Mountain Home maverick. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1906-1911, 1911-03-16

out much valuable information re-
garding the great question Of good
roads, and among other things says:
There are three main reasons why
our roads are bad. First comes the
policy of localization which until
within the past few years prevailed
in all the states This places puon
the county and in most cases, upon
the road district or township, the
entire burden Of constructing and
maintaining the roads. and leaves to
it the initiative, as we'll as the final
determination Of the policy which
shall be pursued in carrying on the
work 1t naturally follows that the
more progressive counties distance
the less progressive counties; that
the undeyeloped sections of the coun-
try have a tendency to remain unde-
veloped; and that in the porrer coun-
ties the result is stagnation and de-
crease in population.
The second reason is that our road
laws generally disregard the neces-
sity Of skilled supervision ia road
work. Nine-tenths of the work is
done under the direction Of men who
have no knowledge of road building.
mad, what is worse. who have only
passing interest in it.
The third element, which alone
would prove hindrance to efficient
work is that of statute labor or the
method Of assessing road taxes on
terms of day labor, and Of placing
in charge of road improvement an
undisciplined body of workmen who
have no inclination to render an ade-
quate days work, who have no
knowledge whatever of the work and
who frequently are unuser to man
nal labor In practice, it is a matter
of common knowledge that working
the roads more frequently develops
into a pastime than into a real and
earnest endeavor to secure good
roads
In counties where there are first
class roads the population has in
creased in almost every case. The
sections of country which have lost
population are conspicuous for inn
passable roads.
Here is an example. In 25 coun-
ties, selected at random, in which
an average of only one and one half
per cent of the roads were improved
the population between 1890 and
1900. fell away over 5000 persons in
each county In another 25 coun-
ties selected at random, but in which
there was an average Of 40 per cent
of improved roads, the population
in each county increased over 81
600.
Whether good roads cause good
school OF vice versa. it is true that
they exist together and that one Of
the most importan reasons for good
roads in heir effect on school attend
ance in the country. If the country
schools do their best work in train
ing and instructing. the children
must be afforded facilities for reach
ing the schools with dry feet at all
seasons of the year The possibili-
ties of region of improved roads
are seen in the school wagons regu-
glarly gathering up the pupils and
hauling them to and from the graded
school which, through good roads is
replacing the little one-room. one
teacher schools so prevalent in many
sections Of the country When the
roads are put into such condition as
10 make this practice general, educa-
tipn in the United States will have
received tremendous impetus
1t costs the farmer who lives nine
and one-half miles from the railroad
over which he ships has products,
more omney to haul a bushel of
wheat than nine and one-half miles.
than it costs the buyer to ship that
bushel Of wheat from New York to
Liverpool, England TO be exact. ii
costs the farmer just one and one
sixth cents more. Something is
wrong It is the roads.
Before the railroads were built. the
cost Of hauling over the country road
was high. But since the railroads
were built-counting back 6S years
for the sake of comparison hauling
over the railroads has been cut &c
about one-ninth of the original cos
from seven and one-third cents
ton mile in 1897 to seven and one
tenth mills in 1905, or about one
ninth as much But the cost of haul
ing in on the country roads ha
gone up. Seventy years ago. on tn
old Cumberland pike, IL cost II cent