Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1912-01-04
THE GOOD ROADS" QUESTION.
First Letter on Subject and kenne-
bee Journal Columns Open to Dis
cussion,

4
lem of help on our farms on the one
Ihand, and taxation going up by leaps
and bounds on the other. l suppose it
lNould almost be considered in the
Hight of a Godsend if solution could
be found to make available more of
1.-THE former and considerably reduce
the latter, and the man who can solve
these problems for the American
farmer should they ever be solved,
| will surely be deserving of his coun-
TRY and his fellow men. Whether what
| | have to say will in amy way help
towards this desirable end | will leave
Imy brother farmers to decide. An
| outsider, especially one who has seen
| how certain questions are handled in
| different parts of the world. is often
in a position To write i'll broader
| light than one whose ideas must OF
necessity be more or less confined by
their environment. The question l
would like to ask the people of Maine
i'll this letter is thiS:-Are We not pay
| ing too high a price for our so called
good roads, There seems To be an
absolute craze the last two or three
years for what we call good roads,
Are our highways sufficiently better
each year for the comparatively large
amount of money spent on them
| Money that has to be earned for the
most part by the ache of the farmers
| back. | do not mean are they better
| for the automobile and the tourist, out
| for pleasure. but for the farmers and
business mars wagon, and the stuff
he has TO haul in the pursuit of get
ting a livelihood for himself and his
| children-thc coming men and women
OF Maine. The tourist, valuable asset
as he is to the State is not its main
stay. but the farmer is, and his inter-
ests should be served and his ener-
gies preserved above everything else.
| Speaking at New York recently To
| the Automobile Club of America. re-
lgarding the cost of building and main
tanning good roads Pres Taft said;
FL would suggest great delay and de-
liberation before we open. the national
treasury for such purpose" He also
classed the proposal as dangerous
experiment"
| In considering the cost Of our roads,
there is one big thing which we are
apt to overlook. and which adds great
ly indirectly to their cost. and that is
this: The help that would be available
for our farms at a time of the year
when the land needs that work most.
lis diverted into another channel, and
l do not hesitate to say that SO long
as men can earn big wages and do
little work by getting a job on the
roads, they will not work on the
farms. nor can one expect them to, at
a wage that farming today warrants,
and until we change this state of at
fairs somewhat, our farms must suf-
fer, and with our farms the whole
State and the people in it.
Please do not think l am advocating
lnegleeting our roads. Good roads help
a country much, but good farms help
it infinitely more, and given good
farms, the roads will follow as a nat
ural sequence, but if farmers are inn
lpoverished in a vain attempt to keep
up good roads, the farms will soon be
unable to pay for any roads at all.
maintain that we are to some extent
being impoverished in this foolish at
| tempt to keep up better roads than
are necessary for our work, and / sub
nit that there is a very large amount
of hard earned money absolutely
wasted every year in this way.
It is the custom, | believe, in some
parts of the State that when "A man
| hasn't the go" or "gumption" to make
his farm pay, he gets appointed road
lmaster-a comparatively easy thing to
do--and forthwith gets team of big
horses. fattens them up at their work,
and lives in comparative comfort with
L.. minimum nf himself and
his team. with the knowledge that his
more energetic neighbors will pay the
bills, and with the result that his farm
Igets from bad TO worse, is soon over
run with pernicious weeds. and the
place becomes menace to good farm
ling in the neighborhood. The man
lappointed as roadnaster may know
lsomething of roadmaking and mend
ling, or he may be about us wise on
the subject as an owl. but even where
he knows something of the matter, his
companions on the job are not in
ivariably the most industrious in the
community; however they get wage
for the amount of work they do far
in excess of that which the farmer
tgets for his work who has three, four
Tor five thousand dollars invested, and
1.-THE kernel of the whole business is
that the farmer has to pay them, and
Hike fool, continues to do so. year
latter year, Is this right or just? We
teach our youngsters that industry
will bring it's reward, and yet they
lsee here for an example shiftlessness
lgetting the reward. and industry the
privilege 90 of working for almost
lnothing, which. if it continues, will
make of them nation of work shies
ICannot we right this matter at our
next town meetings, and bear in mind
that money voted for so-called road
making, goes for the most part into
1.-THE pockets of the least deserving
tadds to the comforts of locomotion OF
the leisure classes, and is paid for by
the hard earned money of the rea
workers? If our selectmen and Others
will see to this very worthy work, they
Twill earn the gratitude of the bes
men in their district, our farms vii
be better. the most deserving of oul
people more contented. and the Who'll,
community more happy and prosper
Gus, and in that prosperity good road: