The Delta independent., 1912-05-10
GOOD ROADS BETTER COUNTRY
Highways Tell Tale Of Profit or Loss
and Spell Ruin for County That
Neqlects Them.

miliar with the truths of history.
They know the past. They realize
that often difference between good
roads and bad roads is the difference
between profit and loss. Good
roads have money value far
beyond our ordinary conception.
Bad roads constitute our great
est drawback to internal devel.
opment and material progress. Good
roads mean prosperous farmers; bad
roads mean abandoned farms, sparse.
ly settled country districts, and con-
gested populated cities, where the
poor are destined to become poorer.
Good roads mean more cultivated
farms and cheaper food products for
the toilers in the towns; bad roads
mean poor transportation, lack of
communication, high prices for the
necessaries of life, the loss of untold
millions of wealth, and idle workmen
seeking employment Good roads will
help those who cultivate the soil and
feed the multitude, and whatever aids
the producers of our country will in
crease our wealth and our greatness
and benefit all the people. We cannot
They are today the heart of our ma
tional life and the chief source of our
material greatness. Tear down every
e6ifice in our cities and labor will re-
build them, but abandon the farms
and our cities will disappear forever.
l take an abiding interest in this
all-absorbing question for better high
ways by some plan it can be done
honestly, economically and constitu.
tionally. am not committed to any
pet scheme. l have no vanity in the
matter. / care not who gets the glory
SO long as the people get the results.
am for the cause and in the fight
to stay. Good roads mean progress
and prosperity. benefit to the people
who live in the cities, an advantage
to the people who live in the coun-
try, and it will help every section OF
our vast domain. Good roads, like
good streets, make habitation along
them most desirable; they enhance
the value of farm lands, facilitate
transportation, and add untold wealth
to the producers and consumers OF
the country; they are the milestones
marking the advance of civilization;
they economic time, give labor lift
and make millions in money; they
save wear and tear and worry and
waste; they beautify the country,
bring it in touch with the city; they
aid the social and the religious and
the educational and the industrial
progress of the people; they make
better homes and happier hearth
sides; they are the avenues of trade;
the highways of commerce, and mail
routes of information, and the agen.
cies of speedy communications; they
mean the economical transportation
of marketable products-the maxi.
mum burden at the minimum cost;
they are the ligaments that bind the
country together in thrift and indus
try and intelligence and patriotism;
they promote social intercourse, pre-.
vent intellectual stagnation and in.
crease the happiness and the prosper.
ity of our producing masses; they
contribute to the glory of the coun.
try, give employment to our idle
workmen, distribute the necessaries
of life-the products of the fields and
the forests and the factories-en.
courage energy and husbandry, incul-
cate love for our scenic wonders and
make mankind better and greater and
grander and broader.
Good roads are the arteries of indus
trial life of great and powerful peo
pie. Good roads make good coun.
try. In a government such as ours
all sorts of men and women are more
or less absolutely dependent upon the
best and speediest means of commu.
nication and transportation. If you
say that good roads will only help the
farmer, l deny it. The farmer who
produce the necessaries OF life are
less dependent than the millions and
millions of people who live in our cit.
les. The very lives OF the latter de-
pend on the farmers-the producers
of the necessaries of life. The most
superficial investigation of this sub
ject will clearly prove that good roads
are more important to the consumers
than they are to the producers of
the country.
The fathers of the republic wisely
recognized the Importance of this
question. Washington and Jefferson
advocated good roads and projected
the construction of a great highway
from the capital to the Mississippi
valley. The far-seeing statesmen OF
the early days of our national exist
ence championed and passed meas
ures to better the means of transpor.
tttion. They knew that of all human
agencies the one which has done most
for civilization has been the building
of good roads-the a5ridgment of dis
tances. the shortening of time-in the
facility of communication. They real.
lied the necessity of good roads how