Evening star., 1914-09-27
RAILROAD PRESIDENT
BOOSTS GOOD ROADS
Harrison Of Southern Shows How
They Help the Farmer Get
Better Prices.

| Regarding the public roads as an in
dispensable part of the transportation
system of the country, supplementing
it's railroads and waterways, President
Harrison of the Southern Railway
Company takes an active interest in
the good roads movement. He is vice
president of the American Highway
Association and will be one of the
speakers at the Fourth American Road
! Congress in Atlanta the week of No
vember g.
| Speaking of the relation of the coun-
, try highway to the railroad, Mr. Har-
rison said: ''Whatever may be the final
destination of the farm products, their
| first movement must be over the coun-
try road and IL the farmer is to re-
ceive the largest measure of benefit
from good roads the policy should be
adopted of improving those highways
which radiate from market towns and
shipping stations. and over which the
farmers must haul their products. The
profit which will be earned by the
farmer may depend largely upon the
condition of the road from his farm
] to a shipping station. Statistics COM
piled by the United States Department
Of Agriculture show that the cost of
hauling farm products to shipping
points over bad roads is a dispropor-
eioid lely large part OF the total eX-
pense of their transportation to mar
ket.
This is not always fully realized by
the farmer, but if he will take into ac-
count the time of himself and his team
and the wear and tear on his vehicle
and harness made necessary by larg-
er number of trips with smaller loads,
he VIII find that the. cost mounts up
very fast and correspondingly reduces
his net profits. Another item of the
cost of bad roads to the farmer which
Is often overload is that he must haul
MS products to market when the roads
are not in their best condition, with
little regard as to whether prices are
favorable or whether hauling at that
time interferes with work on the farm
Good Roads Raise Prices.
with good roads he can not only
haul heavier loads in shorter time, but,
except as to perishable commodities, he
can market his products when prices
are most favorable and can do his haul
ing when it is most convenient and
even when the ground is too wet for
work in the fields
THE manifold advantages of an i'm
proved highway in reducing the cost
of drayage. facilitating social inter-
course. promoting school and church
attendance, expediting rural mail de-
, nvery, increasing the value of farm
! lands and promoting agricultural de-
velopment back from the railroads
are so great that they need but to be
enumerated to present a convincing
, argument in favor of road improve
ment.
"Since several years ago, when the
Southern Railway Company, in co-op-
|, GRAFTON with the United States Depart
ment of Agriculture and state and To-
cal authorities, operated over its lines
good roads train, carrying machinery
and lecturers and building at central
points object-lesson roads. there has
been very substantial progress in the
good roads movement throughout the
south. This was accelerated in 1911 by
the operation of another good roads
train in cooperation with the United
States Department of Agriculture and
the American Highway Association
The interest of the southern people in
good roads has been thoroughly arous-
ed, and in many localities the country