The enterprise. [volume] (Harlem, Mont.) 1899-1926, 1911-06-01

fall voted bond issue Of $2,0oo,Uo0, to
be spent upon the highways of Wayne
county. The state will also help, and
the result will be ESQ to 800 miles Of
first class highways, covering the
county with Detroit as a center. BY
spreading the payment over 20 years 1t
Is found tho increase In taxation is SO
small as not to be noticeable. On an
average 80 acre farm It will be some
thing like $1.30 year.
Roads we'll built are permanent.
given a moderate amount of attention
and expense for maintenance.
There Is no reason why the present
generation should carry the whole bur-
den, and the future should be relieved
therefrom.
The plan of building q small piece Of
road every year by an annual tax. and
extending the road mile or two at =
time is unsatisfactory in results, the
cost Is considerable more than it
should be, and 1t takes q long time to
| get the roads. II 20 miles were built
at one time in a township. there would
be strong competition among contract
ors and the tax payers would find they
could get their roads from 10 to Is
per cent. less money that they would
nave better built roads and would have
them to use at once instead of waiting
ten years or more to build them piece
meal, and have the first mile practi-
cally worn out before the last one was
finished. OF course there would be
interest to pay on the bonds, but II the
use of the roads is not worth more to
the community than the interest on the
bonds, it would not pay to build the
roads. Money can be borrowed at four
or five per cent, and those in a posi-
ton to form good judgment will say
that first class roads will pay for them.
selves every five years, or in other
words, that their use is worth 20 per
cent of the cost each year.
One sometimes hears farmer, who
is opposed to the building of hard
roads, say that he can raise no more
grain or get larger return from the
farm by reason of having good roads.
Such a one will attempt to sustain his
position by stating only part of the
whole proposition. OF course it is true
that the road has no influence upon
the productivity of the farm along which
it passes, but it does not follow that
the net results are the same, whether
the roads are good or bad.
Only a few days ago the writer was
down in the corn belt of Illinois and
saw four horses hauling load of corn
into town. 1t was all the horses could
do to handle the load, although the
country was comparatively level. The
mud in the road was nearly a fool
deep. No fair minded man will say
that a crop can be marketed under
such conditions as cheaply as when the
roads are good, and single team car
handle the same at twice the speed.
The value Of the farm does not de
pend alone upon what the soil will pro
duce, but upon its accessibility tx
market, the environment and whethe,
!. the farm is in every way desirable al
a place to live. We spend money TO-
pleasure and for comfort, and 1t Il
> right that We should do so. Probabl,
as rule too little is spent 70
this. Whenever good roads have beef
built, In any community, there ha
1 been sharp advance in the price o
land, because the farms are more &C
| cesstble. The writer has in 1r.nd
l county In northern Indiana, wher
4 about ten years ago a system of 2
miles of hard roads were built, cover
Y ing the main highways of the town
/ ship. About $4,000 were spent upo,
/ the improvements, the payment sprea,
t over ten years. Within a year ate
y the roads were built the farmers wer
d asking and getting SIS to $25 an acr
l. more for their farms than they coul
), have gotten before the roads wer
y built. In some cases the advance wa
Q even more. The increase In taxation
0 was hardly felt.
J. One Of the prominent residents O
g the township, In commenting upon tn
Improvement, said that the building O
the roads exerted a powerful influenc
upon the lives of the people or tn
township-everybody began to slic]
up, new picket fence replaced the oil
tumble down board fence, the hous
was painted, walks laid out, and all al
of thrift was apparent everywhere
Also following the good roads, town
ship high school was built, and a,
rangements made to carry the children
to and from school, This was a grea
relief to the isolation the youn
people were placed under before tn
roads were built. The new school b.
came the social center and they foun
In that township that the building Of
system Of roads was the best inves
ment they had ever made, and unde
no circumstances could they be ii
duced to go back to the old way.
is the same story everywhere; in ever
locality where any community ever b.
gan tn hJi1d pOod HIGHWAYS and no