Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1911-03-10
BETTER ROADS IN INDIANA.

cOrdance. As an lllustratlon Oh tue
interest there is being taken in the
subject, the committee having the
movement in charge has received
nearly 10000 answers to questions
mailed to citizens of Indiana asking
their opinion as to the necessity OF
better roads and the way and means
of obtaining the needed improvement.
1t is also significant that very large
percentage of these answers came from
merchants, manufacturers. bankers
md railroad men, which shows that
the value of well-built highways is ap-
preciated by other classes than the
farmer.
AS we have pointed out in these
columns. the railroads are deeply in-
terested in improved roads. because
the country road is the feeder OF the
railroads; it is the initial factor in the
transportation of crops. Where there
are bad roads the crops must be NOV
ed within a very limited period, which
ccngests freight traffic, most serious
problem of railroads. Where roads
are of sufficient strength to permit
hauling the year around, the farmer
may take his time about delivering
his grain, which in turn enables the
railroad to haul the same amount OF
tonnage in the course of the year, but
distributed so that it costs less to
haul it. The same congested crop
m jvement--forced by The bad roads
being impossible during certain sea-
sons OF the year-plays An important
part in the financial world, which ac-
counts in some measure for the in
terest taken in the good roads pro-
gram by the bankers.
It. is a business proposition, this
good roads question. B. F. Yoakum,
of the Frisco system, and probably
as hard headed student of the prob
lem as we have, puts it succinctly:
ITO insure fair return upon the con-
stantly approaching value OF land,
the amount of crops per acre must be
increased and the cost of hauling to
the railroad station must be reduced. ="
This Is merely the application of the
fundamental rules which are axioms
"a every business and industrial con-
Germ greater production and lessened
cost
1t is not the aggregate amount OF
business done, but the margin be-
tween the cost of doing it and the
compensation received for it that
spells prosperity. This is true with
the Standard Oil corporation, and it
is equally true with the farmer, al
though the lack of an accounting sys-
tenn for agriculturist has kept the fact
hidden.
The head of the great electric trac-
ton system that centers in Los An
geles, the greatest system of its kind
in the world, refuses to extend his
lines into communities that do not
have good roads. His reasoning is
good. He says such communities are
more sparsely settled, the settlers are
less progressive, and the land less
productive than in communities where
good roads are built. 10 the latter
Communities the good roads, by max
ing farm life less isolated, attract
population, increase the tonnage of
crops, multiply prosperity and enrich
the towns, all of which increases both
the passenger and freight business of
the traction lines to point where it is
profitable.
Until within few years the Ameri-
can states had the same road laws or
customs that prevailed when these
states were colonies. We are today
paying three times as much to haul
ton of farm produce over one mile of
our country roads as the English pay;
we pay twenty-five times as much to
haul ton of farm produce over
country road as we do the railroads
to haul it afte~ the farmer has deliver
ed it to the railroad. Yet We raise
tremendous howl about the high rail
road freight rates. Brandeis says he
can show the RAILROADS where they
waste million dallars day-s365,-
900, 600 a year-in efficiency, and We
shout "Bravo!' Yet i. is an arithmei
tical fact that our bad country roads
cost US s4O0, 900. 900 year.
The fact that We have not become
impoverished as nation, and that
the cost of living has not advanced to
a point where it means starvation to
millions has been due altogetherto the
wonderful richness of our land and to
the predominance of the producing
classes. Now that The land is 'sget-
ting poor" and the country popula-
ton is drifting cityward and becom-
ing consumers, the problem is getting
serious.
We have spent our time devising
accounting systems for our manufac-
turing plants, for our mercantile es-
for our great distribut-
ing arteries, until we know to the utter
most fraction of a. cent what the man
ufacl uring cost, the selling cost d
the transportation cost of everything
is. But we have neglected to put our
great productive classes on business
basis. The good roads problem is
one of the factors. Intensive farming.
CO operative selling as practiced by
fruit growers, rotation OF crops, selec-
ton of seed, scientific breeding, irri-
cation, drainage, specialization 10
crops and scientific feeding are among
the other items. Many of these things
are impossible without good roads
and all of them are deprecated in
their valua nv had rnads Jnet q th..