Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1911-02-24
GOOD ROADS


The assumption has been that there
is only one good roads question and
that that related to the construction
of new macadam roads. But there
are now and will be for a half CEN
fury many miles of earth roads and
these also should be good. The
gradients should be good, the drain
age should be good, the culverts
should be properly placed and of
proper size, the bridges should be
safe and where needed, the surface
should be placed and kept in proper
condition. In Whitman county there
are $500 miles of earth roads and
perhaps five miles of state aid ma
cadam road. The $500 miles should
be good road as well as the five miles.
The system of locating, grading and
repairing such roads should be such
as to render to the public prompt and
good service. If a culvert is out on
such road so that it keeps an en-
tire community from reaching its
market town for a week or a month.
great loss and injury result. If the
inspection is so distant and the red
tape so long that either members of
the community, who have. paid their
taxes in money for this very purpose,
must make the repairs at private ex-
pense or suffer the inconvenience and
loss incident to delay, the system of
bad good roads" to such a people
does not mean some far distant ma
cadam highway constructed at cost
of from six to ten thousand dollars
mile, but it does mean a highway
by which they attend to the ordinary
business of the farm. We are apt
to forget that the proportion of the
two kinds Of roads in Whitman coun-
ty, namely, 2500:5 is not far from
what it is elsewhere and that there
are consequently about $500 people
who, when thinking and talking of
good roads, mean good earth high
ways properly equipped, to five per-
sons who talk about the macadam
road. So whatever is done or Is not
done, this vast mileage Of country road
which must long remain unmacadam-
lied must neither be overlooked nor
unprovided for. If Whitman county
had each section surrounded by a
highway with no roads leading to
the quarter sections there would be
between $500 and 1000 miles of
highway which if it were all macad-
amiZed would cost over thirty mill
ions of dollars. If farms are to be
cut up and settlements on smaller
tracts are to increase, there must be
the greatest facility in the creating
and opening up of new highways.
One of the greatest impediments to
the settlement on smaller farms is
this one of getting new highways
opened up. 1t must be remembered
too that so far as the staple crops are
concerned, they are moved largely in
the autumn months when the roads
are good and when the farmers
would even prefer to have his horses
go unshod.
We must not of course overlook
the fact that we have reached the
time when we must begin the other
kind of good road, namely, the per-
manent macadam road. And it Is
about this kind of road that the bat
tie has ragged long and loud recently
OF these we have two subdivisions,
to-Wit: the state roads" and the
state aid roads" OF the former
will say nothing, except this, that the
road, in this day and age is chiefly a
local affair. Translate traffic, in
modern times, goes by rail or river
which are the true state highways of
the day. In such a state as Wash
ington a trans-Cascade road as a
state affair is possibly justifiable, if
not on economic grounds, perhaps on
military, or at least publicity
grounds. But the state aid" road
is a local affair. The macadam road
is needed, and needed now. The
principal questions are Where shall