Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1913-04-26
UNITED STATES LAGs
Way Behind In Matter Of I'M
proved Highways.
Of 100000 Miles In This Country Less
Than 100000 Are Up to Date
$25o,ooo,ooo Is the Annual
Loss to People.

What Is the use of rural free deliv-
cry mail routes and the parcel post
system II there is to be no improve
ment of the public roads for the eco
nomic delivery of parcels and mails?
According to bulletin issued by the
office of public roads. there we're in
the United States in 1909 2.199,6 ,645
miles of public roads, and the total
mileage of improved public roads was
only 190,476. Yet we boast that the
United States is a highly civilized
country and make faces at the effete
countries of the old world, in some
Of the most decadent of which, as we
are accustomed to call them, the
people know where they are going
when they start, and have some idea
Of when they will get there and what
1t will cost them to make the journey.
There is good deal of humbug In the
claims we make for ourselves, particu.
larly when 1t comes to practical things.
although we are willing to admit with
put argument that we are the most
practical people in the world.
Recently what Is called the second
National Good Roads Federal Aid con-
vention was in session in Washing
ton. The place of meeting could not
have been better selected; the time
could not have been more inauspi-
cious. Nobody was thinking about
good roads, except the nearest cut to
the White House and the offices wait
Ing for distribution. 1t was announced
In the official program of the meet,
which was called by the American Au-
tomobile association, that "the distinct
purpose of this gathering is to create
concrete plan which shall logically
involve our national government in the
highways progress of the country"
That is fine purpose; but with the
old ones going out in shoals and the
new ones coming In without any spe-
cial purpose or any purpose that has
been formulated clearly, this was hard
ly the time for the association to make
very deep impression upon the leg
islative and disposing mind
For two days the convention dis
cussed good roads in a most intelli-
gent way and mass of valuable in
formation was obtained from expert
testimony, foreign and domestic, that
would lose much of Its force II 1t
should be suffered to perish, with the
using" or the speaking. The main
contention of the association is that
ut is the duty of the federal govern
ment to supplement state and county
systems with plan of national roads
connecting all parts OF the country.
That is most ambitious project,
but none too ambitious for country
so big as this. There are something
like 5000 counties in the United States
and 1t is well within the mark TO say
that In not one-half of these counties
Is there anything like what could be
called by the utmost stretch of cour-
tesy road system" The official fig
ures prove this without argument.
The ratio of good roads to bad roads
10 as $4,000 is to 1000. 900. and, as Mr..
Dooley would say. there ye are" But
1t is as certain as taxes that good
roads are coming. The idea Is taking
hold of the public imagination and will
soon make its way into the public
pocketbook. 1t costs from five to ten
cents, according to the classification,
to haul ton of freight by the much
abused railroads a hundred miles or
so; 1t costs about twenty-three cents
mile to haul q ton of almost any sort
Of freight over most of the public
highways In this country, and these
highways are in the daily use of the
people in their most intimate and nee
essary business. 1t has been estimat-
ed that bad roads cost the people of
the United States not less than $780,
100000 year.