St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1911-07-12
Our Good Roads System.

Our Good Roads System.
Experience seems to demonstrate
more and more clearly the wisdom
of the policy of road improvement
that State Highway Commissioners
Gates has been following and gradu-
ally installing in Vermont. The ex-
perience of other states proves this.
The expensive state macadam high
ways are proving anything but per-
manent and cheap to maintain. Here
is what the Greenfield Gazette and
Courier says of those magnificent
roads of Massachusetts that Vermont
ers have been urged to mortgage
themselves and their posterity for:
Great disappointment is express ID
at the manner in which the state ma
cadam roads are wearing out under
the strain of automobile traffic. Some
people, familiar with the gravel
roads in Vermont and New Hamp-
shire, say that as a whole the roads
in that section are better than ours,
in spite of the enormous sums of
money we have spent on macadam. In
many places our state roads are tasr
degenerating into heaps of little
sharp and pointed stones. Frequent
ly the trouble is due to the failure to
use a tar or oil binder to protect
the surface. But in other cases
where a tar binder has been used,
notably one not far from Mountain
Park, Holyoke,s the condition of the
road is described as like badly
broken tar sidewalk. The horses
hoofs cut up the surface, the speed
ing motors pull out the fragments,
the wind tears out the finer dirt,
leaving the road wreck. Unless
better ways are discovered of protect
ing our stone roads they are likely
to be a terribly costly failure. There
is an interesting disposition to return
to the old fashioned gravel road as
cheaper and more readily repaired.
New Hampshire's road policy and
its trunk lines built at state expense
have been widely advertised as an ex-
ample Vermont must follow if it de-
sires to exist and attract outsiders.
But the Manchester Union says edi-
torially:
Since the general supervision,
control and direction of so much of
the highway business of the state was
committed to the governor and coun-
1905 and increased since, there has
been observed a growing disposition
to charge unsatisfactory conditions
upon the roads of the state to that
official board. Under the statutes,
every town in the state may receive
aid from the general treasury for
road Improvement or care provided
the conditions are met. This fact
makes it easy for those who wish to
shift the blame that criticism or gem
era1 complaint implies from the local
authorities upon which it most often
belongs to the more remote authori-
ty which in most instances has Meth
er responsibility or direction in that
respect.
The editor continues that while the
law directs every highway agent and
street commissioner to remove all the
loose stones in the highways of his
district they neglect their duty and
are trying to hold the governor and
council responsible for this lack of
work. In other words the local off,
GERS try to shift the responsibility
on to the state officials who find it
impossible to watch such details all
over the state. more serious con-
dition is placing the execution of the
highway laws in the hands of the
governor and council, a BODY whose
personnel is completely changed every
two years. By the time they begin
to understand what should be done
they step out to let more inexperienc-
ed politicians into control. No fixed
policy or steady accomplishment car
be attained under such circumstances
The results in Vermont commend
the states highway policy independ-
emily of what the experience of other
states shows. We have a definite
policy of constructing highways with
state funds and an Official appoint
ed for that particular work tc execute
that policy and we are getting con.
sistent and uniform Improvement II
highways throughout the state. This
latter statement will be more gener.
ally realized at the close of the pres
ent season as special attention ii
being given the cross and back roads
On the whole it must be admitted
that Vermont is doing tolerably wei
on the road question.