The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-02-15

] highWayS, and there is reason.
 1 All that is necessary to convert the
 most indifferent person into an enthusi-
 ast is to make it come around that he be
 required to try and make a few side
 trips off of the railroad, and then good
 roads have new convert.
 Now, I find the great drawback to get
 ting good roads comes from the fact that
 so many of the counties are staggering
 under bonds while the roads into which | their money went are almost impossible I in bad weather. There is no use denying the fact that good road advocates have to bear the burden of misspont funds
 
 ! To try and say that the money expend- 1 cd on good roads in Alabama has been wisely and economically spent would be
 about as futile as to try and make the | American public believe that ail the war
 activities were conducted with rigid econ 1 omy and that there was no waste or du- | plication But there is more excuse for extravaganza in war time expenditures than there is for good road misappropris- l tions.
 Now, I know what I am talking about, for recently I have had occasion to travel in several counties where much money has been expended for better roads and have found it practically impossible to make trips in automobiles to the towns throughout the counties starting from the county seats. If people have been willing to be taxed in order to be able to travel with more ease, no wonder they are sore when they find it next to impossible to make short journeys with out begging up to the hubs of their bug gies or getting stuck if using cars. I wrote a story a year or more ago about a famous trip I had to make on a Sunday over the Bankhead highway from Birmingham to Jasper through sea of mud and how at times it seemed as if it would be necessary to give up
 the trip as at places the roads were mere lob wollows, but how after using up much gas and patience we at last got part of the way, and I got to dedicate church The people have not yet learned that it's waste of money to put the whole bond issue into new roads without pro- viding for their upkeep. The people have yet to learn that it's false economy to build poor roads and expect them to car ry the traffic. The people have not yet realized that. it is better to build one permanent highway than it is to try ana spread it all over the country in a system of poorly constructed cross roads. Now, the Amenican people must learn
 that if they get roads like the ones our boys found in France they must be will ing to pay the price. Roads which under old conditions would stand the wear and tear of buggies. carriages and wagons cannot support even automobiles without trying to withstand the steady grind of the big motor trucks which are just be- ginning to come into their own as an economical means of transportation. | How often I have driven in Alabama l over seemingly beautiful highways which have lasted for awhile and then when the logging wagons and the heavy mo- tor trucks began to use them De cut all to pieces. We might as well face the facts. The motor industry is in its in- fancy and roads which are not built for the growing use of this new form of ve-- :. l., JV of twentieth century conditions. Now, these reflections were born Of trips recently attempted in Russell, Lowndes and Perry counties, and in some parts of Jefferson county I might have found similar conditions if I had been called upon to visit certain sec tons. I even found the famous roads of i Montgomery county being heavily tested by the strains put upon them by the ad- vent of the cantonments and other war activities.
 | I first went to Hayneville expecting to visit four or five towns within 10-mile radius of the courthouse, and got laughed
 
 situation in regard to travel. Some of my 1 friends facetiously wanted to know if I had brought my airplane along, for even q buzzard could not fly across some of 1 the bad places in the roads without a chance of hiring up. .I thought at first
 they were joshing me Nbut when no taxi 1, man would agree to make the trips knew they were not stringing me. ! I found practically the same thing in ! Russell county, and last week I was in Perry county. I made Marion my head
 quarters as I wished to visit some of
 the surrounding towns. I was informed that had better not attempt to go to l Felix but that I could visit Sprotts as l the seven miles was grave,lcd and in | fact was on the highway and about the , best road in all the county. It was with | a light heart that I started to make the I trip. A friend engaged a taxi for me. but and I was informed that one of the
 drivers had come over a portion of the road and that it was almost impossible.
 and therefore he regretted but he would
 not send oGt car.
 ! Finally, by the aid of friend I en-
 gaged a negro boy about II years old
 with a one-lung Ford to agree to make 1 the atten1Dt Ry way of DrecautiOn he