The Lexington intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1901-1949, 1915-09-17
NATIONAL STATE AND COUNTY HIGHWAYS.

"AAoW- DAhUhA65 heoao IVY AAo9OeAJ
We have neither changed nor modified our often expressed
opinion that the only practical solution of the "good roads,
proposition, is that the National Government should construct
and maintain a system of national highways, embracing all
roads constituting through routes and interstate in character.
This system of National Highways should be supplemented by
a system of State highways to be constructed and maintained
by the State and embracing the main inter-county routes, and
connecting every County seat town with the State and National
system.
Each County should construct a system of County roads,
supplementng such system of State roads and embracing the
main intertown routes, and thus binding together all parts Of
the County.
This would give a system of permanently built roads, all
connected in one vast scheme and embracing the entire country.
That we shall come to some such practical system as this, soon
er or later, there can be no question. The general public has
been much misled by mistaken legislation looking to the build
ing of short stretches of local roads, beginning nowhere and
ending nowhere. This mistaken notion is easily tracable to po-
hhcal demagogues, who, actuated by the opinion that there were
a greater number of dirt roads than permanent ones, and pos
sibly believing there was a larger population living in the back
"destricts" than on the great highways. Their appeals have been
made to a narrow prejudice which utterly misled public
sentiment.
History has demonstrated that all attempts to develop
roads or a system of roads, by first building local roads have
been miserable failures. Experience has shown further as to
common wagon roads as well as railroads, that not until
trunk lines were built was there any material advance in road
building. These trunk lines suggested and brought about the
desire for building local roads elsewhere. Otherwise, there was
no desire or reason for the existence Of such local feeders. Such
system u Nau0nal highways VIII be the heavy traffic main
trunk lines within the several states, and will relieve the states
of their construction and maintenance. The State Highways
will likewise be the heavy traffic lines within the several coun-
ties, and should be built and maintained by the State, thus re-
Geving the Counties of the cost of such construction and main
tenance. The Counties should build and maintain it's system,
reaching out into the more remote districts Of such Counties at
the expense of such Counties.
A system like this will add an impetus as yet unthought of
to road building throughout the nation. Authority and respon-
sibiity will be logically and economically divided and fixed with
out any possible conflict. Uniformity and efficiency will result,
and the standards OF construction and maintenance will be rails
ed, and they will be built in the shortest possible time and with
the utmost efficiency. The money will get into roads where it
belongs and not into the pockets of small politicians. The cost
will be equitably distributed on those communities best able to
bear the burden. Such a system can be built all at one time, as
as well as any portion of it to wait and delay action until the
other portion is built. It is agreed, however, that Congress will,
as heretofore, be slow to take any action, at least of a practical
and sensible nature, until public sentiment has become so
aroused that it will be forced to take action. In the meantime,
and until Congress does take some action, we will abate no eff
fort along this line, but will be on hand, Sin season and out of
season" until the general government has arisen to a full ap-
probation of the situation.
Just at this time when Military preparedness" is being
agitated on every hand, we shall insist that as a vital and essen
tal part of such preparedness, nothing is so important as a
system of military roads, over which the armies, artillery and
supplies, can easily be modified. The country will never be
safe from attack from the east or west, north or south, until
such system is constructed. 1t is worth while to mention the
fact that this was a part of the conception in the early history
of this country, for the building of the eastern section of the
National Old Trails Road as a military road, and it served its
purpose well, both in the early history and during the Civil War.
But this Old Road, like every other interstate road, passes
through certain states, counties and townships, and answers all
the purposes of a local road through such sections. Therefore,
we are urging the people not to wait on the slow and possibly
uncertain action of Congress, but to build the road and TO
BUILD 1T NOW. When Congress does take action, there is not
a doubt that this Old Road will be included in any system, or in
any assistance given by the general government. No conceiv-
able enterprize,-not even an additional trans-continental rail-
road or trolley, will be of so much real benefit and value of the
country generally and especially to the counties and states
through which the road runs as viii be the permanent building
of the National Old Trails Road. tits not only a patriotic duty,
but it appeals to every motive and instinct which actuate the
progressive, wideawake citizen.
While awaiting the action of Congress, and the State Leg
islatures, let me illustrate what may be done by the Counties in
Missouri and other States, under existing statutes; for instance
Clay County, through which the National Old Trails Road
does not run, has $4,000 acres of land, valued by the Missouri
Bureau of Labor Statistics, at an average of 1924 per