Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1924-02-17
BY HERBERT COREY.
r was the Iowa farmer who taught
Macdonald about good ROADS.
rapita1ize that Good Roads,

TT was the Iowa farmer who taught
Macdonald about good roads.
Capitalize that Good Roads,
please. They're worth it. The
Iowa farmer learned that Macdonald
hoped to gridiron his state with
fine, pretty roads, all slicked up ike
oyster shells.
"Over my bleeding corpse said the
iowa farmer.
In the end the farmer won. Mac
Donald was forced to moderate his
lust for smooth. hard road surfaces
and content himself with building
concrete culverts that would not
break through in the middle every
time the Iowa farmer crossed with
a load of wheat This may seem
lead-up to a bitter attack on the
Iowa farmer, inasmuch as Thomas II.
Macdonald Is now the head OF the
governments good roads bureau
which plans to make a system Of ma
tional highways so good that, to quote
Thomas H.
I'VE will be able to drive out of
any county seat in the United States
at thirty-fve miles an hour and drive
into any other county seat, ana never
crack a SPRING.
Rut II isn't. That is. it isn't the
opening of an effort to prove tnat
the Iowa farmer was a dump-pell. Oh
the other hand. II l properly Sather
farmer was right. He knew In 1904
more about the road he wanted than
the young engineer did. He knew
from the sort Of experience that
taxpayer gets every time any one
of the various sort Of internal rev.
enue departments sends him n bill
that there is such a thing as paying
too high for good thing. Now MI
Macdonald says:
Good roads devoted to the farm
ers marketing purposes only do not
justify themselves. That Is; they
would not justify themselves If they
had to make a resurn against the
cost of building and upkeep, as the
railroads do. They would not pay"
Needed for "socinl COntacts."
I mighty near tainted when heard
that from the head of the govern
ment's good roads undertaking. Then
Macdonald went on to EXPLAIN
Farmers usually haul wheat and corn
and cotton to town during off times,
If there are such things on a farm.
They can pick the days when the
roads are not submerged. Conse-
gently the investment of several
thousand dollars mile for road
building is not justified for the haul
ing of farm produce. But the roads
are as necessary as sunlight and air
for other purposes.
They are needed for our social
contacts" said Macdonald.
The social contacts used to be es-
tablishcd in an old-fashioned high
wheeled buggy in muddy weather.
drawn Dy large. pessimistic mare.
In nice, dusty weather the boy got
out the red-spoked runabout in which
to take the girl to church and do a
little discreet hugging on the way
home.
Then, all of sudden, the whole
aspect of things changed. The buggy
gave way to the automobile. Social
contacts could be established at a dis
lance Of fifty miles from the farm
and one could still get back in time
to do the early milking. Roads Of
different sort were needed.
This might have been foreseen
twenty years ago." says Macdonald.
III there had been super-man. But
there wasn't
AS a consequence Of the autoino-
bile. the uses of which are shared
livening of the rural population
through telephone extensions and
free delivery and farmers organiZa-
tions and the like, the whole good
roads Idea changed. Once 1t was suf-
ficient to have patch of good road
which one could trot to town. and
which could be reached by a stretch
of dirt road leading from the hinter-
land. 1t was not necessary to have