth
and our greatness and benefit all the
people. We can not destroy our
farms without final decay. They are
today the heart of our national life
and the chief source of our material
greatness. Tear down every edifce
in our cities and labor will rebuild
them, but abandon the farms and our
cities will disappear forever.
Zone of the crying needs in this
country, especially in the south and
west, is good roads. The establish
ment of good roads would in great
measure solve the question of the high
price of food and the increasing cost
of living. By reducing the cost OF
transportation it would enable the
farmer to market his produce at a
lower price and at larger profit at
the same time. It would bring COM
munities closer together and in touch
with the centers of population, there
by facilitating the commerce of ideas
as we'll as of material products.
':When the agricultural production
alone of the United States for the
past eleven years totals $500, 1000, OOO,-
900, a sum to stagger the imagination,
and it cost more to take this product