The Monte Vista journal., 1916-12-02

skies, if we couldg to wake up to a
realization of the fact that our work
on our particular patch of the
earth's surface, is how to get the
most out of life-social educational
and agricultural And the only way
to do that effectively is to build good
roads.
The evolution of highways paral-
leis the evolution of the whole
scheme of transportation. Early
methods of transportation depended
upon oX-teams and horses. Better
vehicles demanded better, roads and
the automobile has been the greatest
FACTOR in compelling the permanent
paved highway. Both have made
the office, store and factory so acces-
sible to the rural home that people
have moved still farther away from
the congested districts of the city.
necessitating still greater develop
ment of the rural highway.
A hundred years have passed since
the National Pike demonstrated that
a better road is stimulus to better
fences, better barns, better houses,
better people, and better land values
along its course. Corresponding con-
ditions rule today, even though mod
ern traffic conditions have made it
necessary to rehabilitate the Ma
tlonal Pike in part by the use OF
concrete pavement.
Statistics show that at least 70
per cent of the automobiles manu-
factured recently have found their
way to the country, hence the rural
dWeller has not only been given the
opportunity, but developed a greater
desire to travel today than ever be-
fore. Moreover, he has seen good
roads and now appreciates the abso-
Lutte necessity for them, and for their
further extension in his community.
One of the most recent proofs of
why we should have better roads
comes from Ohio, where highway en-
thusiasts point to the fact that those
counties where roads have not been
improved have lost population, while
on the other hand, counties that
have modernized their roads have
grown in population and land values
have risen.
The United States Department of
Agriculture has found that in Spott-
sylvania county, Virginia, from ar
investment of 100000 to improve
forty mics of road the results were
most surprising. Two years after
completing this road the railroad
shipped from Fredericksburg, the
county seat, during period of
twelve months, 1000 tons of prod
ucts of the soil, hauled over the i'm
proved highway to that town. Be-
fore the improvement had been
maGe the total was only $4,000 tons
annu8lly-the' result of better
highway to the railroad.
Results equally as startling we're
shown in the quantity of dairy pred
ucts. In 1909 these amounted to
ia, ,S15 pounds; in 1911 they had
risen to 253,O2S pounds-an in
crease of practically lao per cent in
two years.
Summing up the answer to our
question, a portion of a speech made
not long ago by Governor Ralston
of Indiana, may be quoted:
Transportation means commerce;
commerce means a better under
standing between people, the more
people trade with one another, the
more they appreciate their inter
dependence upon one another and
interdependence in the end breeds
neighborhood and closer friendship.
People living ten miles apart with
out any means of transportation
connecting their respective cOmmu-
mites are strangers, though they are
citizens of the same county, where
as, people living twenty-five miles
apart with their respective localities
by an easy means of transportation
are friends, and by their personal
contact with one another, each gives
the other an impetus in life which
minimizes selfshness and magnifies
good will among men. And thus it
is that highways and transportation