The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1914-02-14
Good Roads Bill Passes the House.

.
! The Shackelford $25, 600, 0OC
| good roads bill passed the House
on Feb. 10. by the handsome ma
jority of 2S2 to az. This big ma
jority shows the popularity of
the bill, and there is every rea-
son to believe it will pass the
Senate with but little change or
amendment.
In the House on Feb. z, Con-
gresham j. B. Aswell made such
a fine speech in support of this
bill that we reproduce the princi-
pal part, as follows:
Mr.. Chairman:-The economic value
of good roads and the necessity for
building them are self-evident. They
need no further argument. The sta
tistical data and all phases of their val
ue have already been discussed and
unanimously endorsed by this House.
Everybody knows that in the United
States it costs on an average twice as
much to haul farm products from the
farm to the nearest railroad station as
1T costs to transport the same products
from that station to Liverpool, England,
All of US know that the farmer in this
as in other matters has received scant
consideration by the government, and
that he deserves the best. But the
value of good roads is not confined to
the farmer. 1t nightly affects all
classes of society, all lines of industry,
and the stability and perpetuity of the
government. The demand is immedi-
ate, unequivocal and impelling. The
administration has promised to inaugu-
rate this far-reaching plan of service
to the whole country. All political par
ties seem glad to join in a movement
that will improve the living conditions
of every citizen, and have a powerful
influence upon the happiness and patri-
otism of all the people.
| am Democrat in every sense of
that word. l had some humble part in
the election of the present great Dem
ocratic president. l am more convinc-
ed now than in that campaign that in
the generations to come he will be num-
bered among the immortals of this re-
public, because he has shown himself
man of no petty or ignoble passions, a
man of unusual character and uncom-
mon purity, whose lofty ambition is
constantly flashing forth in the highest
type of patriots love for the man on
the ground; for the uplift and recogni-
ton OF the great plain people of the
country upon whom all others depend.
All political parties here recognize
that this bill is in harmony with the
spirit of service that permeates the
life and purposes of this administra-
ton.
The same principales underlie this bill
as are the foundation of public educa-
ton and all other governmental enter
prises for the common good of society
and humanity. All the wealth of the
country is taxed to pay for these en-
terprises, and all the wealth of the
country should be taxed for the pur-
pose OF building roads for the rich and |
for the poor, for the city man and the
country man, without reference to the
financial standing of either. The pro-
gressive city man is as much concerned
IN building country roads to the home
OF the farmer as is the farmer himself
The city mans property should be tax
ed to build the country roads.
The recognition of this principle makes
road building not only State, but a
Federal question, and one that deserv-
IS and demands ready and liberal SUD-
port by this government. There is no
competition between the city and the
country. The rural and the urban cit
zen are to be the thoroughbreds of the
CENTURIES as they go hand-in-hand down