The Hartford herald. [volume] (Hartford, Ky.) 1875-1926, 1916-02-02

ouisville-Address of Governor A.
Owsley Stanley before the Kentucky
Good Roads Association, on Septem-
Der Is, 1915.
Ladies and Gentlemen: / EN-
deeply grateful to my good friend,
Bob McBryde, for his very kind
reference to me. We should all be
grateful to him for his years of
tireless, patient and unrequited toll
in behalf of this great movement,
without expecting, without receiving,
any other recompense than the graft
tude of his countrymen and the well
fare of his country. With tongue and
pen he has presented with marked
ability every reason which can be as
signed for this great work, and he has
answered every objection which the
ignorant or penurious might advance.
The people of Kentucky have yet to
learn the debt they owe this great
journalist for great work nobly done.
| am not here today to attempt to
entertain you with anything that ap-
proaches a formal address. / am not
here to make speech; If | am elected
Governor of Kentucky, my time will
not be given to saying things, but to
doing them. (Applause) This is in
its essence d matter of business as
we'll as sentiment, and to the fiscal
side of this problem / shall in the
main address my few remarks.
You cannot build roads, however
advisable it may be, without money.
To say that you are in favor of good
roads is like saying you are in favor
of good health, or good morals, good
atmosphere, good looks, or good any
thing else. Nobody not driveling
fool favors good roads just as he IA
vors good health, or good weather.
We all favor good roads who have
sense enough to travel over them.
The question is, not whether it is de-
sirable to have better highways in
Kentucky, but how we shall obtain
them. We all want them if We can
afford them, because we must buy and
pay for these roads ourselves. We
will receive some aid from the Fed
eral Government, but the Federal Gov
eminent and the State Government
alike tax the people for the money, so
at least every dollar that is put in
good roads comes directly or indirect
ly out of the pockets of the people
who enjoy them. Then the question
to which an intelligent citizenship
should first address itself is, not shall
We donate, but should We invest the
money toward this good work? If
you go out to get money to build good
roads on the same principle that you
60 to get money to educate the Chi
hese, or save the heather, you will
not build many miles or road. To get
this money, you must in way, take
it from the people, with their consent,
by taxation. But the people are not
Aping to tax themselves to build the
roads unless they are convinced that
it is a good investment. And when
ever the people find that they are
making money by expanding money
upon the roads you will get the money
just as quickly as you would secure it
from a farmer you have convinced
that he would make money by buying
an addition of 1000 acres to his farm.
that is for sale nearby. There is no
trouble to induce men to spend money
where they are certain or reasonably
certain of a safe return. How is the
expenditure of many thousands of dol
lars for good roads a safe investment?
Money and Results.
am separating 1t from it's moral
and aesthetic, its sentimental side. /
am talking to you about the propriety
of expanding money for roads as |
would talk to farmer about the
spending of money for land. AS
would talk to the manufacturer of the
propriety of spending money for ma
chinery. AS would talk to the mine
owner for spending money for tip
pie, or an option upon so many acres
of coal land. A great mistake that
farmers have made is in not making a
business-like calculation as to the cost
of production, which bears a direct
relation to the advisability of con-
structing good roads. A short time
ago Charles l.. Schwab. former presi-
dent of the United States Steel Cor
poration and now president of the
Bethlehem corporation, the most gift |
ed of all the great industrial masters |
of finance, made this startling state
ment: "One-third of the cost of the
production of all steel products is the
cause of transportation" and one of
the secrets of Schwab's phenomenal |
success was that he never calculated |
the cost of anything made of steel
from a needle to thousand tons OF
armor plates, that he did not calculate
the cost of laying 1t down F. o. B.
10 the consignee. The farmer does
not calculate. He calculates the cost
of the production in a rough way, by
taxing cost of the land. taxes. labor,
and tools. When he calculated what
II cost him to get in fifty bushels OF
wheat on his wagon or thousand
bushels of corn In his bin completes
his, calculation. But he has not esti-
mated the cost of that article to its
entirety, for no man comes to his bin
for corn or to the thresher for his
grain. Until he has calculated the