The enterprise. [volume] (Harlem, Mont.) 1899-1926, 1911-06-15

W0SreOn one may rue OF uTlvo With
pleasure or have a full load without
strain upon the horse, vehicle or har-
ness.
To do this the road must have
hard, smooth surface and offer tho
minimum Of resistance. This requires
the surface to be "metaled," as the
English say, 1. e., covered with gravel,
broken stone or an equivalent.
An earth road may be IN excellent
one today and tomorrow 4 very bad
one. It may be delight in June and
fright In March. Such roads have
the virtues Of balky horse-they are
liable to fail when most wanted. With
a stone or gravel road, leading from
the farm, should heavy rain occur In
the busy season, when for day or 30
it is too wet to 80 into the field, the
errands to town may be done, sew
eral loads of grain or hogs taken to
market, and the time we'll employed.
With the average earth roads, when
the fields are too wet to work, the
roads are too muddy to travel. Hence.
the writer holds to the opinion above
expressed, that no earth road is en-.
titled to be called good road, because
so much Of the time It Ia positively
bad.
The extravagant claims that have
been made for the road drag are really
holding back the building of good
roads. Many have believed that oil
that was required to have good roads
was to go up and down q streak OF
mud once OF twice, say presto" and
behold, good highway. This is sheer
nonsense. The loud acclaim Of q
River to River Road,@ made good IN
an hour or so Ia myth. This famous
road was greatly improved by the drag
ging, but 1t Is not good road, and
never will be until 1t Is thoroughly
drained, properly graded and has a
hard, durable wearing surface placed
upon 1t.
It is human nature to hunt for some
easy, cheap and speedy way to do
things. and usually no sooner has one
discovered how to make some progress
toward solution, than he announces
a complete revolutionary discovery that
sets aside all experience and prece-
dent, and gains something for nothing.
The split log drag Is directly In point.
The people may as we'll make up
their minds now, as to find out later
that good roads cost money and lots Of
1t, but they are worth many timer
their cost and they will pay for them
selves over and over again every dec
ade. A we'll drained and we'll bull
macadam road with good binder may
cost anywhere from $4,000 to $1,000
per mile, but such a road with mod
crate repairs will last for generations
Hence the future should bear part o
the burden. There is only one sensi
BILE, businesslike way to build goot
roads, and that Is, by state aid, wher,
by the state, preferably from lonl
time low rate bond issue, pays part o
the expense, and the township issue
bonds, running from 20 to 80 years, TO
it's part. In this way all the road
needed in township-the main road
can be improved at once, and tn
payments spread over the present an,
the coming generations.
BY building all at once from tel
to twenty per cent. can be saved in tn
cost Of the work, and the communit,
has the roads to use from the start
Of course interest must be paid on tn
bonds, but against this goes the use O
the roads. If this is not worth NOR.
than the interest 1t is better not t.
build the roads. The road question i
a big one and must be handled in
big way.