Goldsboro weekly argus. [volume] (Goldsboro, N.C.) 191?-19??, 1915-11-11
THE WAR TN EUROPE
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OR CAUSE

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tenth of the amount spent on b navy
that You might think, from the.
manner in which the jingoes bel1ttle
our army and navy, that we are at
present spending nothing on prepaTedk
ness. But we are, as a matter OF faces
spending now two hundred and hfty
millions of dollars annually, getting
ready for a weRre Apehding more
h a one hundred and forty-seven mil
lions on the navy and over one hum
dred million on the army; and how
much are we spending on agriculture?
The Department of Agriculture, which
looks after the interests of the largest
single group il this, h largest agr1-
cultural country in the world-the De-
partment of Agriculture which plants
experimental stations throughout u
land and sends representatives
throughout the world to gather in
formation for the farmers benefit
this department receives an appropria-
ton of tw%enty-three millions a year.
We are, in other words, spending more
than ten times as much getting ready
for war as we are spending on the
Department of Agriculture. And yet
the jingoes are not satisfied. They
say that we must now turf over a new
leaf; that we must get ready in earn
est.
Their are two organizations in th1s
country which, together claiming a
monopoly Of the patriotism of the ma
ton, have taken upon themselves the
task of getting the country ready for
war. The Security League thinks that
we should spend three hundred mil
dred and fifty millions a year on tae
army-two hundred and fifty millions
more than we are now spending, or
near double the present appropriations.
The Navy League is older, had mora
ciphers at it's disposal and had tile
advantage of making it's bid after the
other bid had been made. It insists
that that we ought to appropriate five
hundred millions for the navy and
have an army of a million men. It's
program could not be carried out for
seven hundred and fifty millions a
year-three times the present appro-
priation, or an increase of five hun
dred millions a year.
To show you what a burden this
would cast upon our taxpayers let US
assume that the appropriations for the
army and navy will be kept at what
they are now-about two hundred and
we could do with this proposed in
crease of five hundred millions a year
five billions in ten years-if we
spent it for things beneficial. 1 was
in California last summer and learned
from a commissioner of highways of
the work they are doing in the build
ing of hard roads. They are spending
eighteen millions of dollars and their
plans contemplate two highways run
nings from the Oregon line to the
Mexican line-one down the Pacific
Coast and the other down the great
central valleys of the State. These two
highways are to be connected at the
county seats; a splendid system. The
commissioner told me that it had been
found by experiment that a farmer can
haul o times as much with the same
team on a hard road as he can haul on
a dirt road, and he can haul it any
day in the year and any hour in the
day, n he does not have to consult
he weather bureau when he bitches
up his team. They are also building
hard roads in Oregon. The road be-
tween Ashland and Medford has al
ready reduced the cost of carrying
freight between the two points SO per
e The railroads charge 16 cents
per 100; the auto trucks haul for 8
cents and In addition have eliminated
drayage charges at both ends of the
line.
They are building hard roads in the
State of Washington; the road be
tween Seattle and Tacoma is near
enough completion to enable auto
buses to compete successfully with
the steam railways and the electric
lines.
i nave mdQ0 a CdlCuldC1On TO see
how much hard road could be built for
i've billions-the five hundred million
increase would aggregate that sum in
ten years. From information furnish
ed by the Department of Agriculture
/ find that the average cost of a ma
cadam road 16 feet wide and 6 inches
thick is a little over $4,000 a mile.
That there may be no doubt about the
estimate being sufficient let us arbi-
trarily raise it to $8,333.33 1-3 per
mile, which will enable US to make the
computation in round numbers. If we
count the distance from ocean to ocean
at 5000 miles and the distance from
north to south at 1900 miles, we can
with five billions of dollars build
enough macadam road, three miles for
$4,000, to make 100 highways from
the Atlantic to the Pacific, putting
them twelve miles apart, and highways
North and South, twelve miles apart,
SO that when the five billions were