The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1911-10-20
Good Roads Speech In Chicago

To the president. ladies and gentle
men of the International Good
Roads Congress-:
! had intended to make a speech
at this congress, but, after being here
one week, talking to those other
gentlemen and giving them my views
in regard to road building, several
81 those gentlemen have stolen my
speech and delivered 1t right from
this floor, and then looked at me
and smiled when they got through.
/ think this is imposing upon man
who has travelled 5000 miles, payins
his his own expenses, and getting
robbed in this manner!
Now, going back to the question OF
good roads when they first started
in our country;-but before telling
you about this, l will tell you that
l am railroad conductor. That isn't
my fault, was intended to be a
farmer. l was raised ON a farm in
southern Illinois. concluded to go
west some 80 years ago. / drifted
west to Washington and there NOV
ed to a farm six miles out in the
country. Before got moved out ano
Strengthened around, I realized the
thing needed most was good roads.
So ! talked good roads to my wife
and she commenced talking about
sending me to the insane asylum.
I 81 ~ I'd In tnh hC
l organized Good Roads club at
Lacenter, Clark county, Washington,
and succeeded in getting a pretty
fair organization. AS near as l can
remember at the present time, We
built a mile of good road where it cost
$3.50 to blow stumps out OF the right
of-way. This we succeeded in get
ting the county to furnish the powder
for, and by hard work, l got the
people along the road to donate the
labor. And l talked good roads tt
everybody, advocating the working OF
convicts on the road exclusively
Some of my neighbors said l was q
bully good fellow and that we would
surely have good roads in our county.
Others said | ought to be in the pen
itentiary; more said l was fit SUBJ
ject for the insane asylum. But at
the end of about year or two,
found myself in more trouble than
hen with one chicken, over good
roads. So, as l had had some rail-
road experience, concluded the best
way to keep out of the penitentiary
was to go to railroading. So l dio
and l am at it yet.
Now, discussing good roads from
religious standpoint, l would al
wise anybody living in the country
such as lived in, with roads in the
same condition as those there, if he
has any religion to stay away from
church, especially If you must drive
through the five miles like l had to
60 to church, for every time l wen,
to church l found, upon returning
home that evening, that l had lit
tie less religion than l did when !
started in the morning-all due to
the condition of the roads. l was
somewhat like the man dying of a
slow disease, l was getting a little
worse off every day in regard to re-
ligiOn Just as the man was gettins
little weaker. However, l am glad
to say that l have lived long enough
to see the day when, in our state and
other states, we are working convicts
building public highways; we are
getting good work; it is better for
the convict from the humane stand
point to work out in the open and DO
work that gives him muscle, color
and stamina; and in our state, where
we work convicts, we remove the
prison garb, give them clothing the
same as any other laboring man
wears. II you came along where coll
victs are working, unless somebody
told you that it was a convict camp,
you would not know but what it
was an ordinary gang of laborers
building roads. And as you have
been told by the governor of Colo
RADIO, l will concede that Colorado
is far ahead of any other state in the
union, relative to the handling of
convicts in the building of public
highways, as told you by the COVER
nor, is to give the convicts ten days
off for every 80 days served on the
road-that is Is days off his SEN
tence. And you would be surprised
to 60 to convict camp in Colorado,
see the convicts working with no
guard-there is no guard around.
and only two superintendent in the
camp, and the only man who Is al
lowed to carry gun in a Colorado
convict camp is one of the convicts
himself who guards the camp at
night. The camp consists of tents,
with no barricade ground-no fence
no nothing. You will find one con-
vict guarding camp of one hundred
men. And in two years time, we
are told, the whole state of Colorado
has only lost two convicts out OF
approximately 400 working on the
roads continuously-all the time.
When an order comes to furnish
convicts to work on the road every
man in the penitentiary is an appll-
cant to go to the camp. We are told
by the governor that he has an appli-
cation from a man who is 70 years
old to go on the road to work.
In our state of Washington, We
have had .onvicts doing rock work
and when the job is finished, figuring
the work at the lowest bid offered
by contractors, we find the convict
had earned for the state 81 or ner