The Monte Vista journal., 1916-12-02

When Bobby climbed a tree in his
hack yard to get a glimpse of foreign
lands beyond the hill, he unconsci-
ously answered the cali of the road
He wanted to travel. Later, the lure
of the road still pulling, he sailed
forth like a valiant knight of old.
riding a stick horse, made a gallant
dash of many leagues across the
pasture, took mental notes on the
new land, put the lash to his steed
and was back at the kitchen door in
time for supper, travel worn, and
hungry He tracked up the kitchen
with his muddy boots and got spank
ed and thereby learned his first les
son on the advantages OF travelling
on a good road.
Not every one, of course, is inter
ested in Bobby and his earlier trav-
els, but we thought that perhaps you
might be interested, so we have used
in an illustrative way, this incident
from a little boys life-an incident
lfe-to lure you on to reading. the
answer to the question:
do we need good roads,"
1t should be unnecessary to ask a
question like this in any community
in the United States today. We
should be SO far ahead of that stage
in community building, that to ask
such a question would at once mark
our own position far back in the
ranks of citizenship. However that
may be, we must ask the question
because bad roads are still with us
and our community life will not
speed up until our community ma
chinery is "limbered up" Our roads
are the belts and pulleys in this ma
chinery. They transmit our social
educational and agricultural power
If these belts and pulleys are gum
med up" they pull slowly and irreg-
ularly and our social, educational
and agricultural life is "gummed up"
in like proportion. There is no es-
Gaping 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 educa-
ton begins to ''seep in," when as a
matter of fact the need for travel is
right here at home. We need closer
mmunication-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 a fact-a fact as hard
and as solid as a 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 impressed deeply that we will
act instead of talk, and thus put our
community on the basis, as finan-
ciers would say, of a going concern.
II we continue to talk without ac-
ton, good roads in our community
will be as indefinite 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
Toes. But we who are yet living
on bad roads are bound hand and
root while the elements 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.
If we are not going to build mod
ern highways, get out of the mud
and connect 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 go
ing to add interest to life in this