Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1914-02-27
For Legislators To Consider Ia
Voting Road Loans.


From the Union-News, Towson, Md.
1t is about time those benevolent indi-
viduals who spend so much time and
energy in demanding good roads for farm
ers" should change their cry to roads good
for farmers" The good roads that modern
engineers are making are not good for
farmers at all and, in fact, are of but little
use to them. Even where the farmer has
not been practically crowded off the roads
by automobiles, he finds the surface of
the oiled and polished macadam so slip
perry that he has to drive in the gutter and
that at the risk of the lives and limbs of
his animals and himself
Time and again it has been demon
strated that a good macadam road can
be constructed for about four thousand
five hundred dollars a mile, where excess
sive grading is not required. The modern
roadway is costing about twelve thousand
dollars mile, with greater cost for up
keep that the old-time road, which, when
properly cared for, was road good enough
for anybody. The rolling, sprinkling, sand
ing. oiling and polishing of the surface to
make it acceptable to Automobiles makes
a most expensive highway and one that is
of but little use to the people who have to
pay the bulk of the bill for its construction
and maintenance.
The farmer is encouraged to shout and
vote for good roads. He is told that they
will enable him to haul bigger, loads to
market and will make his land more valu- |
able. The latter statement he finds to be |
true-for taxing purposes. But when he |
goes to market he finds the new roads so |
smooth and slippery that he can haul no |
load over it, for his horses can scarcely !
get toe-hold to pull an empty wagon. |
and he has to take some roundabout, old |
time road after all.
The automobile is an enjoyable luxury
when it does not commit mansaughter-l
but the fact remains that fully ninety per |
cent. of its use in country districts is still |
for purposes of luxury solely. Take your |
position on any of our suburban roads on |
a nice afternoon and form your own esti- |
mate of what proportion of the number |
of machines that pass you are going on
any serious purpose of business or on |
trips which could have been made less ex-
pensive by other means of locomotion. You
will come to the conclusion that the auto
mobile is almost entirely an economic |
waste, except so far as it gives work to |
many mechanics and enables manufac-
turers to pay ten-million-dolar dividends. |
But people have right to spend their
own money foolishly If they wish The
main objection that the farmer has to the |
present manner of improving roads is that
other people are spending his money in an
extravagant way-they are making him
pay for a road which is largely for purposes
of sport and not for the real industrial de-
velopment Of the country. AS rule the
driver of the automobile doesn't want to
90 anywhere in particular, so the farmer
should not be blamed If he suggests that
Speedways be built for them. Just let |
them have circular tracks where they can
keep on going around and around. Build
the country roads in the manner of the
old-time pixies, finished with stones the
size Of hickory nut. The automobilists
will find that they can use them very well,
and If the surface is not so smooth, maybe
they will be restrained from dangerous
bursts Of speed, thus making the road
safer for themselves and for other travel
ers. Good, hard roads are very desirable.
and we cannot have too much Of them.
but the veneered surface is not an unmix-
ed blessing by any means.
Since the world began the farmer has
been its mainstay, and he always will be. |
And since the world began good many
people who make their living off him in
one way or another have been trying to
sell him gold bricks. with many variations |
Of the game. II looks a good deal as II the |
modern good road, so far as he is concerned. |
is another one Of those misleading, gilt
tering neutrality-suspicious..