The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1919-02-07

y
no exception to the rule.
No state in the union, | venture TO
say, has greater opportunities than YER
mont to show the people Of America this
beautiful country of ours which God has
endowed us with and blessed us with.
Now | say our greatest asset is our seen
cry and ! say it because ] believe that If
we had good roads in Vermont we could
do tourist business that would be larg
er in both gross and net than the five
leading industries in this state save that
of agriculture alone. We could take
more money from the tourist business
than is taken in by all the railroads of
Vermont and the granite business COM
bined.
The state of New Hampshire is taking
in from the tourist business in normal
years from twenty five to thirty million
dollars of money annually from the tour
ist business alone. The show phces of
Vermont are so numerous. Take the
Smuggler's Notch over here under Mount
Mansfield, the grandeur of which is such
| that the notch in New Hampshire can
not be compared for a moment. Take
your own Williamstown gulf region, take
the Champlain valley and the Connecti-
cut valley on the other side, all of these
places beautiful in their scenery delight
| full and interesting to the tourist, and
! yet undeveloped and practically inacces-
| sible for the want of good roads. By
good roads ] mean a hard surface, water
! bound macadam road or a cement or Wit
| rifed brick road, something that stays
where you put it.
/ 1t takes man of vision to see the
! benefit that Vermont will derive from
the building of good roads. | wonder if
we ever stopped to think how much
would be saved to the people of Vermont
and am talking to the farmer as well
/ as the business mani wonder if we
realize how much would be saved to the
people of Vermont if we could have the
! class of highways of which | am speak
| ing. The highest tax that the people of
! America are paying to-day Is the mud
! tax; the inability to transport any kind
Of respectable load farm merchandise
or any other kind of product for two
thirds Of the year During the spring
/ or autumn months as you know, if you
can get over our Vermont roads in an
empty buggy you are doing mighty well.
! We have got in the state of Vermont
now something like $4,000 automobiles
and in the next two or three years will
/ increase more rapidly than ever espe-
cially the trucks. Up in the northern
neck of the woods where ] live there are
any quantity of trucks carrying all kinds
of merchandise; rather than take the
railroad they are coming in trucks, so /
say that without question within the
next few years we shall have 10000 au-
( tomobiles in operation in the state of
! Vermont. If that is so, the average mile
/ age Of those automobiles may be esti-
mated at $4,000, making a total mileage
of 100000 900 miles. II each automobile
can get two miles more travel per gallon
you will save 100000 gallons Of gas at
! % cents per gallon. That means 100000
! barrels. There is one saving that good
foads would effect. The average car may
/ be said to cost $500. If there are 10000
cars and the average life Of car is six
years, if you can get six months more
| life out Of these cars on good roads you
can save 100000 more in renewal invest
ment. If the tires and repairs necessary
on these 10000 automobiles viii amount
to $4,000 per year and you can save 10
per cent with good roads, then you caA
save 100000 more with good roads.
Then comes the saving in transportation,
which has been estimated on such q mile
age as that at not less than one million
dollars. Now the total of that saving is
in round numbers s. 900 600 which is
i4h per cent on a bond issue of $4,000,
/ 900. If we had this kind Of roads there
lis no question that the people Of Yer
mont would make this savings
/ Probably more than 10 per cent Of our
entire mileage made in vehicles of any
] kind is made on a good deal less than
one half our total mileage, that is, the
main roads carry 75 per cent of the en-
tire mileage made on the roads of Yer
mont, so that il will not be necessary to
improve in the way in which | speak all
of the roads of the state of Vermont,
which amount to $4,000 miles.
You are spending on the highways Of
! Vermont to-day 81 ,500,00 annually.
You can take the date of 1904 as the
first year we began to exploit this good
roads proposition and elected a highway
commissioner in the person Of Charles
w. Gates to spend this money for us,
viii you suppose that the Central Yer
mont railroad is to construct q new line
and that it passes through 30 towns On
the wayi Now what holler would go
up from the people if every time they
struck town line they changed the SUI
pcrntendent and construction engineer
and every town they struck they would
employ some lawyer, farmer or someone
/ who did not understand the construction
Of that railroad. You see it can't be
done. That Is what the state of Yer
mont is doing in building its highways
! 1t takes Just as much engineering skin
/ to build a highway as it does railroad.
| The railroad gets by because they have
a rigid rail on which their trains can run.
Our highways should be built by THE
state. by competent engineering skill en-
ployed by the state; and the towns
should be told to keep their hands of
and in no event should the authority of
the town be exercised over the roads
Because when you build a permanent
hard surface road through q town YOU
will find that the town will not do any
thing to that road because it is the best
road and they viii spend all their money
on the poor roads 1t is fact, but it is
! human nature.
What now can be done? IF we can
get this patrol bill through the legiss-
ture and get a report to the next legisa-
/ ture / am of the opinion that it would
put the "kibosh" on the town highway
commissioner system from A to Z.
This whole matter must come about
/ by agitation, by just such fellows as I
am, going about the state, but it has got
to be done by men who are interested in
. this matter of good roads