Montpelier examiner. [volume] (Montpelier, Idaho) 1895-1937, 1911-09-15

simply because their highways have been in the
making for many centuries, whereas we have
mighty few turnpikes that are more than one
hundred or at most two hundred years old. And
furthermore on top of the youth of our country
in road building there is the circumstance of the
tremendous size of Uncle Sans domain. No
wonder the Europeans have been able to have
good roads when half or two-thirds as many peo-
pie as we have in this whole vast country have
been contributing their work and their taxes to
keep up the roads in a territory no larger than
one Of our medium size states.
But for all the lead given by time and the adj
vantage of dense population it looks as though
we would overtake our cousins overseas in the
matter of the possession of good roads. Indeed,
even now In some states, such as sections of
Massachusetts, there are roads as fine as any
thing of similar character on the other side of
the big pond. The secret of this boom in road
building in America lies in organization as well
as agitation and the country is likely to see new
fruits from both during the middle week of Sep
TENDER when a Good Roads Week" will be held
throughout the United States. This week of
missionary work" is expected to stir up a good,
ly share of our people on the question of good
roads and 1t is hoped that some of the new con-
verts and the old will that week practice what
they preach to the extent of lending a hand to
the building here and there Of stretches OF
model road" that will serve as convincing object
lessons.
Good Roads Week" is going to be held in con
nection with the first annual convention of the
American Association for Highway improvement
which will be held at Richmond, Va, and will be
addressed by many of the most prominent men
In the country. This national organization will,
Of course, be much in the public eye in this con
n~ection, but 1t is only one of scores Of associa-
lions great and small that have been helping in
this cause. There are state organizations and
county organizations and even township organi-
cations all over the country that have been sup
porting our national. state and municipal govern
ments in what they have been doing for better
roads, and the results attained prove what can be
accomplished when a large number of people who
are very much in earnest set out to all pull to-
gether" toward a desired goal.
A good many people who have not looked very
deeply into the subject have gained the idea that
the motorists are more largely responsible than
any other class Of people for this dawning era OF
good roads. Now, 1t would not be right to dis
parage what the automobilists have done, which
has been considerable In one way or another, but
in the interest of the truth 1t must be pointed
out that the one factor supreme in influence for
better roads has been the wide-awake farmer. To
be sure 1t is a fact, and a mighty significant one,
that the largest and most powerful corporations
in the country-business interests such as our
biggest railroads and the steel trust and the
Standard Oil corporation-are working energetic.
ally with the new American Association for High
way Improvement because they realize that any
thing that will help the condition of the country
at large will help their business. At the same
time it is the farmer class that are supplying the
backbone of this movement just as they are of
every other big movement affecting rural condi-
| tons and have been from time out of mind.
II is just as well to admit right here, too, that
the average farmer who is going in hard for the
cause of better roads is not 6evoting his time and
his labor to the project on any fanciful sentiment
al basis. OF course, it contributes to his pride to
see his farm bounded or bisected by a splendid
road and he is gratihed that the good folk who
go past his door pleasure riding should have an
easy pathway. but the great underlying impetus
is found in the need of good roads to enable the
farmer to market his produce conveniently and
economically.