Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-07-09

The Danger Of Fraud Is Not Great Enough
10 Prevent the Ststc From Borrowing
Money for Improved Highways

THE state Of the roads of nation is
= an index to the state of its civiliza-
tion.
Turkey is roadless. So is China. So
are great parts Of Russia and South
America. As fast as Rome extended its
power over barbarian countries It built
great highways connecting them with
the city which from its seven hills domi-
mated the ancient world. Over those high
ways civilization spread its beneficent
tentacles tightening the darkness and
drawing men out of ignorance into
knowledge.
The condition of the highways in this
Commonwealth mark Pennsylvania as
one of the backward States. New York
and Massachusetts, AMI New Jersey are
far in advance Of US and they will be
further ahead of US each year if the
State Grange succeeds in defeating the
constitutional amendment empowering
the General A,-.>ably 20 authorize loan
of s5O,Oo0,oOO for improving and re-
building the highways.
That amendment was defeated five
years ago through the influence of the
Grange, which is supposed to have dis
trusted the honesty of the Highway De-
partment 1t is useless to discuss now
whether the department was honest or
dishonest in 1918. The representatives
# the people in two succeeding sessions
he General Assembly since 1918 have
readopted the constitutional amendment
and authorize its ''7uhmis; On to the
ptonl"
It would be a calamity if it should be
defeated by the people again.
No argument is needed to prove the
n>cess ty for good roads The prosecu-
ton of the war is made difficult now
because of defective highways. Motor
trucks have been called into service to
supplement the railroads because Of the
congestion of freight They are run
ming from this city to New York and
Washington and Lancaster and Harris
burg But the roads are in such a con-
dition that they cannot make SO good
time as they should. They are running
from all the great shipbuilding and
munition factories into the adjoining
cities. Roads have had to be built for
them in many instances. Plans are
under way to establish a motortruck
and the farms within radius of forty
or fifty miles in order to bring the farm
ers nearer to the consumers. This serv-
ice cannot succeed unless the roads are
in proper condition.
There is nothing the farmers need so
much as hard roads over which to haul
their produce. Good roads make posi-
| BILE larger loads, reduce the cost of dis
tribution and save money in many other
ways.
! These facts carry their own argument.
The farmers should be the most ardent
and persistent advocates of good roads
Every dollar of taxes which they have
to pay in order to meet the interest in
road bonds will come back to them ten,
fold in increased returns from their
farms and in increased comfort in get
ting about.
And the farmers will have to pay only
about one-half of the interest on the
bonds issued to build the roads that vii
connect their farms with the neighborine
cities. The assessed valuation of the
real property in the State is $500 900.
900, of which S2,4OO, 900 lies in Phila
delphia and Pittsburgh. The combined
assessed valuation of Scranton ant
Reading and Wilkes-Barre and Erie ant
Altoona and Allentown and Lancaster il
certainly great enough to raise the tota
wealth of the cities to pay the road ia,
to at least one-half of the assessed valua
ton of the whole State. And when tn
bonds are redeemed one-half of the prin
cipal must be paid by the cities.
One would think that the farmer
would jump at the chance to have tn
cities build their roads for them on suc]
basis. The cities are willing to do i,
Indeed, they will be glad of the oppor
tunity, for they realize how importan
roads are for the development of busi
ness. Unless we mistake the attitude O
the State toward the good-roads cues
ton, such a realization of the impor
tance of improved highways has con,
about that the farmers will be willing I
run the risk of fraud in order that the
may have provided for them an easie
way to market.