Bisbee daily review., 1913-08-28
THE GOSPEL OF GOOD ROADS.

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 No mall part of the fame and power of the imperial Romans and later of the imperial Napoleon was derived from their wise devotion to the ex- celIence of highways; both realized low vital IS communication, both to. military mastery and to civilization. Modern United States. commanding un dreamed of means of communication through three elements, has been niggard and Iaggard in building and keeping the basic avenues of travel.
 But the country is awakening. through agitation selfish and unsel fish that has revealed its deBior, able backwardhess, save in a few mod eI sections. Almost an eyangelistic1 propaganda is under way, with gov ernments major and minor, railroads, colleges and press as chief advocates, and with rural inertia, ignorance or poverty the chief drawbacks. The automobile has unquestionably been the most effective single lever. The latest project of $1O.o0OoOO trans, continental boulevard, to be mainly financed by the auto industry as chief beneficiary. is a striking symptom of its influence. The periodic political agitation for huge scheme of high way regeneration at Treasury cost mirrors the enthusiasm, but also the fiscal recldessness, of many enthus- iastic boomers of good roads,
 The evangelistic character the movement has now attained is iio. turesqueIy illustrated by the two-day campaign. headed by two governors and trailing down to bankers, doctors clerks and even convicts, that has worked till hands were blistered to help pull Missouri out of the mud e The 350,O00 volunteers are estimated to have accomplished SlOOO,OOO worth of betterment a day, or 200 miles in the 1l4 counties. Kansas and Arkansas are now to set dates for similar revivals. Apart from the definite work done, the chief stim- ulus is psychological; it gives the whole movement official standing and popular advertising and diffuses both knowledge and enthusiasm.
 The great interior commonwealths rich in their alluvial soils, have just begun to realize how unnecessarily poor they also are because of the accruing but readily conquerable mud With the best railroads, and the low est freights. we have had the N orld' $ worst dirt roads and the highest costs from farm to depot Uncle Sam has spent S1000 on the ocean for every dollar spent to improve roads. At the same time that great areas of the West are overlong deprired of railway extension by the cr.pplfng of railroat credit. thoe fertile areas are depend ent on wretched highways to relatively distant branch lines. There should b. 14o.0Oe more miles of traok-5s96 O all we now have-to give that section the same relative traekage as thi East. FifteeE western states hav have each an average of IA postofice over 30 miles from a railroad.
 Tho rural clUzea is gradually be ing convinced that waat he may eS pend on good roads as taxpayer E will recoup many-foid as traveller an shipper. The GapartmcEt of agr .eu ture crecenuy chronicles some sigui
 icant individual instances In Le county Virginia. a farmer offered t sell loo acres. tor SisOo in 1908. Tn . . M e Ha q
 Eoads Wefs irepfayed, despite his ol position, and he has lately refuse s3000 In Alabama the raising of s25o eco by bonds for road improvemel
 raised the average selling prices nearly land from ssdsl5 to $l5Gs-