The Washburn leader., 1916-07-21
POOR ROADS N
- every COUNTY
Only 10000 Miles Of First
Glass Highways In America.
COACH TRAVEL IN ENGLAND

Conditions In England Of Two Gen.
turies Ago Can 30 Duplicated In csr-
tain Sections Of This Land Of Prog
ress-Large Percentage Of Unim-
proved Roads.
1t has been estimated by careful gov
ernment experts. says the New York
Evening Post that only about 10000
miles of really first rate modern high
ways are to be found in the United
States. The total mileage Of public
roads in January, 1916, was 2,273. .131.
The total mileage Of all surfaced
roads" was 247, 400, and 1t has been
very nearly 300 years since our first
American parents began to appropri-
ate the lands Of the aborigines so that
they might redeem this land and make
It the habitation of civilized peoples.
There are many striking parallels be-
tween the United States now and Eng
land IN the time Of which Macaulay
wrote, something over two centuries
ago. The most of the public roads
here are little if any better than were
the roads when Charles was king. In
his time the people objected to the lay
ing Of taxes for the construction of
good roads. They do now in this coun
try. They protested against working
rhe roads then. They do now in this
new land Of light and liberty. When
what were called "1ying coaches"-a
style of carriage which under favor
able conditions of wind and weather
and with ample relays of horses could
90 fifty miles the day-Were first in
vented, there was much objection
among the Especial interests" because
this innovation would interfere with
their "vestcd rights" the keeping of
inns where entertainment was furnish
ed for man and beast: the untimely
schedules of the coaches, which arrived
TOO late for supper and departed too
early for breakfast; the destructive eff
feet the new business would have on
the breeding Of horses, and the general
disturbance Of settled conditions.
1t was gravely recommended that
no public carriage should be permitted
to have more than four horses, to start
eftener than once week or to go
more than thirty miles day, and the
king was solemnly petitioned to this
end. Before the ref0rmers of 1885
could get what they wanted in the
way of good roads they had to fight for
it. They got it, SO that within COM
paratively brief time after the condi-
tions had become so bad they could not
get any worse the building of high
ways began, and 10000 miles Of turn
pike roads made life all the more
worth living in England.
Isn't it strange that with the history
and experience Of all the countries of
the old world to guide and warn, the
United States should have chosen to
make the same old mistakes on its own
account and that, with all its unexam-
pied growth and wealth. there should
be at this day over 100000 miles of
unimproved roads in this country? The
poorest states In assessing values are
not by any means the slowest states in
public spirit. There is the state of ILL.,
nois, for example. with property as
sessed for taxation at $2,455, ,966, ,345,
with less than 10 per cent Of its public
highways improved; Texas, with prop
erty assessed for taxation ut $2,744,-
e65,347 and less than per cent Of i'm
proved highways: Colorado, with ST.
3U9,559,2O5 of assessed values and
barely 2 per cent Of improved public
noads; Nebraska, with assessed values
IF $3.50, ,S44.OO1, 8O,338 miles of public
coasds and only three-tenths Of per
2ea1 Of these roads i'm an improved con-
ditiDR.
IL the people who lived in England
three or four hundred years ago could
come back from the land of shades
and make a trip to the United States
they would find the going in great re-
gtons of this country precisely as it
was when they fumed and sw0re and
sweated in the days Of Charles.
Concrete Roads Are the Cheapest.
lA1