Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1911-12-14
GOOD ROADS BETTER COUNTRY
Highways Tell Tale Of Profit or Lose
and Spell Ruin for County That
Neelects Them.

roads and bad roads is the difference
between profit and loss. Good
roads have money value far
| beyond our ordinary conception.
Bad roads constitute our great
| est drawback TO internal devel-
opment and material progress. Good
roads mean prosperous farmers; bad
roads mean abandoned farms, sparse
ly settled country districts, and con-
gested populated cities, where the
poor are destined to become poorer.
Good roads mean more cultivated
farms and cheaper food products 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 of our country will in
crease our wealth and our greatness
and benefit all the people. We cannot
destroy our farms without final decay.
tional life and the chief source of our
material greatness. Tear down every
edifice in our cities and labor will re.
build them, but abandon the farms
and our cities will disappear forever.
l take an abiding interest in this
all-absorbing question for better high
ways by some plan it can be done
honestly, economically and constitu-
tionally. / am not committed TO any
pet scheme. | have no vanity in the
matter. ! care not who gets the glory
SO long as the people get the results.
/ am for the cause and in the fight
TO stay. Good roads mean progress
and prosperity, a benefit to the people
who live IN the cities, an advantage
TO the people who live in the coun-
try, and 1t Will help every section Of
our vast domain. Good roads, like
good streets, make habitation along
them most desirable; they enhance
the value of farm lands, facilitate
transportation, and add untold wealth
to the producers and consumers Of
the country; they are the milestones
marking the advance of civilization;
they economic time, give labor 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 religious and
the educational and the industrial
progress of the people; they make
better homes and happier hearth
sides; they are the avenues of trade;
the highways of commerce, and mail
routes of information, and the agen-
cies of speedy communication; they
mean the economical transportation
Of marketable products-the maxi |
mum burden at the minimum cost; |
they are the ligaments that bind the
country together in thrift and indus |
try and intelligence and patriotism;
they promote social intercourse, pre- |
vent intellectual stagnatiou and in !
crease the happiness and the prosper
ity Of our producing masses; they |
contribute to the glory of the coun-
try, give employment to our idle .
workmen, distribute the necessaries
of life-the products of the fields and |
the forests and the factories-en- /
courage energy and husbandry, iucul- |
cate love for our scenic wonders and .
make mankind better and greater and .
grander and broader. !
Good roads are the arteries of indus
trial life of great and powerful peo-
,,ID oil
try. In a government such as ours
all sorts of men and women are more ,
or less absolutely dependent upon the
best and speediest means of eommu-
nication and transportation # you |
say that good roads will only help the
farmer, / deny it. The farmer who /
produce the necessaries of life are |
less dependent than the millions and |
millions OF people who live in our cit.
les. The very lives of the latter de-
pend on the farmers-the producers |
Of the necessaries of life. The most
superficial investigation of this SUBJ
ject will clearly prove that good roads
are more important to the consumers
than they are to the producers OF
the country.
The fathers of the republic wisely
recognized the importance Of this
question. Washington and Jefferson
advocated good roads and projected
the construction of a great highway
from the capital to the Mississippi
valley. The far-seeing statesmen OF
the early days of our national exist
ence championed and passed meas
ures to better the means of transpor-
tttion They knew that of all human
agencies the one which has done most
for civilization has been the building
of good roadside COridgment of dis
tances, the shortening of time-in the
facility of communication. They real
lied the necessity of good roads, how
important they were to the country,
to its growth and its development;
and to mankind, morally, physically,
intellectually and industrially.
WILLIAM SULZER.
Division Extraordinary
At the Geological park it became