The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-05-29
For the Good of
 The COnmunity

FOOD roads is one of the vital questions before O the people of Alabama today.
 That being true no apology is offered, or deemed necessary, for the frequent reference to the subject in these columns.
 The object of these articles is to call attention to some of the things accomplished in Birming- ham and Alabama and some other things that ought to be done if the city and the state are to keep up with the procession.
 A good~start towards building permanent highways has been made in several of the coun- ties, notably Jefferson, where S1000, 900 will be spent this year on the programme already lad out and in few other counties.
 A state bond issue of $25 1000, or more, is also among the probabilities of the last half of the year.
 The value of permanent hard roads to any con- munty can hardly be realized until something oc- CUTS to impress upon the mind of the citizens. This from recent report of Bradstreet may serve to bring home the lesson:
 Wholesale trade is good, but considerable complaint is heard from country dealers ON AC- COUNT OF VERY BAD ROADS,"
 Heavy country roads caused by continuous rains have prevented country travel and thus RE- DUCED RETAIL TRADE"
 In recent bulletin issued by the Portland Ce- ment association, J. H. Dalbey is quoted as say ing:
 ''The other day friend of mine was driving from Columbus, Ga. to Atlanta, Ga He inquired at garage about the distance, and was told 1t was 121 miles, Another man spoke up and said he thought the distance was 13O miles. The first man replied "Yes, that's the actual mileage, but the concrete road begins nine miles this side of Atlanta. The figures given in this little story may not be exact, but otherwise the story is true The incident actually occurred. Could any more eloquent argument for hard surfaced roads be made? The last nine miles didn't count because the road was concrete. There isn't anything to it, we have got to have permanent roads, and we are going to have them We may as well get in the band wagon.
 "A friend of mine was recently settling up an estate in Mississippi There were great many bushels of corn in warehouse that had to be sold. He was offered a good price for the corn delivered in town, but had to sell it for practically nothing in the warehouse because the roads were so bad he couldn't get the corn to town'
 The voters of Tennessee recently voted down S500OO0OO road bond issue and thereby lost the largest automobile factory in the world
 As means of spreading the good roads propa- ganda the Portland Cement association has adopted a slogan, Build Real Roads Right Now,' eectros of which will be furnished for use on stationery. They also offer to furnish gum med stickers containing the slogan to be put on stationery, wind shields and to be used in such other ways as may be deemed effective
 With the building of the Dixie Highway from Miami, Fla, to Chicago; the Jackson Highway from north to south, passing through west Ala bama the Bankhead National Highway, from Washington, D e., by way of Atlanta, Brming- ham, Memphis, Little Rock Dallas and thence to mental highways of the best type will be provided mental highways of the bes ttype will be provided for the south and southeast.