Milford chronicle., 1917-02-16
DO We NEED GOOD ROADS {?

Why Bobby, Answering the Lure Of
! Travel, Climber Tree to View Dis
tant Lands in the Next Lot, and How
| He Learned His First Lesson on the
Advantages Of Travelling on a Good
Road.
When Bobby climbed a tree i'm his back
yard TO get a glimpse of foreign lands
beyond the hill, he unconsciously an
| swered the call of the road. He wanted
to travel. Later, the lure of the road
still pulling, he sailed forth like a val
liant knight of old, riding a stick horse,
made gallant dash of many leagues
across the pasture took mental notes on
the new land put the lash to the steed
and was back at the kitchen door in time
for supper, travel worn, and hungry, He
tracked up the kitchen floor with his
muddy boots and got spanked, and there
by learned a lesson on the advantages
of travelling on a good road.
Not everyone, of course. is interested
in Bobby or his earlier travels. but we
thought that perhaps you might be inter-
ested, so We have used in an illustrative !
way, this incident from a boys life-an /
incident which you can match in your |
own life-to lure you on to reading the |
answer to the question:
do we need good roads,"
IL should be unnecessary to ask ques- |
tions like this i'm 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 position far back
i'm 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 machinery is linn
bered up. Our roads are the belts and
pulleys i'm this machinery They trans
NIT our social educational and agricul-
tural power. If these belts and pulleys
are 'gummed up" they pull slowly and
rregularly and our social. educat ational | 6
and agricultural life is "gummed up" in I
ike proportion There is no escaping {
his truth.
We know that travel educates. but too !
'ften we use the word travel in the sense [
hat we must get way off yonder some
where before the education begins to S
'seep in when as a matter of fact the S
reed for travel is right here at home.
We need closer communication-need to il
NOW each other better; and there is c
iothing in this world which will more
uickly break down the barriers of isola- {,
ion and the monotony Of the farm than L
asy and smooth travelling.
We do need good roads. it
There is really no reason to argue on a
his subject among ourselves But we it
o need to have impressed upon our
linds the intensity Of this need for bet e,
sr highways, and TO have this need i'm 81
ressed so deeply that we will act instead H
talk and thus put our community on
ne basis, as financiers would say, of a II
Ding concern.
If we are not going to build modern
ighways, get out of the mud and con-
ect up with the outside world on hard
irface roads, we would display wisdom u,
y turning back to cave days and "hole @,
p' not for the winter. but for eternity.
} far as our community life Is concern l.,
The evolution Of highways parallels ar
le evolution Of the whole scheme Of to
ansportation. Early methods Of trans en-
'rtation depended upon ox-teams or NJ
'rses Better vehicles demanded bet in
r roads and the automobile has been an
e greatest factor in compelling the per-
anent paved highway. Both have made 10,
e office, store and factory so accessible fr,
the rural home that people have moved
i'll farther away from the congested wi
stricts Of the city, necessitating still wi
eater development Of the rural high
ly. ed
Statistics show that at least 20 ner a
mt. Of the automobiles manufactured Pa
Gently have found their way to the tn,
untry, hence the rural dweller has not int
ly been given the opportunity. but de- ]
loped greater desire to travel today gu
an ever before. Moreover. he has seen Nc
cd roads and now appreciates the abso- ]
e necessity for them, and for their tor
rther extension in his community T.
The time has come when we must have hoi
Cd roads whether we want them or not. an,
we do not want them we will be left en-,
hind in the march Of progress. The S
apidated looking farm with a good an,
I'd passing it will soon be a thing Of tioi
, past. Such farms will soon be found the
y in the back hills, remote from good
IDS. ~
Sussex Co Good Roads Assn.