The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-10-09

progressive people of Alabama are fully | alive to the importance of carrying on | the work or road improvement until every | farmer in the state shall have a good road
 over which he can haul his products to a
 market town or shipping station at all
 seasons Of the year.
 Doing Good Work
 T believe that the Alabama Good Roads association is doing work of great
 value by holding meetings such as this which keep alive and increase local in terest in good roads und tend to direct
 il along the most effective channels. Lo- cal interest in road improvement is indis-
 pensable to progress.
 l The latest figures available in the l United States office of public roads as to
 the country highways of Alabama are l those for 19i1. In that year you had in l this state a total of 49,639 miles of country 1 roads, of which 37S0 miles, or 761 per cent, ! had been improved. The rate at which l you are progressing Is shown by the fact that Of the total improved mileage, 12Ss miles were improved in 1911. The mileage 1 remaining to be improved is large and
 funds are not available for doing all of | the work at once.
 "I believe it is important therefore, l that each county in the state should adopt 1 for itself definite plan that will result L III lUt Oi llS lOddS III thc
 order of their importance to road users. In the formulation and carrying out of ! such plan the first requisite, in my opin- | ion, is that of providing for expert ad- vice and supervision. 1 believe, therefore, | that each county will find it economical | to employ a competent road engineer and l give him jurisdiction over every mile l of country highway in the county. Un- der a policy of benefiting the largest nf and WiqalV | serving road building funds attention will be given primarily and principally t. l those roads over which the largest vol ume of traffic is now moving and those the improvement of which may be ex- ! pected to develop the .argest volume of traffic. The roads of most importance to
 the farmer and also of most importance to the development ofscities and towns in an agricultural community are those | radiating from market town or ship ping station. Their improvement bene- fits not only the farmers Immediately ad- jacent to them, but also those in more remote parts of the county who have | the advantage of good roads for at least | part of their haul. Under such a system a larger part of the money availabk for road work will | necessarily be expended in relatively a | small area about the principal towns of | the county. The outlying roads should | not, however, be wholly neglected. Under l competent supervision they may be main 1 tained fairly we'll and may even be, im- proved at relatively small cost. Especial l ly is this true if conditions are favorable | for the use of the split log drag.
 Defects of the Old System
 Results obtained in the past under the old system of working out road taxes have not generally been such as to com
 mend it and it has been subjected to se- were criticism at the hands of some ad- | vocates of good roads. It is a system, | however, which will probably be con- | tinued for longer or shorter periods In many localities and I believe that, so | long as it is retained we should endeavor | to make the most of it. I believe that poor results obtained under this system l have been largely due to lack of proper supervision Here is field in which the county road engineer could be highly
 useful. He could give effective direction to all of the road work done in the coun- ty and see that the labor and materialr available were so used as to accomplish the best results With few years work of this kind material improvement could doubtless be made on the outlying part of the road system beyond the zone of highly improved highways. Such sys- tenn of handling the outlying roads would be particularly valuable in increasing the area within which the country roads would be effective in agricultural devel- opment.
 Even the most effective work of this kind under the most competent super vision, however, will have to be supple
 mented by cash outlay if high type roads are to be built. The question of how the necessary funds shall be provided is one of great importance. I believe that the system of raising money by bond issues and limiting taxation to the amount necessary to provide funds for current road maintenance, pay annual interest
 charges. and provide a proper sinking
 fund, wlxhich I understand has been
 adopted in some of the counties in Ala
 bama, will generally prove most satis-
 factory. It enables the county to carry
 out large projects without delay, reduc-
 ing the immediate tax burden and carry
 ing some of it forward until advanced land values and increased prosperity re-
 suting from road improvements increase ability to pay taxes. AS future genera
 tions will enjoy the benefit of the work,
 it is not improper that they should be called upon to pay part of the cost.
 Part of General System
 While appreciating at their full val ue the importance of good country high ways to our farmers and to all of us as
 
 lost sight of the fact that the country road is part of the general transpor- tation system of the country and that we are equally interested in the efficiency of the waterways and the railways and have responsibilities with respect to both. Important as are the country roads, they would be of little use in connection Wit
 inadequate facilities for long distance transportation. If the state of Alabama were traversed by complete network of wagon roads of the highest type, but were without waterways and railways, the op- portunities of its people would be great ly narrowed. The cost of long distance transportation by wagon is so great that it could be borne only by the most val uable commodities. Under a system of wagon transportation alone each commun ity would have to be almost entirely self supporting and would find II very difficult either to sell its surplus products in other localities or to secure desirable articles from distant points of production.
 Tn the United States the improvement of our harbors and of the inland water ways is in charge of the federal gov ernment. It is to the interest of all our people, not only those residing in seaport cities, but those in the interior as well, that our harbors such as those at Mo- bile and Pensacola should be highly inn proved and that their channels should be dredged to a depth that will enable sea- going vessels of the largest size to reach their wharves and load the products of your farms and your factories for for eign markets. This is of especial import .,<l, tn n1tr