The Lancaster news. [volume] (Lancaster, S.C.) 1905-current, 1913-12-26
NO PROSPERITY WITHOUT GOOD
ROADS.

/ leading editorial, in discussing the
matter of good roads and their gen
! eral effect upon community, draws
some striking conclusions from sta
! tistics given out by the United
/ States government. Says The Jour
nal:
Here are some remarkably inter
esting figures, recently gathered by
| the United States Office of public
roads, showing the effect OF highway
improvement on a community's pop
ulation and development. In twenty
| five counties, taken at random in
| twelve states, the number of inhabi-
tants from 1890 to 1900 decreased
seventy-seven thousand, eight hun
| dred and twenty-three, an average
! decrease of more than three thousand
| for each county. The road improve
ment in these counties was only one
and five-tenths per cent.
"In the same states, twenty-five
other counties where the road i'm
provement was forty per cent during
the same period were chosen for
comparison; and it was found that
these had increased in population
seven hundred and seventy-eight
thousand, three hundred and eighty
| three, an average of nearly thirty
! two thousand in each county.
THE moral is self evident. Those
communities that neglected their
roads lost over seventy thou
sand inhabitants, those that improv-
ed their roads gained over seven
hundred and seventy-Cight thousand.
In these results, there were doubt
less other factors besides highway
conditions but it is clear that the
latter played the determining part;
for. in healthfulncss, fertility and
other natural advantages the two
groups of counties were about equal
ly matched. One group developed
its resources by building good roads,
the other slept over its opportunities
in tolerating bad roads; and therein
lay the wide difference between their
fortunes.
This record should be a quicken
ing example to every county in the
land. The community that over
looks or shirks it's highway duties
may be sure that it will decline not
only in population but in wealth, in
trade and industry and agriculture
and in all it's practical interests. On
the other hand, the community that
provides itself with we'll built, we'll
kept roads is assured steady growth.
where roads are poor the farmer
is handicapped, the merchant is dis
couraged, land values decline, schools
are sparsely and irregularly attend
ed, visits among neighbors are few
and far between, public spirit is
stihed and there is no basis or incen-
tive for cooperative effort in the up
building of common interests. Little
wonder that people move away from
such a county and that homeseekers
and investors pass it by.
without good roads profitable
agriculture cannot be expected. The
expense of marketing crops is enor-
nous In wet or wintry seasons the
farmer cannot get to town. In the
case of the truck farmer, this condi-
tion becomes especially serious. His
products are often sacrificed at bot
tom prices or are wasted and ruined
simply because he has no adequate
means of reaching market. 1t is
related that a few years ago a farmer
i'm sullivan county, Tennessee, had
hundred bushels Of potatoes which he
intended to market. Because of inn
paSsahle roads, however, he was un-
able to haul the potatoes at all and
lutN IOlltN Ill MS ttIldI. III lut
meantime the price of potatoes at
Bristol went to a dollar and forty
cents bushel and a merchant of that
city was quoted as saying that dur
ing the winter as many as ten car
loads of farm produce, including
wheat, potatoes and other supplies
were shipped in daily to feed not only
Bristol but also the adjacent terri
tory. This was heavy loss to the
public generally as we'll as to the
farmers
Indeed, no sphere Of county's
interests can prosper without good
roads Urban as we'll as rural growth
depends vitally upon adequate high
ways which quicken commerce, make
schools accessible and develop in the
people that sense Of neighborliness
and community pride from which
progress springs. The two groups Of
counties compared by the United
States Office Of public roads are typi-
cal. What is true of them is reIa-
lively true Of all others. In which
group will the majority of Georgia
counties stand?"