The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1916-06-02
DR.. CLANTON ON
GOOD ROADS.
He Writes Again Giving His Opinion
and Views on Permanent Roads
in Grenada County.
Graysport, Miss, May Is, 1916,

Graysport, Miss, May Is, 1916.
Editor Sentinel:
1t seems almost out Of place to speak
here of the kind of roads we have now,
The travelling public see and know the
roads as they now are. With the dry
season here and when the roads are be-
ing worked properly. l admit that they
are beautiful. Any road kept smooth
and free of obstruction is good in the
dry season.
Some old sage of bygone days advised
that .In times of Peace prepare for
war;" a trite saving that we'll applies
to road conditions just now.
We admit that our roads. in most
sections, are pretty good just now.
How long will they remain firm and
good, so that we may 60 to and fro in
peace and comfort? Until the next
wet spell. 1t takes the rain aud snow
of winter to make US appreciate the
good roads of summer. Let winter
come on US and then you hear people
talking about how bad the roads are
and usually you then hear them speak
tractor and Of the indifference Of the
supervisor. In some cases and in some
places some one may have neglected to
DO his full duty and as a result q rough
place or an impossible mudhole. When
the contractor is to blame, hop on him.
But don't let us embarrass our road
men about a thing that they
cannot help. Let US think about our
bad, muddy hills and impossible mnd-
holes and see if nature isn't at fault
just lots of times and in lots of places.
l travel owe the roads a great deal,
day in and day out, through sunshine
and rain. when they are bad and when
they are good. So often l find a bad,
muddy piece Of road that is bad because
OF pure neglect on the part Of someone.
Then again | find the very meanest
kind of impossible places that are not
due SO much to neglect of the road man
as to the fault of nature.
Any practical, observing mar in a Civ
en- locality can tell you now where the
bad, mean, muddy and impossible
stretches of road will be next January.
Most men agree with me in saying that
Is per cent of our roads will remain
firm and good and smooth throughout
the year if properly drained and
dragged as they should be and as the
contracts call for. l say positively and
knowingly land there are many who |
will join nae in saying SOY that the vast
majority of our roads will remain good
and smooth IL months in the year if
the contractors will only do their duty
towards them-drain and drag.
l believe, too. that most men will
agree with me when l say that about
u per cent or less of our roads that are |
so good, dry and smooth during the dry /
season will become impossible to bug
gies, cars and lightly drawn vehicles |
fhIo Dinfor q nSNhkn = tn tkacn 80
US who must needs travel day in and
day out, IN awful torture to our faith |
old mules, horses Or oxen.
Gentlemen, look now back down the |
AislesN of memory and scenes of long, !
muddy roads appear and memories Of
cold, frosty mornings or perhaps long. |
rainy days come up. Gentlemen, we
can't prevent the cold or rainy days of
the future and neither would we. But |
we a and should prevent those impas- |
sable and muddy roads.
am not an extremist on the subject |
of better roads. l do not believe that |
we should now commit ourselves to q |
costly system of roads of rock and |
gravel or costly cement. for thereby we
will burden ourselves and posterity only |
to make someone rich and at ease while |
we are yet poor.
Nature has blessed US wonderfully
here by supplying adequately and gen.
orally neal by the very material that |
we need in the building of our better
roads-sand and clay. Go, and as you
70 observe, if you please, and you will
e that We have miles and miles of
roads that are now good and will remain
so if kept properly drained and dragged.
Natures W mixture of sand and clay. |
Natures W sand-clay road.
Gentlemen, l feel that we eve it to
ourselves and to each other to build up |
and make good and substantial all those
places that have become bad in the past
and that will surely become bad again
il the same conditions are allowed to
prevail in the future that have obtained
in the past. You, each n of you, can
think of some place that May be pretty
good now that will surely be bad next
winter because of the nature of the
hills anywhere you find them, they may
be pretty smooth and hard now, but let
the winter rains come and they will be
transformed from roek-like roadbeds
into deep and almost impossible mud
beds, making it almost Impossible to
get over them. Just plain old common
sense tells US that in order to have a.
road over these places that we must
put something there. l know of places
where men have laid poles across such
roads and partially covered them with
dirt making a firm but rough road,
demonstrating that the bad place can
be fixed. l have seen those same i'm
passable beds of mud fixed in q much
way by placing several inches of
sand thereon and mixing With this mud
and thereby making a road fit for
traffic.
And so it seems to me. gentlemen.
that we can have q better system of
roads, roads that will both conserve our
religion and serve VI more nearly all
of the time, by taking the material that
ma cure has provided and using them to
practical. not costly, road building.
mean to implY that we car take