The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1912-11-25
BANK PRESIDENT
ON GOOD ROADS
SECOND ONLY IN IMPORTANCE
TO RAILROADS, AND MORE
NECESSARY TO SOCIAL LIFE.

B. F. Harris, president Of the ILL
nois Bankers Association.
Good roads, good in all seasons.
are second only in Importance to
railroads and are even more neces
sary in the social life and local in
accommodation in rural communi-
ties. The farmers and We complain
about freight rates and railroad
transportation, when the worst roads
and the highest freight rates, and
the poorest opportunities, and the
highest indirect taxes, a-e on the
average country dirt road past your
own doors. Good reads are an eco
nomic necessity and there is no oc-
casion to labor the argument The
roads are an index Of character OF
any community and country that
ISN'T worth a good road isn't
worth what It sells for and
soon won't be worth living in.
a few progressive states alone
are giving upwards of s200,0oO,0OO
state road aid Good roads bring
dozens Of other gooG things in their
train with increased land values,
and. above all else. good people, for
they are ciyilizers and educators.
No community that has ever i'm
proved its roads has ever regretted
II. for road imp ovement is good
investment for any community
Since the roads are for all the peo-
pie, they should be built by all the
people-with state and federal aid
1--WE are working to solve four OF
our greatest state and national prob
lens. four Of our greatest sources
of waste-soil fertility, education,
lack of farm organization, and roads.
We must look at and approach these
several propositions from now on as
business propositions, and spend our
money and taxes and probably in
crease our taxes, until they may be
lowered By economics resulting from
better methods and elimination OF
many wastes and much useless ma
chinery. We must consider this work
and expenditure as an investment,
not an expense, just as a firm or
great corporation will invest millions
in permanent plant or facilities.
I'VE must show he states and ma
ton interest AMI advantage in it,
by state and federal aids, for no
other states or nations have built
ND a great educational system, or
great agriculture. except by this
method. 1t gives the initial or COM
peling impulse, for some, or many
of US otherwise would not be arous-
ed or act in years, if at all Fiji
teen or more of our states give
from a few up TO fifteen million OF
dollars as aid to road work and the
nation must and will soon join in, as
it has in colleges and agriculture. At
the present rate. state appropriations
for asylums and penitentiaries are
far in excess of what we give to
education and the uplift.
"Dural life has not yet Aeen as at
tractive rs it should be- its social
life is frequently barren, for the
city has been developed to the neg
lect of the country-until it is dan
gerously one-sided The recall toI
the farm is what We want, not sim
ply back 10 the farm. but back up
the farm, for the real slosan should
be forward to the tarm,' and make
our rural pride at least equal our
civic pride. The farm is the best
place God ever planned in hich
TO live broad, free, ielptul, efficion.
scryicearle and honorable human
lives"