The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-02-16
$25,OOO,OOO STATE GOOD ROADS BOND ELECTION IS TO BE HELD TODAY
If the State Issue Carries, Amount to Be Matched Dollar for Dollar By
 Government - Ad-
 vantage of Issue
By GORDON MCKINLEY.

| Fly GUHDON MCNlN hG IL
 This is the day to vote for good roads. The polls through
 out Alabama for the $25, ,000,-
 900 state bond issue will open
 at 8 o'clock this morning. They
 will stay open until 5 o'clock
 D. m. in the rural precincts, and until 6 o'clock p. m. in the
 cities.
 Available to the people of the state will be another s25 0oo,Oo, if the cleo tion carries, to be given by the federal | government, and an additional s5,ooo,- 900 for Jefferson county if the electors ! of this county decide 10 SC. tne. county
 bond issue proposition through. Business matters of getting The cleo
 tion machinery running were given their final touches Saturday evening,
 and yesterday the thousands of good roads workers throughout the state rested.
 But the busiest day of all the good 1 Ioacs campaign dawned this morning.
 for not until closing time will there be a iet-up in the effort to get every man who can vote to go to the polls before the sun sets and add his approval to tae great proposition of developments In every community in Alabama there is little group of men who are await ing the outcome of today's good roads
 bond election as though their own rep utation depended on it. For months | they have given of their best effort to help the good cause. Now taer work is done. The answer lies with the i voters. who will decide whether they want pfogress and better financial re- turns from their endeavor. or are con- l tented to rock along over ruts and holes as did the pioneers and before them the 1 Indians
 1 The United States government has | offered Alabama S25.O00, 900 to use in
 road building if the state will raise a similar amount Automobile owners | and dealers alone have offered to meet
 the governments proposition. If the
 mass of voters in the state will grant | them permission.
 1 Painstal1ingly it has been estimated 1 that every owner of an automobile will
 save more than twice his automobile
 tax each year through good roads re-
 lieving him of the expense of wear and
 tear on his vehicle.
 Those who have no motor vehicles
 and are therefore exempt from paying l anything at all for the roads and bonds I will benefit through adequate means of ! reaching schools and churches, markets l and fields. Those who have farm pord-
 ucts to move will have the way made easier and see their goods arrive al their destination in better condition through the absence of being shaken | over rough ways.
 | The man with a team who uses roads will not only have better highways to 1 travel on, but his draft animals and 1 rolling stock will last longer because l of better roads. Men who have land to ! sell will be able to get a better price for 1t than heretofore.
 | Rome became the Eternal City" be l cause it's people built roads over which | the trade of the world reached it. l France saved her national existence a
 few years ago because she had roads | over which she could reath her armies | with supplies.
 These things have all been set before the minds of the Alabama voters. As | has been pointed out, Alabama is a 1 state with two main sources of income 1 manufacture and agriculture. Both must have market in order to exist potn must nave way or reaching the | markets. Roads are the only means known to man over which industry can
 move. The roads are the arteries and | veins of the states llfebiood
 Today the thinking men of the state are making their final effort to see that | the road funds are secured. Every voter in the commonwealth has been 1 repeatedly urged to cast his ballot for I the bond issue so that Alabama will
 have way open on which to move for
 ward to the increased prosperity that rests with the people whose privilege | it is to decide.