Newark post., 1917-08-29


Country children toddled over
them to school, youths found them
good enough for their youthful
needs, and so when the young
folks grow up and drive to town
over them the poor roads seem a
fixture in the landscape. They are
known to be bad, but so is rain in
moving time, and both are looked
upon as inevitable. 1t is this habit
of regarding poor roads as incap-
able of betterment which has to
be broken down, and it is not easy
to change established habits.
Fortunately road improvements
are not usually stopped when they
have once been started in thriv-
ing, intelligent district, but it is
often slow business starting
them. The habit of mind, the con-
tentment with ruts and mud, must
be overcome. Although district
may have been settled for more
than a century and have a well-to-
do population, its roads will be
likely to stay poor until few men
take the matter in hand and wake
up their neighbors to the advant-
ages of good roads. Sometimes
the persistent efforts of one man
can accomplish this. An instance
recently investigated by the AM
erican Highway Association af-
fords a good proof of what one
man can do to turn poor roads into
good roads.
A good many comments have
been made among the roadbulld-
ers of southeastern Pennsylvania
lately about the steady, quiet pro-
gress in road improvements in the
part of Chester county adjacent to
the state of Delaware. The county
has long been famous for its roseV
and peaches it is now coming into
prominence for its road improve
ments, and the record of these i'm
provements is story of the public
service of one man.
In 1906 Pierre S. DUPONT bought
a very old estate at Longwood, laid
out over $50 years ago in the old
manorial style but allowed to fall
into rather poor condition by its
later owners. 1t could only be
reached from Wilmington over
poor roads, after leaving fair
turnpike running from that city to
the Pennsylvania line. The i'm
provement of an estate while the
roads about it were left in bad
condition seemed a one-sided bus
mess to the new owner of Long
wood. The rich agricultural, fruit
and dairy district would plainly be
helped along by good roads, so Mr.
dupont began to interest his
neighbors in the work.
At first it was pretty slow work,
for some of the people thought
that the owner of Longwood was
interested only in improving roads
reaching that estate. They found
out in course of time, however
that this was wrong, that the i'm
provement of any important road
in that part of the country was
Just as warmly supported by him
as if the road led by his property
He not only contributed large
sums to the cost of the roads but
also gave the services of his per
sonal engineer, VIM. NJ. Francis
to the local authorities if they
wished such engineering assist
ance.
Today there are about II miles
of macadam road in the southern
part of th} nty whicF 9ve
been built / bout
6 miles werS SeeeDeooe~~ expense
exclusively me remainder
with his active cooperation. He
is maintaining a large part Of
these roads at his own expense
spreading dry calcium chloride
over them every four to six weeks
with screening whenever neces
sary. The scarifier and roller arr
familiar sights there. He is en-
couraging in a substantial way
the maintenance of the remaining
sections of improved roads. As
result of the object lesson taugh
by these excellent country roads
which carry considerable travel
road improvement is now warml,
supported in the southern part o
the county and the local author
tiles, backed by public sentiment
are undertaking work on their ow,
account.
DE M TH 7 Moi