Okolona messenger. (Okolona, Miss.) 1900-current, 1916-09-14
FOR STATE SYSTEM
OF GOOD ROADS
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
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 seVsntyeight counties
Of this State is actively engaged in
building permanent roadbeds along
the most prominent highways, and al
most before one road can be complet-
ed, plans are being laid for opening
UP other outlets, whereby the farmers
may more easily market IN ir produce.
So perfect, indeed, is the highway
system in a number of the counties,
that many Of the agriculturists now
transfer their produce by anto truck
to the shipping point or mark I place,
and the old numbering farm wagon
With its clogged wheels and mud-be.
catered sides is now almost a thing
If the past.
Something more than ten million
dollars has been put into Mississip
pts highways since the beginning of
this movement and among the notable
benefits acc:uing as a civic invest
ment must be mentioned a marked
impetus to the establishment of con.
soldated schools whereby tn country
hid now has the advantage of a high
ahe0l education as well as more ex
ed scope of association and en-,
yi,onment; 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 ac.
tual cost than the mud tax of lost
time, damage and distress to which
the country man was erstwhile 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 on 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
has given Mississippi the
nucleus for a splendid highway sys.
tenn, it will be necessary to spend
three times that much before this sys.
tenn shall be complete. To secure the
money for this purpose within 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
increase in tax values on
what had been waste property.
AS a definite step to this end the
Centennial Exposition will
bring many thousands of people here
~ NHOll TIC ul5uI pdooCu udIul al I0
sources of this State have been hither.
o as a sealed book The long
stretches of cutover lands will hold
IN alluring appeal for home seekers
Who have come and seen with their
,wn eyes what perseverance and
hrift may accomplish in this land of
golden opportunity. With each ten.
Lcre field that is planted the State
will be enriched by an additional tax
alue of forty dollars. Thus may our
waste lands be expected, within the
text ten years, to bloom into thou.
ands of tidy little farms and villages,
'etween which smooth highways will !
un as the natural arteries of COM
nerce. And all his will be primarily
by the great attraction
nd advertising value of the Centen.
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