The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1914-04-11

of the oiled and polished macadam so
slippery 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 good macadam road can
be constructed for about four thous-
and five hundred dollars mile, where
excessive grading is not required. The
modern roadway is costing about
twelve thousand dollars mile, with
a far greater cost for up-keep that the
old-time road, which, when properly
cared for, was road good enough for
anybody. The rolling, sprinkling,
sanding, oiling, and polishing of the
surface to make it acceptable to auto
mobilists 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 big
ger loads to market and will make his
land more valuable. The latter state
ment he finds to be true-for taxing
purposes. But when he goes to mar
ket he finds the new road so smooth
and slippery that he can haul no load
over it, for his horses can scarcely get
a toe-hold to pull an empty wagon,
and he has to take some roundabout,
old-time road after all.
The automobile is an enjoyable lux
ury-when it does not commit man
slaughter-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
nice afternoon and form your own es-
innate what proportion of the number
of machines that pass you are going
on any serious purpose of business or
on trips which could not have been
made less extensively by other means
of locomotion. You will come to the
conclusion that the automobile is al
most entirely an economic waste, eX-
cept so far as it gives work to many
mechanics and enables manufacturers
to pay -million-doilar dividends.
But people have right to spend
their own money foolishly if they
wish. The main objection that the far
mer has to the present manner of i'm
proving roads is that other people are
spending his money in an eXtravagant
way-they are making him pay for
road which is largely for purposes of
sport and not for the real industrial
development of the country. AS rule,
the driver of the automobile doesn't
want to go 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
a hickory nut. The Automobiles will
find that they cap use them very well,
and if the surface is not so smooth
maybe they will be restrained from
dangerous bursts of speed, thus max
ing the roads safer for themselves and
for other travellers. Good, hard roads
are very desirable, and we can not
have too much of them, but the VEN
eered surface is not an unmiXed bless
ing by any means.
Since the world began the farmer
has been it's mainstay, and he always
will be. And since the world began a
good many people who make their liv-
ing off him in one way or another
have been trying to sell him gold
bricks, with many variations of the
game. 1t looks good deal as if the
modern good road, so far as he is con-
cerned, is another one of those mis-
leading, glittering neutrality-suspicious..
Union News of BALTIC. Co.