The Holbrook news., 1911-07-21
GOOD ROADS

Every farmer who don't give some time, thought and work 10 the i'm
 provement of wagon-roads is surely
 standing in his own light. Bad roads
 are one of the causes of the cost of | living that we are always harping about. We farmers still drag our pro
 duce to market over bad roads at the
 same old cost of forty years ago while
 the store-keeper, the factory-man and
 every one else are making every inn
 provement they can to reduce the cost
 of hauling"
 In these words, a plain California
 farmer, concluded his story of his
 conversion to the good roads" agita-
 ton.
 With prices sky-high," said flaw
 kins in his characteristic style, .'I
 started to town one day along in the
 worst part of the last rainy season
 with a bunch of hogs, a tub of but
 ter and a case of eggs. The whole outfit weighed only 1900 pounds, which was all could haul on account of the bad roads. If the roads had been hard and level could have pulled ton and a half just as well as not with no more
 expense to myself than for half the load. Figuring the ten-mile haul, which took me the best part of the working day, at $350 for the team,
 wagon and driver, I found that it was costing me about 46 cents ton for for every mile l hauled the 1900 pounds of live stock and produce was going to trade in town. I never figured on the cost of hauling to town before, and I tell you I was some sur prised at what found out.
 Naturally I got to figuring that if railroad charged 46 cents for hauling ton of stuff one mile I couldn't af- ford to eat anything but hay.
 '1 hadn't done figuring when I reached town, so when I had unloaded my hogs, butter and eggs and finished trading I walked to the railroad station and got to talking with the station agent about the cost of hauling. told him how much it had cost me to drag my farm products into town and then switched him around to what the rail- road charged for hauling. He pulled down off the shelf the report of the Interstate Commerce Commission and showed me, over the signatures of all the men who regulate the railroads, a statement that the average rate paid to a railroad for hauling a ton of stuff one mile was ONLY THREE-QUAR- TIERS OF A CENT.
 When I set these figures along side of the FORTY-SIX CENTS A TON it had cost me to haul those hogs, butter and eggs over every one of the ten miles of old, muddy dirt roads I began to think that we farm CTS are furnishing more than our share | of the high cost of living that we com plain so much about in a political campaign. I saw it plainer when I thought of the things we have to buy in town and made out that we are paying for just such waste as I had | piled up for fellows who ate my hogs, butter and eggs at the other end of the line.
 "On the other hand I figured that | with improved wagon-roads, such as I've read about in the papers from my old State of Pennsylvania, I could have hauled three tons instead of just one-quarter that much and saved for an extra profit margin on that one load about $2.62. I guess that goes a long way toward proving that if lived on a good, hard wagon-road I could under sell the farmer who didn't You see the farmer is a producer and all of his costs have to be taken care of be- fore the jobber or store-keeper can begin to pile up their costs.
 The station agent figured out for me that the railroad would have LESS THAN SIX CENTS for hauling the 1900 pounds of hogs, butter and eggs THh WHOLE TEN MILES. That brought home the fact that the railroad company would have HAULED MY WAGONLOADI OVER 5S3 MILES for the S3.50 it had cost me to haul it ten miles into town.
 ''In trying to make out how the rail- road could haul so cheap the agent told me the railroad company had done it by bringing farmers just like me to work the land along their line. The more that came, he said the low CT the rate that. could be charged be- cause the larger the business between small towns the better equipment that could be furnished to haul the goods faster and with less expense.
 After I had figured all this out so I understood it the agent gave me the rates on some of the goods [ had bought in town and then l went over to the store-keeper who Is always complaining about high rail road rates when I ask him why l have to pay so much more for food and clothes than I used to. He told me the same thing again and told him I didn't want to hear any more of that argument because had been looking into these things on my own nook. Then I figured out to him the rates he had to pay the railroads on some of the goods I had brought and showed him that it didn't amount ho1 nn n1-I