The daily star-mirror. (Moscow, Idaho) 1911-1939, 1916-04-11
"SOUND ASLEEP ON
ROAD QUESTION"
LOCAL BUSINESS MAN SAYS WE
HAVE THINGS TO LEARN ON
THE VALUE OF GOOD ROADS
George Creighton Tells About His
Trip to California, Says Good Roads
Made That Country

Mr.. and Mrs. Geo. Creighton, who
left here a few weeks ago for a tour of
the sunny south, are back again, and
report having had a we'll worth while
trip. In an interview Mr.. Creighton
said, ITO leave a land of drifting
SHOWS and in two or three days drop
into a land of sunshine and flowers is
a wonderfully agreeable change in
deed, especially after having endured
what to me seemed the longest win
ter we ever known here and we have
seen all of them for the last quarter
of a century. =
1--WE spent but a few days in Frisco,
geles, and there we simply lived out
of doors. There's something about
the climate there that calls you out,
and as automobiles can be rented for
q song, only one or two days passed
that we didn't take to the country
and enjoy the smell of the orange
orchards.
There's a saying in Los Angeles
something like this: That which she
has not and wills not is not and from
the way this city has developed in the
last % years I'm inclined to think
that there living up to this. In 1890
they had a population of $4,000. To-
day they have about $50, 900 and with
in a radius of 20 miles it's not too
much to say that they have 5000
and I was told that no one thing had
helped more in this wonderful devel-
opment than good roads.
Several years ago the people of
Los Angeles voted bonds to the
amount of three millions five hundred
thousand dollars for the construction
of a system of hard surface roads rad
iating in every direction from Los
Angeles. The benefits of this system
were so apparent that the work has
gone ahead ever since, so that today
you may travel in any direction on
roads just as good as our main street.
mo one down there hesitates about
advocating good roads. You may
run north on a hard surfaced road to
Frisco 500 miles away. You may go
south 125 miles away on a hard sur
face road to San DIEGO, and ride as
smoothly almost as on a train. Just
show you, a little town whose pop
ulation does not exceed 1000, voted
bonds recently for $135,000 to pave
its streets and an equal amount for a
permanent water supply. These peo-
pie know from the experience OF
their nearby towns that it pays to do
these things.
why, if Latah county today would
bond this county for a half million
dollars to build permanent hard sur
faced roads it would be the best in
vestment we ever made. Did you ever
stop to consider that we spend more
than the interest on this amount eve
ry year patching up, rounding up, and
dragging, and what have we? What
have we to show for all the money
wasted during the last 25 years?
Nothing-roads that have for the last
five months been almost impossible.
We've got to wake up. We're asleep
at the switch. Here's n of the best
counties on the Pacific coast, a coun-
ty that leads all others in many ac-
tivities, sound asleep on this road
question.
Can you compute what it would
mean to the farmer to be able to have
hard surfaced roads to his door, and
what it would add to the value of his
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