The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1914-05-17
Our Domestic Economy, He
Concludes, Would Strike a
French Housewife with
Horror.

Think you that transportation would cost
less II the. engines and cars were less
expensive? Think you that the charge
for service would be smaller II the track
were less substantial? No. you think
none Of these things. for in this one
sphere at least we have come to rec
ognize the existence and l.-s supreme
public value of effectiveness. Yet do
not understand me as implying that
even here the final word Is effective
ness has been sid. Not so. The evolu-
ton still goes on and that which is al
ready good is always improving.
Come now. if you will. into the streets
OF some great city and We will stand
upon the curb ind see the teams 60 by.
Perhaps there are holes In the pave
ment AS We look at the trucks some
are full. some are partly full, and some
are empty. Now and then the congested
traffic stops them altogether and We
have for a time an ideal economic waste
when the cost of men and anSnals and
trucks Is for the moment absolutely with
out return. As We look a little more
carefully We see certain wagons pass
and stop at one place and then another.
and shortly after another wagon doing
a similar service stopping at two diff
ferent places and then a third and per-
haps a fourth and so on. and We wonder
why since these wagons render similar
service 1t could not be done by fewer
of them working continuously and with
out duplication. 1t could. but We do
not do It that way. We should also
wonder why It could not be SO arranged
that the empty trucks and the half-flled
ones could go more nearly loaded. 1t
would be better so, of course. but again
We do not do II that way.
Then our study takes US out into the
country and as we stand by a roadside
and think. we get the first glimpse Of the
high cost of mud. I wonder how many
farmers have had their hard-earned
money taken from them by mud. OF
course, IL you spoke to the farmer and
asked him to put a boy In the road in
front Of his farm and to supply him with
dollar bills to tear up and throw in the
road, the farmer being a sensible man
would laugh you to scorn. The point Is.
he does not have to do 1t that way. The
mud in the road does it for him. ! saw
1t not long ago. The mud was about a
foot deep The horses did their best. and
the driver drove as well as he knew
how. and neither horses nor man knew
how costly that foot OF mud was to
them So it comes to pass that the cost
per ton mile of hauling upon our best
roads averages fifteen times as great as
hauling upon our railways, and when We
get to an ordinary road II becomes TWEEN
ty times or more, and when We get to
the place where the farmers great
enemy-the mud road-prevails, 1t rises
to even greater heights-sometimes even
to a hundred times as much. Here is a
subject on which our thinking has only
begun to be effective. 1t is effective in
spots, in one State or county here, in
another there, but as a whole we have
not yet learned the lesson from the rail-
way.
Would Save Money.
If our communities were once to grasp
what bad roads and bad pavements cost
through the waste Of time and effort and
money, public opinion everywhere would
demand at any reasonable outlay or use
OF public credit that the evil should be
stopped with the least practicable delay.
Yet to press the lesson home that We
learn from the railways, let US come
back to our muddy road, and as the
poorly paid driver urges his tired team
to pull the cheap wagon through the
mire, let US think a moment more. Here
We have saved almost all outlay upon
the road itself. Once in a while, indeed.
reluctantly We got and put in time at
"Hdl We Call the Dul We
do not want to pay taxes. you and /. for
drains and grading and for building
what we may call a stone road: so we
have the minimum of outlay-almost no
outlay at all-upon the road itself. Our
horses are not expensive. The heavy
draft animals bred and reared for that
use are too costly. We can't afford
them. We have a pretty good wagon.
not the most expensive, but a fairly good
one, and of course. as some will say,
almost anybody can drive a team.
So we have gotten the least expensive
outfit in road and motive power and labor
and equipment, and the result is what ?
Here. too. II Is well to pause a moment,
for surely we have heard suggestions as
to the expensiveness of labor and the
virtue of thrift and the danger from
excessive outlay. Ali these phases of
what passes for economy are more or
less familiar to US, so let us be very
careful in reaching our conclusion. The
result Of the absence OF outlay and of