Walker Lake bulletin. (Hawthorne, Nev.) 1883-1926, 1912-01-16
GOOD ROADS.

surely standing in his own light. Bad
roads are one of the causes of the
cost of living that we are always harp.
ing about We farmers still drag our
produce to market over bad roads at
the same old cost of forty years ago
While the store-keeper. the factory-man
and every one else are making every
Improvement they can to reduce the
cost of hauling"
In these words. a plain California
farmer, concluded his story of his con-
version to the good roads" agitation.
with prices sky-high," said Haw-
kins in his characteristic style, Il
started to town one day along in the
worst part of the last rainy season
with a bunch of hogs, tub of butter,
and a case of eggs. The whole outfit
weighed only 1900 pounds, which was
all could haul on account of the bad
roads II the roads had been hard and
level | could have pulled a ton and
half just as well as not with no more
expense to myself than for half the
load. Figuring the ten-mile haul, which
took me the best part of the working
day, at $3.50 for the team, wagon and
driver, | found that it was costing me
about 46 cents a ton for every mile
hauled the 1,5oo pounds of live stock
and produce | was going to trade in
town. | never figured on the cost of
hauling to town before and | tell you
| was some surprised at what | found
out.
Naturally l got to figuring that if
a railroad charged 46 cents for haul
ing ton of stuff one mile l couldn' t
afford to eat anything but hay.
81 hadn't done figuring when
reached town, so when had unoaded
my hogs, butter and eggs and finished
trading | walked to the railroad sta
ton and got to talking with the sta
ton agent about the cost of hauling.
to drag my farm products into town
and then switched him around to
what the railroad charged for hauling.
He pulled down off the shelf the re-
port of the Interstate Commerce Com
mission and showed me, over the sig
natures of all the men who regulate
the railroads, statement that the
average rate paid to railroad for
hauling a ton of stuff one mile was
ONLY THREE-QUARTERS OF A
CENT.
when | set these figures along
side of the FORTY SIX CENTS A
TON it had cost me to haul those
hogs, butter and eggs over every one
of the ten miles of old, muddy dirt
roads | began to think that we farm
ers are furnishing more than our
share of the high cost of living that
We complain SO much about in po-
litical campaign. | saw it palmer
when | thought of the things we have
to buy in town and made out that we
are paying for just such waste as
had piled up for fellows who ate my
hogs, butter and eggs at the other end
of the line.
ION the other hand | figured that
with improved wagon-roads, such as
| oh in,
old State of Pennsylvania, l could
have hauled three tons instead of just
one-quarter that much and saved for
an extra profit margin on that one
load about $3.50. l guess that goes
long way toward proving that if
! lived on good, hard wagon-road
could undersell the farmer who didn't
You see the farmer is producer and
all of his costs have to be taken care
of before the jobber or store-keeper
can begin to pile up their costs.
THE station agent figured out for
me that the railroad would have
CHARGED LESS THAN SIX CENTS
for hauling the 1900 pounds of hogs,
butter and eggs THE WHOLE TEN
MILES. That brought home the fact
that the railroad company would have
HAULED MY WAGON LOAD OVER
5S3 MILES for the $3.50 1t had cost
me to haul it ten miles into town.
In trying to make out how the
railroad could haul so cheap the
agent told me the railroad company
had done it by bringing farmers just
like me to work the land along their
line. The more that came, he said,
the lower the rate that could be
charged because the larger the bust
ness between small towns the better
CONTINENT that could he furnished