The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1910-06-22
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Good Roads and Their Value.

At the conventions of the Carriage
Builders National Association held
in New York Henry F. Keachline, OF
Philadelphia, chairman of the COM
mittee on good roads, read the fol-
lowing interesting paper:
Nothing is more essential to u
local and national development than
! good roads. This subject has been
one practically ignored by our Gov
eminent until the various agitatlons
covering a few recent years, and yet
we style ourselves as n of the o
progressive governments. The Ro-
mans were undoubtedly the greatest
road builders. Their roads were
built with funds from the imperial
eycheuuer. Napoleon was the road
builder of France, and constantly ad-
yocated the construction of govern
ment highways. England's good
roads are famous to-day, but were
not so less than a century ago; 1t
might be said, not until Telford and
Macadam agitated for roads, and by
Parliamentary appropriation; they
predicted the beneicent result sure
to follow the construction of better
roads.
"The United States must be- made
to recognize the Importance Of this
artery of it's commerce, its legislators
must be made to understand that
good roads are not only of beneht to
the farmers, who, in fact, are less de-
pendent than the millions of people
who live in our cities and towns. The
most casual investigation will show
that the consumer, after all, pays the
freight.
1--WE are only too prone to believe
that the railroads carry the most
freight and may have decreased the
cxigency of good roads; the figures at
hand, however, do not bear out this
assumption. Last year it cost ST.
S5O,OOO,000 to transport the products
of the country over the dirt roads to
nearer shipping points, while the
gross receipts of all The railroads was
considerably less, and when the as
tonishing figures are considered, the
saving that could be effected through
good roads is both startling and enor-
NOUS. Why, then, is 1t not made
fully apparent to the State and Ma
tional Government?
"The following table will show the
difference in cost of transportation by
horse power, electric power, steam
cars and steamships:
Per Ton.
Horse power, 5 miles. .s1.25
Electric power, rs miles 1860. 1.25
Steam cars, $50 miles ..:... 1.25
Steamship on lakes, 1000 miles. l.25
Thus it is found that it costs
twenty-five cents to transport every
ton of freight over our poor roads,
while in European States it IS less
than ten cents a mile. Good roads
would, therefore, effect a saving OF
over 1000 00,000 yearly.
1T seems almost absurd to think
so little attention has been given good
roads, which are so essential to the
welfare of all classes of people, espe-
cially when reminded that the Gov
eminent spends annually about $780,.
600, 900 for the navy, and that thus
far over $500, 100000 have been
spent for river and harbor improve.
ment, and it is firmly believed that
no one of those three improvements
is more important han the other. 1t
has been comparatively easy to get
an appropriation for a Federal struc.
lure of some kind for your locality,
but in more than fifty years not one
dollar for good roads,"