Heppner gazette. [volume] (Heppner, Morrow County, Or.) 1892-1912, 1911-01-26
is BECOMING A
GENEAL DEMAND
Good Roads Is Oregon's
Developer,

The Good Roads movement IN Orego
has become general. All classes ar
represented in the demand made npoI
the Legislature for the passage OF thu
tive Oregon Good Roads Association
highway bills that have been pending
before it. Farmers are the most inter
ested because they have most to gain
The Oregon farmer is. and has been
prisoner on his farm during the winter
months because the terribly muddy
roads that mire an empty wagon keeI
him from the market place and from
the pleasures of town. The streets ol
Portland, the largest Oregon town, are
trod day by day by boys from the farm
who would not stay in the mud and who
have not learned the clerical work Of
the town.
Thousands of acres of land are not
producing wealth for prosperous com
munities because they cannot be reach
ed over bad roads. In many instances
there are NJ roads at all.
More than two millions of acres of
land worth now m ore than $50, 600, 900
were given in Oregon for the making of
roads. These roads were never built.
The holders Of land grants were not
held accountable to their trust. There
was no system.
The statewide good roads movement
now insists upon system. Every county
is encouraged to build its own system
of roads. The highway bills provide
state aid. This aid, $40, 600 to each
county in two years that raise $40. 600
is little enough compared to the $l4,
900, 600 appropriation for state-aided
highways in New York, or 81, $50, 900
in New Jersey which is only fraction
of the size of an average Oregon county.
The operation of the highway bills IS
law, the services of the highway board
and commissioner, the appropriation
generally of $3.50, 600 to help counties
build roads. the convict labor bills,
that take convicts from competition
with free labor and pnt them at work
crushing rock, the county bonding act
which permits counties to pledge their
credit for the construction of permanent
roads-all OF these movements uninted in
a system to establish good roads system
in every Oregon county are expected to
convince all doubters of the develop
ment necessity and benefit of perman-
ent highway construction SO that when
the question of increased appropriation
comes before the legislature two years
from now, the largest possible amount
will seem little enough.
Oregon's most progressive citizens
laugh at the idea of there being political
motives behind the good roads move
ment. The good roads movement re-
suits from the good roads necessity. It {
s bigger than politics that has been I
Ikened to mudholes it is bigger than any I
nan or any set of men. The move
nent is the development history :;
If Oregon in the making, and
.alls for the services OF broad-minded .
oresighted men. These are the men
Fho are supporting the good roads .
movement. They have arisen in every
oregon county. They have told their
legislators that good wagon roads are g.
nore important than railroads, and that ;,
ailroads are of little avail, unless wagon
Dads are built, solidly, smoothly, to !,
erve as transportation connection be- =,
ween the farm or center OF production !,
nd the railroad, or, il not the railroad, =,
he market place, the center Of sales.
Lacking easy TRANSPORTATION, the food
be people eat on their tables, the fur
iture with which they furnish their O.,
ZONES. the implements they use all cost n
nore, and the added cost all goes into :,
)regon's annual $4,000, 900 bad roads n
md, a fund which pays no interest and .
ever retuns the principal. II
Brilliant Poultry Yards. VI