Charlevoix county herald., 1916-09-15

ana pulleys are 'gmmed up they
pull slowly and irregularly, and our
social, educational and agricultural life
is "gummed up in like proposition.
There is no escaping this truth.
We know that travel educates, but
too often we use the word travel in the
sense that we must get way. off yonder
somewhere before the education begins
to "step in, when as matter OF fact
the need for travel is right here at
home. We need closer communication
need to know each other better; and
there is nothing in this world which
will more quickly break down the
barriers of isolation and the monotony
of the farm than easy and smooth
travelling.
We do need good roads.
There is really no reason to argue on
this subject among ourselves. This
need is fact-a fact as hard and as
solid as concrete road. But we do
need to have impressed upon our minds
the intensity of this need for better
highways and to have this need i'm
pressed SO deeply that we will act in
stead Of talk, and thus put our COM
munity on the basis, as financiers
would say, OF going concern. IL we
continue to talk without action, good
roads in our community will be as in
definite and distant as the milky way.
The history Of man is the record of
mans struggle against nature. Slowly
he has loosed the bonds that have held
him at the mercy of his foes. But we
who are yet living on bad roads are
bound hand and foot while the ele-
ments play about us. When the rains
come we are stuck fast in the mud,
blocked from the markets and from the
profits which would be ours but for our
own stupidity.
II we are not going to build modern
highways, get out OF the mud and con-
meet up with the outside world on hard
surface roads, we would display wisdom
by turning back to cave days and hole
up, not for the winter, but for eternity
so far as our community life is con-
cerned.
But we started out, you say, to hang
this discussion on this peg:
"Do we need good roads?"
Yes, we do.
We need good roads If we are going
to add interest to life in this communi-
| ty. To add interest, make the most
profit from our farms, and hold our
young people, we must keep in line
with other communities. This is not
mere talk repeated so many times that
you may throw il aside as amounting to
nothing. 1t is important enough to
warrant sending corps OF bell ringers
through the skies, IL we could, to wake
up to 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 parallels
the evolution Of the whole scheme OF
transportation. Early methods Of trans
portation depended upon oxen, teams
and horses. Better vehicles demand
ed better roads and the automobiles
has been the greatest factor in compell-
ing the permanent paved highway.
Both have made the office, store and
factory so accessible to the rural home
that people have moved still farther
away from the congested districts of
the city, necessitating still greater de-
velopment OF the rural highway.
| A hundred years have passed since
the National Pike demonstrated that
better road is a stimulus to better
fences, better barns, better houses,
better people, and better land values
along its course. Corresponding con-
ditions rule today, even though modern
traffic conditions have made it neces-
sary to rehabilitate the National Pike
in part by the use Of concrete pave
ment.
Statistics show that at least 70 per
cent OF the automobiles manufactured
recently have found their way to the
country, hence the rural dweller has
not only been given the opportunity,
but developed greater desire to travel
today than ever before. Moreover, he
has seen good roads and now appreci-
ates the absolute 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 enthusiasts
point to the fact that those counties
where roads have not been improved
have lost population, while on the
other hand counties that have modern
lied their roads have grown in popula-
tion and land values have arised.
| The IL 6. DEPARTMENT of Agriculture