The Republican journal., 1915-03-25
GOOD ROADS.


eled ways is matter that more or less
directly concerns every one. Good roads
enhance the value of real estate and ia
ciitate travel and transportation. From
the days when people worked out their
taxes on the highways to the present
time, with its machinery and appliances
and experts on road building, the results
have not been commensurate with the
labor and money expended. We have
heard the tax-labor on the roads esti-
mated as low as 25 cents on the dollar.
AS to present conditions they are accu-
rately depicted in the following letter by
Mr.. G. H. Emerson in a recent issue
of the Bucksport Times:
Before the days of road machines we
had better roads in town than since their
introduction. By them our roads have
become narrow and most of them with
sloplng sides, so that unless one keeps to
the middle of the road he is on side hill,
or if one meets team he has to take to
the gutter to get by. In the hands of
competent men, of course, it is possible
to repair road properly, but we do not
have competent men. We have men in
charge who have never had any instruc-
ton IN road-maklng, who have never
made study of the subject, who do not
know even the first principles of road
making. In the summer time when the
roads have become dry and hard they
take the road machine and from the gut
tiers scrape a lot of loose earth and sods
into the middle of the road, with a peak
or ridge in the middle for horses to
travel on, and steep sloping sides to
deep cutters, and we get a poor road
the rest OF the season. They should
know the proper time to smooth and re-
pair roads is in the spring before the road
beds have dried and become solid. and to
do general repair on roads after thew
have become hard is to waste much time
and money, and is the real reason why
our roads cost so much. They should
know that solid road bed should be let
alone as much as possible and that, in
stead of taking WORKOUT earth from the
cutters to resurface they should get some
new material from elsewhere. They
should know that the shoulders of roads
should never be cut into and portion
removed, as is invariably done when ma
chimes are used.
We submit that before having charge
of roads, every road commissioner should
qualify, that is to say, he should get in
structlon from some source as to the pro-
per method of making and repairing
roads. Then and not until then can we
expect fair return for the large sums
of money now largely wasted on our
roads.
The use of the road machine in this CITY
has been practically discontinued, but
only after it bad done a deal of injury
to the streets and caused the waste of {
large amount of money. One season.
drawn by six horses and attended by hall
dozen men, it was employed for foul
days on one street and did not do as much
effective work as less number of mer
with shovels and hoes could have done in
the same time. 1t was used to scrape
the loose earth and sods out of the gut.
tiers into the middle OF the road until
the cutters were made so deep that wa
ter could not flow through the culverts.
ard IN one place at least a good two.
track road was made into single track
with steep sloping sides dangerous to
travel.
Then, people are rightly beginning to
question the policy Of building 500 feet
of road at cost of $4,000 per mile and
neglecting all other thoroughfares. Bel
fast has $50 miles of roads and compe-
tent authority estimates that it would
cost at least $4,000 to put them in the
condition they We're eight or nine years
ago. For the large amount of money
expended we have only mile or two of
socalled State road to show and it is
doubted by many if these expensive
pieces of road are any better than we'll
drained, properly rounded and gravelled
road, The business interests of Belfast
demand good roads into as we'll as in the
c ity, and this is a matter which should
be taken out of politics and handled in q
practical way for the good of all con-
cerned.