Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1911-08-11

A good roads club was organized
by one of the progressive citizens.
and almost Immediately the idea
found popularity among the major
ity of the inhabitants of the com
munity. Local merchants showed an
eagerness to cooperate, even In a
substantial way, and in short time
an expert road builder was called in
to lecture on the subject. The active
good roads movem ent dated from that
moment.
Every farmer and villager was no.
titled that he had been delegated to
take care of the road adjacent to and
abutting his property. Every farmer
in the locality received the same no.
tice. No one had ever thought of do
ing this work himself. All of the road
building energies of the community
had heretofore been devoted to be-
rating the road commissioners. In
stantly a sort of individual pride
sprang up in the hearts of the peo-
pie. Heaps of rough stone disappear
ed over night, and the small boys
were gathered into a club of their
own annd spent much of their spare
time under direction of an older per-
son cleaning up the sides of the road
and cutting the weeds away A gem
eral cleaning day was set aside in
which every man, boy and woman
turned out to improve the condition
of the roads in the town. That is what
happened in that town. But in the
adjacent country a bigger movement
was on foot.
Farmers who had waited patiently
for the road gang to repair the roads
now strolled out of their barnyards
and wondered how they might best
do the work themselves. They asked
the good roads club about it, and in
return received literature telling how
to construct the simple yet famous
King split-log drag. 1t was an easy
matter after that. Every farmer in
the locality spent his time scraping
the rough road around his land, fill
ling in holes with mud, disposing of
huge stones that Uttered the road
way, and in dragging out the ruts,
The spirit of rivalry entered into
this, and later the good roads club
offered prizes for the best section of
good roads. Polished country roads,
like boulevards, were the result. The
young people on the farms came Of
tener to town and felt more satisfied.
The rural mail carrier began to whis-
tie on his route, and the storekeeper
ers frightened up perceptibly. 1t was
not long before the automobiles be-
gan coming through and the money
they brought to that town made the
old days, when bad roads were COM
mon, time to be forgotten.
Such is the story of how one town
developed it's roads and built itself
up from an obscure little village to a
busy little city. There must be at
least one progressive man in every
community who is looking forward
to developing himself and his bus
mess along with the community in
general, 1t only takes one word of
this gospel of good roads to start the
ball moving, although there is on rec
ord the story of one dying commun-
ity that refused to allow the state to
build beautiful boulevard through
the town because 1t would disturb
the old cobblestones that were in the
streets before the Revolutionary war.
But such places are scarce. Active
warfare against the vile road condi-
lions that exist all over this country
is what is needed to make the old
look like new and to solve the prob
lens that the present day race is
now facing-those of the high cost
of living, the desertion of the farms
by the young people, the resuscita-
ton of home trade and the general
traffic conditions in the country.