The record., 1913-01-23

whorcon one may ride or d-lyc 4ith
pleasure or have a fall i9al w..,@lt
.;.uin upon tie horse, vehicle CT Ear-
ness.
To do this the road must have
hard, smooth surface and offer the
minimum If resistance. This requires
the surface 10 be "motaled,' as The
English say, i. G, covered with gravel,
broken stone or an equivalent.
An Garth road may b. an excellent
one tod2y and tomorrow very bad
one 1t may he delight In Jun" and
a sht In March. Such roads hays
the virtues of Il ball>y hogse-thcy are
liable to fail when most wanted. with
. stone or gravel road. leading from
the fsT.-t, should heavy rain occur ia
the busy season, when for n day or 20
IL is too wet to go into the field, the
cTands 10 town may be done. sev
eral loads Of grain or hoes taken 10
market, and the time well employed
With tir average earth roads. when
the fields are too wet 10 work. the
roads are too muddy to travel Hence,
the writer holds to the opinion above
expressed, that no cgrth road is en-
titlCd To be called C0cd road because
50 much OF the time it is positively
bad.
TIE eXtravagant claims that have
been made for The road drag are really
holding back the building Of good
roads. Many have believed that all
that was required TO have good reads
was to go up and down a streak Of
mud orcc or twice. say Presto" aud
behold, 2 good highway This is sheer
nonsense. The loud acclaim Of u
River to River Road" made gCod in
an hour OF so is = myth. This famous
road was greatly improved b. the drag
ginS. but it is not a good road. and
never will he until il is Thoroughly
drained, properly graded and has a
hard, durable wearing surface placed
upon it.
IL is human nature to hunt for some
easy, cheap and speedy way to do
things, and usually no sooner has one
discovered how to make some progress
toward solution, than he announces
a complete revolutionary discovery that
sets aside all experience and prece-
dent. and gains something for nothing.
The split log drag is directly in point.
The people may as well make up
their minds now, rs TO find out later,
that good roads cost money and lots o.
it, but they are worth many times
their ccst and they will pay for them.
selves over and over again every dec.
ade. A well drained and we'll built
macadam road with a good binder may
cost anywhere from $4,000 to S6,000
per mile. but such road with mod
crate repairs will last for generations
Hence the future should bear Part Of
tho burden. There Is only one sensi
bic. businesslikc way to build good
roads, and that is. by state aid, wher1
By the state, preferably from long
time low rate bond issue, pays part OF
.he expense. aild the township ISSUES
bonds, running from 90 to 80 years, for
its part. In this way all the roads
needed in a township--the main roads
can be improved at once. and the
payments spread over TIE present and
the coming generations.
By building all at once from ten
10 twenty per cent. can be saved in tho
cost Of the work. and the community
has the roads t. use from the start
OF course interest must be paid on the
bonds. but against this gees the use OF
the roads. II this is not worth moro
than the interest it is better not t.
build the roads. The read question is
Z big one and must be handled in q
big way.