Arizona republican., 1916-05-17
History of Movement Treat ed In Lecture By Paul Edwin Fuller, Who Talks Before Delegates to Roads Meeting


 ministering them, was ably treated in lecture given to members of the Arizona Good Roads association by Paul Edwin Fuller at the Columbia thcater at the close of the session yesterday. Mr. Fuller's remarks were illustrated by slides. In substance, | MT. Fuller said:
 In the early years of this nation | when the inhabited area of this | country extended back only a few l miles from the sea -coast and when | each, community was nearly half-suf- l hclent, highways of any length or degree of dependability were few and far between. Travel between towns or settlements was very light, and traf- fife whenever possible, was carried on by water Such roads as were built were necessarily a local charge on the communities served. Asses ments for thelr construction and maintenance were made upon the muscle, material. and farm stock of the nearby resi- dents rather than on their pocket books
 Thus, early in our history, was es- tablished system of local manage ment of roads which has continued. Tn many respects unchanged, for prac- tically two hundred years.
 During the half century. say. pre- vious to the development of the steam railway, there was a movement for state, and even national, construction and maintenance of at least the trunk-line highways, and there was also considerable activity in the building of the old turnpike toll roads by private enterprise. How ever, both of these lines of develop ment were terminated by the coming of the railways. and the construc- tion and administration of nuhlic roads then lapsed to their original primitive condition
 1 With the growth of the county with the increasing need of some bet ter roads something had to super sede the old hap hazard method where the towns and road districts, worked the roads. So a system of county administration grew up in most states. The villages and town shlps cared for their own local streets and highways, but the county was supposed to provide the funds and officials to build and maintain the main through highways.
 With the advent of the bicycle in the early sos, there was awakened a new interest in highway construction ana all over the country good roads" associations sprang into vigorous life. As result of this campaign. demand arose for engineers competent to build good roads. The highway sur- veyor.'' or even the county surveyor who laid out and built the dirt roads knew Ittle or nothing about Telford or Macadam and their work. There fore the need of some central au- thority, to supervise road construc- tlon' became apparent in many of the states.
 Tn l892, the state of New Jersey enacted the first law authorizing state aid for good-roads construction since then this idea has extended to nearly all of the states in the union. practically all of which have. in some form or another. passed laws under which the state has some part in the construction of public highways.
 The extension of good highways has the same effect upon the values of lands as the extension of a railroad into an unsettled community.
 Present day civilization follows good roads. just the same as early settlers followed the streams which in those days carried the traffic. Good roads are the arteries of the life of a com munlty through which the current of traffic flows, and on their condition olten depends the profit or loss to the manufacturers business man. and farmer.
 Our school system is intimately re- lated to the development of good roads. The percentage of pupils at tending schools located on bad roads IS far lower than the percentage of those attending schools located on good roads.
 me good-roads problem is not 2 local matter by any means Good roads benefit more people than any other public enterprise There is not slhgie person of a community who does not receive some pleasure or ad- vantage rom them. Any person Iiv- ing anywhere has the same right With every other person to use the public highway, and the introduction or the automobile has extended ite use more than ever before. Nearly hat our population live in the cit les and must be fed by products from the Iarm Therefore the people in the cltles are as much interested in tbe condition of the roads as the people Tn the country. A good road. there fore, is a universal benefaction
 In one county of Tennessee hefore road improvement began, one bale ot cotton was an average load for q tWo-horse team. There are now one hundred miles of improved roads in that particular county. and twelve bales is not an uncommon load. there py increasing the earning ability of the team for the farmer twelve times Some time ago the farmers In that section were notified. by tel ephone, of sudden rise of four dol lars per bale in the price of cation TO the farmer living upon the had road and who could only haul one bale, that rise in price only meant a proflt of four dollars per load. but to the farmer living upon the good road, 1t meant a profit of fortv- eight dollars per load, and he was able to haul the twelve bales the same distance in less time and with less abuse to his team and wagon