The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-10-09
One of Chief Addresses Yes terday Before the Good
 Roads Association
TREATS HIS TOPIC
 IN BROAD MANNER
Entire Transportation System Gov cred, Including Waterways and Railways as Well as C0un-
 try Highways

President Finley of the Southern Rail way company, who was one of the prin- cipal speakers at the annual convention of the Alabama Good Roads association yesterday, spoke on ''The Interest of the Farmers in Highway Improvement. treating his subject in broad way as covering the entire transportation system of the United States and embracing waterways and railways as well as the country highways. President Finley said: s'Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen:
 .'The value of any commodity is de- pendent, in large measure, upon the Ia cility with which it may be devoted to human uses Its accessibility by those desiring to use it is an important ele- ment in it's value. Thus. we are accus- toned to think of gold as valuable metal, but it's value is dependent alto gether upon it's being so located that man can obtain it for use as money or as an ornament. A ton of gold at the bottom of an ocean 1900 fathoms deep would not be worth a copper cent be- cause, even though the general locality In which it had been sunk might be known, it would be impracticabe to raise 1t. The same is true of any commodity. It's value fuctuates in proportion to the facility with which 1t may be carried to the place where it is In the greatest de- mand, and transportation thus becomes essential to the profitable production or any commodity and to the existence of any human community.
 ''To use another illustration, Q bale of cotton would be absolutely without value to a farmer If grown In field from which it would be a practical impossibil- ity to remove It. It has value because of the fact that means are available Tor carrying it to a cotton mill and for con- veying the products of the cotton mill to their final consumers. l know of no commodity that better serves to illustrate the importance of transportation than cotton. It is in demand wherever clothes are worn and by far the greater part of the worlds supply Is produced in our southeastern states. The price of cotton on the farm Is fixed by the relation of the total supply to the world demand and the effectiveness of the demand is de- pendent upon ability to carry the raw cotton and to carry the cotton mill products into every inhabited locality in the world. An Alabama cotton grower is. therefore, interested in transportation. not only in his own county and in his own state, but throughout the United States, across the ocean and in all coun- tries On the other hand, every family in Alabama uses to some extent commod- ities gathered from distant localities in the United States and from foreign coun- tries. Thus we are all interested in the efficiency of world wide transportation
 Transportation in United States
 More directly we are interested in the transportation system of the United States, which embraces three kinds of hlghways-the waterway. the railway and "A. ..l. la.r ttv,,x tant function to perform and each sup plementing the others. With respect to each of these highways every citizen in d lard of popular government has an in- dividual responsibility.
 "The country highway is the road over which commodities from all other To- calities must be carried in the final stage of distribution in a rural community. It is the road over which all farm products must be moved in the first stage of transportation to the markets of the world. This mere statement of the func- tions of a country highway is sufficient to demonstrate the proposition that, if any agricultural locality is to attain tho highest degree of development and if its people are to attain the highest degree of prosperity, 1t is essential that it shall be provided with a system of improved wagon roads. The reasons for this are admirably stated in 8 farmers bulletin
 
 of the United States, agricultural de- partment as follows:
 About each market or shipping point there is a boundary line which incloses the area that can be cultivated profitably for delivery at that point. If this area is considered as bounded by a circle, it is not difficult to see that its size will depend upon road conditions. The profit to the farmer is determined by the dif- ference between the production and trans portaton costs and the selling prices. Production must cease when the trans 1 portation costs wipe out the difference. As one goes farther from market cen ters, he passes through successive zones of production, each of which contains fewer farm products. because some prod ucts will not bear the additional cost of transportation. With good system of improved roads radiating from market centers, it must follow, if all other things are equal, that the total area of farming land will increase as we'll as the success sive areas or zones capable of support ing dversifsd crops
 Some Striking Examples
 '"The bulletin also cites some striking illustrations of the disadvantages of bad roads and the advantages of good roads. 1t tells of a farmer in Sullivan county, Tennessee, few miles from Bristol who had 100 bushels of Irish potatoes rot in his cellar because the road to Bristol was impossible, and he could not market them, although potatoes were selling as high as s1. 40 per bushel in Bristol In Lee county. Virginia, a farmer owned 100 acres of land which he offered to sell for s1Sc0. In 1908 the road leading to his farm was improved and he has since refused 5000 for it. Between 1899 and 1909 24 per cent of the roads in Jack son county, Alabama, were improved, and the United States census office re- ports ar increase of 100 per cent in the value of farm lands in that county dur ing the 10 years Two farmers one on good road and the other on bad road, learn by telephone that the price of cotton has advanced $1 per bale The man on the bad road can haul but one bale at a load: the man on the good road can haul four or more and profits in proportion from the advance in price
 'Such illusuations might be multiplied indefinitely. They point to the conclusion that bad roads, by increasing the expense cost on the farmers of the United States Ihe bulletin from which l have quoted 3ates that the average haul of cotton sfrom the farm to the shipping point is I,S miles, that the average load is not more than three bales, and the aVera ee cost of hauling cotton to the shipping point is S1 cents per bale. It states that the average cost of hauling cotton seed in the United States is S a ton. and that any system of road improvement through out the cotton belt which would reduce the annual hauling charge per cent