The Tupelo journal., 1916-11-17
TEN MILLION DOLLARS SPENT
ON ROAD BUILDING IN THE
LAST TEN YEARS.
EXPOSITION GIVES IMPETUS
Many Counties In Mississippi Actively
Engaged In Building Permanent
Highways-Plans Laid For
Opening Other Outlets.

Significant in the late rapid develop
ment of Mississippi tas been the state
wide good roads movement. Ten years
ago there were only thirteen counties
in the State that were putting out any
efforts on road building, and some of
these were of the crudest. Today, JUS
one short decade past, practically ev-
cry one of the seyenty-eight counties
Of this State is actively engaged in
building permanent roadbeds along
most before one road can be cOmplat-
ed, plans are being laid for opening
up other outlets, whereby the farmers
may more easily market their produce.
So perfect, indeed, is the highway
system in a number of the counties,
that many of the ag~riculturists now
transfer their produce by auto truck
to the shipping point or market place,
and the old numbering farm wagon,
with itsf clogged wheels and mud-De-
battered sides is now almost a thing
Of the past.
Something more than ten million
dollars has been put into MISSISSIPPI
pts highways since the beginning Of
this movement, and among the notable
benefits aCcruing as a civic invest
ment must be mentioned a marked
impetus TO the establishment of con
solidated schools whereby the country
child now has the advantage of a high
school education as well as a more ex-
tended scope Of association and en-.
vironment; the promotion of all com
munity activities; the encouragement
of rural mail deliveries, and the plac-
ing of the opportunities, and enjoy
ment of city life within easy reach of
the farmer and his family.
All this and much more for less &C
tual cost than the mud tax" OF lost
time, damage and distress to which
the country nan was e%rstwhile a prey
when he watched the clouds in misery,
fearing that if he got the rain needed
to make his crops grow the roads
would become impossible, so that
whatever truck he had or hand
would rot before he could get to town
with it. 1t is estimated that this
old mud tax" cost the farmers more
in actual dollars and cents than all
his other taxes combined.
While the ten million dollars already
expended has given Mississippi the
nucleus for a splendid highway sys-
TEN, it will be necessary to spend
three times hat much before this sys'
tenn shall be complete. To secure the
money for this purpose within a rea,
sonable time without an additional
taxation it is essential that the States
population be increased and more of
her idle lands put into use with a cor,
responding increase in tax values on
what had been waste property.
AS a definite step to this end the
Mississippi Centennial Exposition will
bring many thousands of people here
to whom the unsurpassed natural re
sources of this State have been hither-
to as a sealed book. The long
stretches of cutover lands will hold
an alluring appeal for home seekers
who have come and seen with their
own eyes what perseverance and
thrift may accomplish in this land of
golden opportunity. With each ten
acre field that is planted the State
will be enriched by an additional tax
value of forty dollars. Thus may our
waste lands be expected, within the
next ten years, to bloom into thou,
sands Of tidy little farms and villages,
between which smooth highways will
run as the natural arteries Of com.
mecce. And all his will be primarily
s~uperinduced by the great attraction
and advertising value of the Centen.
NAL Exposition.