The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1910-10-09

Roads and RAILROADS. MT. 1Odhuh
said:
There Is not much new to be said
on the value of good roads to az
riculture and commerce. Every farm
er who hears me knows that the
necessity for county roads is as
old as farming itself. A good farm
away from railroad or public
road is almost as Improbable as
without water 1t is hard to under
stand why Americans, who have
been so enterprising in other things,
should be backward in making good
country roads. There has been a
disposition to use bull strength
and haul farm products over bad
roads regardless of expense.
Good roads add greatly to the
profits and comforts of farmers, but
knowing so and saying so do not
produce good roads; they will have
to be made. All talk and no work
will not make your roads. Go at 1t
with the same determination you
would to dig bitches or build fences.
A farmer In Crawford county,
Missouri, has his choice of haul
ing to either of two stations-one
two miles away with a poor road,
and the other four miles away with
a good road. He can drive the four
miles in less time and haul larger
loads. Good roads cut the time to
market in half and double the value
of farm property. You can't make
as good an investment in any other
way, and the state and general pub
lie should and will aid you if you
go about it in the right manner.
Many can remember that few
years ago one of the important is
sues of this country was whether
we Should have free public schools.
All admitted the value of them, but
good many close-tisted men
thought I'VE were getting along well
enough without them, and therefore
there was no use in paying out
money TO educate the masses. 1t
seems now almost unbelievable that
the proposition to educate the mass
es free should ever have been Sc
riously opposed. In earlier days it
was an exception to find among
the poorer classes one who could
read; now 1t is an exception TO find
among them one who cannot READ.
Western progress is making new
conditions. Only a few years ago the
rich lands of Oklahoma so far as
farming purposes were concerned,
were as far from American mar
kets as If they had been located
in South America. 1t was railroad
construction that placed these lands
in touch with comsuvrce, and it is
the public road that places the
farms In touch with the railroads.
Railroads were constructed rapidly
and people came to Oklahoma in
great numbers. Railroads made this
great development possible. Good
wagon roads are now needed to
make 1t more profitable and to aid
the states growth.
Farmers do not get the use of
their share Of the money earned
in the United States. There are
now about 92 million people in the
United States, and about 2S million
are farmers and their families. Inc
products of the farms are respon-
sible for more than one-third the
wealth and commerce of the coun-
try. No one can say that one-third
of this is used by you in the bet
terment of the country districts.
Compare country roads, full of mud
holes, with improved town streets,
Look at the country wooden bridges
and at town viaducts and steel
bridges. The cities have gone in
debt for streets to the extent Of
millions and hundreds of millions.
The farmers have not used their
share of the money and credit for
doing the things that help them.
They have borrowed but little mon
ey to make their roads compared
with what the town people have
borrowed to make their streets com.
Portable and cheap to haul goods
over.
By comparison. there Is too much
money going for luxuries of the
city, and for making life easy there,
and not enough for country I'M
provements, such as modern barns,
dairies and poultry houses. Not
enough is invested in up-to-date
farm implements. Our cities are
growing faster because money is
being noured into them to make