Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1912-02-09
GOOD ROADS.

take the odium off, to railroads, as !
follows:
1.-THE American nation as we know it
today would be an impossibility were
it not that new developments in road
building enabled representatives to
come from Washington state to Wash
ington city without spending the whole
year on the way.
"But those developments took the
form of kind of steel roads which
made travel swift but confined it to
rigid grooves.
''Those developments" as we all
know, were very sensible ones; especial
ly arranged not to interfere with vested
rights, and especially adapted for equal
use by all.
Apparently the party writing this is
constitutionally regardless of either the
rights or safety of the great majority
of the people, thinking only of what may
be satisfactory to himself; or perhaps
he is paid for what he writes by the few
who make large amount of money,
from the rape of the people highways.
To such the murders, for such prac-
tically this killing of many hundreds of
people, thousands if the whole extent
of such is considered, each year, besides
a very much larger number injured in
every possible way, from which many
never recover, seems to be a matter
of Indifference.
We give the number killed last
year in the United States as pub
lished by the Government. These
statistics state that automobiles killed
$50 persons the last year, but do not
give an account of the number in
jured. The Massachusetts statistics
show about thousand injured to a
hundred killed. which would probably
be the average proportion throughout
the whole country. In connection we
give the numbering of two very small
boys whilst sliding, and two more some
what older while drawing wood for
their homes. The chauffeur who killed
the last being punished by six months
Imprisonment. If this had been ten
years it might have done some good.
Six months will hardly do any.
The article we are criticising further
says
at was not until very recent years
that we developed means of making
roads, or rather the traffic over them,
rapid and at the same time plable
enough to go just where the traveller
wished. This means was the automo-
bile, and its coming gave new life to
the building of the old kind of wholly
public highways. The old-new kind of
partially private highways will always
have its uses, and they will be great
uses, too, but the automobile has made
every little side tracked-or no track ed
village accessible. The Importance of
this to the civilization, prosperity and
general wide-awakeness of life away
from the great centers would be hard
to overestimate.
1.-The summer tourist business in its
earlier stages crystallized chiefly into
large hotels-so large that they could
afford to contract for their goods at
long distance and so be of little benefit
to the people of the vicnity-filled with
a rather unstable mob of transients
who were oftentimes as they would ex-
press it, "off on SPREE" with good
deal of sham and waste and bad taste,
and little for the inhabitants beside
ridicule, contempt and insulting tips. -
The last statement is false and the
first one, as applied to all the people,
equally so. There is nothing which sc
much Injuries the profits of summer
hotel business as automobiles.
The closing paragraph is the only one
of the article worth publishing, as fol
lows:
"After saying all this it might be in
ferred that we would favor any kline
of good-road movement, but the infer
ence however natural would not be cor
rect. There is at present move
ment on foot to secure government ale
in the construction of good roads
Such aid might possibly benefit Yer
mont We care a great deal about it,
welfare. For years we have preached
:, it and worked for it. Then why do W,
discourage this movement.
ave already have our rivers and har
;. bors to wrangle over, and this move
ment would introduce a still create
source of trouble and menace. More
. over it is move against which so far
seeing man as Senator Proctor warn
. ed Vermont to guard herself. p"
Vermont can afford to build her ow
;, roads, but best of all she can afford t
protect them, so that the great ma
jority of her citizens, who do not ow
| .fnv,a hill h. l. 81,