Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1917-08-22
GOOD ROADS AND STREETS.
Good Roads Like Good Streets Make
HabitatiOn Along Them Most
Desirable.

streets make habitation along them
most desirable; they enhance the val
ue Of farm lands, facilitate transpor-
tation, and add untold wealth to the
producers and consumers of the coun-
try; they are the milestone5 marking
the advance of civilization; they
economic time, give labor lift, and
make millions in money; they save
wear and tear and worry and waste;
they beautify the country-bring it
| in touch with the city; they aid the
social and the religious and the edu-
cational and the industrial progress
of the people; they make better
homes and happier hearthsides; they
are the avenues of trade, the high
ways of commerce, the mail routes of
information, and the agencies of
speedy communication; they mean
the economical transportation of
marketable products-the maxim UNI
burden at the minimum cost; they are
the ligaments that bind the country
together in thrift, industry and in
telligence and patriotism; they pro-
mote social intercourse, prevent in
teliectual stagnation. and increase
the happiness and the prosperity of
our producing masses; they contri-
butte the glory Of the country, give
employment to our idle workmen dis
tribute the necessities of ffe-the
products of the fields and the forests
and the factories-encourage energy
and husbandry, inculcate love for our
scenic wonders, and make mankind
better and broader and greater and
grander.
The plain people Of the land are
familiar with the truths of history.
They know the past. They realize
that often the difference between
good roads and bad roads is the diff
ference between profit and loss. Good
roads have a money value far beyond
our ordinary conception. Bad roads
constitute our greatest drawback to
internal development and material
progress. Good roads means prosper
Gus farmers; bad roads mean aban-
doned farms, sparsely settled country
districts, and congested populated
cities, where the poor are destined to
become poorer. Good roads mean
more cultivated farms and cheaper
food products for the toilers in the
towns; bad roads mean poor trans
portatiOn lack of communication,
high prices for the necessaries OF life,
the loss of untold millions of wealth,
and idle workmen seeking employ
ment. Good roads will help those
who cultivate the soil and feed the
multitude, and whatever aids the
producers and the farmers Of our
country will increase our wealth and
our greatness and benefit ali the peo-
Pile We can not destroy our farms
without final decay. They are today
the heart Of our national life and the
chief source of our material great
ness. Tear down every edifice in our
cities and labor will rebuild them,
but abandon the farms and our cities
will disappear forever,
One of the crying needs in this
country especially in the south and
west, is good roads. The establish
ment of good roads would in a great
measure solve the question OF the
high price of food and the increasing
cost of living By reducing the cost
Of transportation it would enable the
farmer to market his produce at
lower price and at larger profit at
the same time. 1t would bring COM
munities closer together and in touch
with the centers of population, there
by facilitating the commerce Of ideas
as we'll as of material products.
When the agricultural production
alone of the United States for the
past eleven years totals $40 900, OOO,-
900, a sum to stagger the magma
ton, and it cost more to take this
product from the farm to the railway
station than from such station TO the
American and European markets,
and when the saving in cost OF NOV
ing this product of agriculture over
good highways instead of bad would
have built a million miles of good
roads. the incalculable waste Of bad
roads in this country is shown to be
of such enormous proportions as to
demand immediate reformation and
the wisest and best statesmanship;
but great as is the loss to transporta-
ton, mercantile, industrial, and
farming interests. incomparably
greater is the material loss to the wo-
men and children and the social life,
a matter as important as civilization
itself. The truth of the declaration
of Charles Sumner fifty years ago.
that "the two greatest forces for the