The Yale expositor. (Yale, St. Clair County, Mich.) 1894-current, 1911-06-01


county. The state will also help, and
the result will be $50 to 800 miles OF
first class highways, covering the
county with Detroit as a center. BY
spreading the payment over 20 years 1t
Is found the increase In taxation Is so
small as not to be noticeable. On an
average 80 acre farm 1t will be some
thing like $3.50 a year.
Roads we'll built are permanent.
given a moderate amount of attention
and expense for maintenance.
There Is no reason why the present
generation should carry the whole bur-
den and the future should be relieved
therefrom.
The plan OF building a small piece of
road every year by an annual tax, and
extending the road a mile or two at a
time is unsatisfactory in results, the
cost is considerable more than IL
should be, and 1t takes a long time to
get the roads. If 20 miles were built
at one time in township, there would
be strong competition among contract
ors and the tax payers would find they
per cent less money, that they would
have better built roads and would have
them to use at once instead of waiting
ten years or more to build them piece
meal, and have the first mile practi.
cally worn out before the last one was
finished. or course there would be
interest to pay on the bonds, but If the
- h< L.. L.,
the community than the interest on the
bonds, it would not pay to build the
roads. Money can be borrowed at four
or FIVE per cent. and those in a posi-
ton to form good judgment, will say
that first class roads will pay for them
selves every five years, or in other
words. that their use Is worth 20 per
cent. of the cost each year.
One sometimes hears a farmer, who
is opposed to the building of hard
roads, say that he can raise no more
grain or get larger return from the
farm by reason of having good roads.
Such one will attempt to sustain his
position by stating only part of the
whole proposition. OF course it is true
that the road has no influence upon
the productivity of the farm along which
passes, but it does not follow that
the net results are the same, whether
the roads are good or bad.
Only few days ago the writer waa
down in the corn belt of Illinois and
saw four horses hauling lead Of corn
into town. 1t was all the horses could
DO to handle the load, although the
country was comparatively level. The
mud in the road was nearly a foot
deep. No fair minded man will say
that a crop can be marketed under
| such conditions as cheaply as when the
roads are good, and single team can
handle the same at twice the speed
The value of the farm does not de-
| pend alone upon what the soil will pro
duce, but upon its accessibility to
market, the environment and whether
the farm Is in every way desirable as
a place to live. We spend money fol
pleasure and for comfort, and it is
right that we should do so. Probably
as a rule too little Is spent fol
this. Whenever good roads have beer
built, in any community, there has
been a sharp advance in the price Of
land, because the farms are more &C
cessible. The writer has in mind q
county in northern Indiana, where
about ten years ago a system of "a
miles OF hard roads were built, cover
ing the main highways Of the town
ship. About $4,000 were spent upon
the improvements, the payment spread
over ten years. Within a year afte,
the roads were built the farmers were
asking and getting SIS to $25 an acre
more for their farms than they could
have gotten before the roads were
built. In some cases the advance was
even more. The increase In taxation
was hardly felt.
One Ct the prominent residents O,
the township, in commenting upon the
Improvement, said that the building OF
the roads exerted a powerful influence
upon the lives of the people of the
township-everybody began to slick
up, new picket fence replaced the old
| tumble down board fence, the house
was painted walks laid out, and ALI air
or thrift was apparent everywhere
Also following the good roads, a town.
ship high school was built, and ar.
rangements made to carry the children
to and from school, This was a great
relief to the isolation the young
people were placed under before the
roads were built. The new school be.
came the social center and they found
in that township that the building of a
system Of roads was the best invest.
ment they had ever made. and under
no circumstances could they be in.
duced to go back to the old way. II
Is the same story everywhere; in every
locality where any community ever be-
gan to build good highways, and had
the experience OF building, using and
paying for them, the community was
not only satisfied but kept on build.
ing more and more roads.
In the last analysis 1t will be found
that the building of highways adds to
the value of the farm served by them
several times the cost, and this in
'rease in farm values Is only one OF
| ne many advantages that grow out OF
| IL.