Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1913-05-20
MANY ARGUMENTS
FOR BETTER ROADS
President and Governor Quoted
in Pamphlet by State High
way Association.

The Illinois Highway Improvement
association has presented in PAM
phlet form IAN appeal by 100 organi-
cations 10 the 4Sth general assembly
for a modern good roads law" It
contains many items OF excellent argu-
ment. AS a sort of motto it saws:
"Our highways themselves are the un-
answerable argument that Illinois
must abandon road system that is
complex, wasteful and inefficient" The
platform of ten recommendation en-
dorsed by the state association in its
Peoria meeting and by 100 other or
CARNATIONS of the state, is presented.
All these organizations are named in
this pamphlet.
The following is quoted from Gov
ernor DUNES inaugural message: "a
matter touching vitality the agricul-
tural, commercial, educational, social,
religious and economic welfare of Il
linois is the question of good roads.
In the improvement of public high
ways, Illinois has been backward. The
| loss to farmers because of inaccessi-
Bile primary markets, and the abnor-
NAL expense of transportation due to
bad roads, must be considered as
contributing cause of the high cost of
living. In some Illinois counties
highways are impossible to ordinary
loads for full third # the year. Bad
roads not only hinder crop production
and marketing, but they keep the
rural consumer away from the store
of the merchant for weeks at a time;
they keep pupils from the schools and
voters from political gatherings. They
impair the efficiency of churches,
and social, fraternal and other orga-
nizations.
| Bad roads contribute to the unat-
| Effectiveness, the isolation and the
monotony of country life that are re-
sponsible for the desertion of rural
pursuits, especially by the young IL
/ linois ciings to the obsolete practice
of placing the burden of highway
/ improvement on the townships Other
states in their laws have appreciated
that highway travel is no longer en-
tirely local. Permanent improve
ment of the main arteries which car
~ the great bulk of traffic is a prob
lem which affects the general well
fare"
A. P. Grout, farmer and banker, of
Winchester and president of the Illi-
nois Farmers institute, says: 81 find
that the farmers of Illinois are mis-
taken about the expenditure of money.
My impression is that they are ex-
| pending a great deal more money to-
day than they would eXpend if differ
ent methods were employed. In
Scott county my experience in the last
80 years has been that in going out
into the country over the same roads
year after year I find that the same
places in these roads require repairs
year after year and for the same
cause, and they are no better today
than they were 80 years ago. Money
has been spent upon these same places
every year when for little more mon
ey these places could have been per-
manently repaired. Our farmers ought
to realize that this is not good bust
ness. We should impress upon the
farmer the necessity Tor doing things
permanently.
I'VE have gotten far enough along
so that we do not erect buildings on a
temporary foundation, and why should
we build temporary roads when we
know we must have them to pay for?
In the course of a few years, if the
same amount is expended properly,
our expenditure for roads would be
largely reduced. 1t is simply a bust
ness proposition, and it seems to me
if it could be put up 20 farmers in the
right way they would be interested"
President Woodrow Wilson is quot.
ed: "A nation is bound together by
it's means of communication; and its
means of communication create its
thought. We must more and more
engage the government in providing
the general facilities of the common
life. The question of highways is one
OF the few great instrumentalities OF
our public and our communal life with
which the government is of necessity
connected. / see that We must do
what we have been backward in do
ing as compared with other nations
Il tell you frankly my interest in
good roads is not merely an interest
in the pleasure Of riding in automo.
biles. 1t is not merely an interest In