Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1925-12-17
Editors Letter Box
On Clearing Highways of Snow


If there is a crumb or. two of logic
in what 1 have to say, may be
permitted to put into words a
thought or two regarding the pro-
posed snow removal by tractors.
ETC., on our main highways this and
coming winters. I am opposed to
this expenditure for the following
reasons: Its cost to the taxpayer
will be found to be entirely out of
proportion to it's benefits to the State
and it's people as whole, but chleny,
because those benefits will be felt by
a small number of more or less in
terested people at the expense of the
great majority, who will be expected
to pay the bills. The average man
probably has little conception of the
task involved in removing a seasons
snow and ice of 60 to 80 inches even
from the main roads of Maine and
what figures have been furnished us
by Engineer Sargent from the work
in some other states, large as they
are for the benefit gained, do not
furnish the whole story as to what 1t
would mean to us here in Maine. To
brush aside a few inches of snow in
the level prairie states few times
during a winter is entirely a diff
ferent proposition both as to cost
and work, as it is to bucking uphill
against the mass of ice and sleety
snow that frequently would have to
be moved here. What figures we
have available from anywhere in the
State give us a more approximate
idea of the job we should have If 1T
were done on the extended scale
proposed.
We may almost dismiss from our
minds the figures given by the
tractor concerns, etc., as to its prob
able cost, knowing that big business
is quite capable through shrewd
and clever talking sales manager,
by misleading photographs and by
other methods of putting across up
on a community at tremendous eX-
pense, something very much in the
nature of a white elephant and the
figures SO far obtained for portions
of this State have been given for the
most part by that small minority,
who stand to gain by this work,
tractor and oil concerns, bus lines,
travelling statesmen and few others.
In proof of this, let me quote the
figures of the sales manager of a
tractor selling concern, who quoted
probable total cost of dollars per
hour as against the statement made
, as to actual cost by practical test
for the city of Portland of the large
sum of $4,000 for depreciation and
rental alone.
These things can be saddled onto
! a community usually by a mere
handful of smore or less interested
men, we'll organized, whom it pays
/ big to give time and opportunity to
. attend the various meetings, but lei
US rest assured that the average
man, unorganized, busy getting his
living in Office, workshop, farm or
!, store, also has ideas on the subject
especially as he, as usual is expected
to furnish through taxation. the
bulk of the money, without getting
scarcely any benefit at ali. Regard
ing its benefit or otherwise to one OF
the large sections of the community
and on whom we are all more or less
/ dependent, the farmer. probably
those few among them, who wish TIC
continue their Joy riding off their
farms. via the more or less
dilap idated Ford route, in winter as
we'll as summer, wish the snow re-
I moved; while those among them, who
! realize there is work to be done
4 hauling food, fuel. logs, ETC., certain
ly do not want their best material
/ for hauling, the snow. taken from
the roads; and which class is for the
best interests of themselves and the
/ State, the joy riders or the food
! producers. axe-swingers and fuel
haulers. We need something to keep
us warm in this State and the fuel Is
( here If those who can bring it to us
are not more interested in attending
/ the pictures, than they are in cutting
| fuel and tending stock to furnish us
| with food from the dairies and hen
| neries of the farms.
The farmer and his family, like
| other people, have far more money
| to spend among all classes when he
! is working, in moderation of course
| than when they are pleasuring, and
| the old interested argument that good
roads in summer and winter gives
more freedom from isolation and
more recreation to those on the
| farms. although true, has also had
| the effect of making more discomfort
ment on those farms and leaving
! more abandoned farms. and driven
more from the farms through excess
, sive taxation. than probably any
| thing previous in history.
In short the main argument OF
helping the farmer. has had exactly
| the opposite effect; as could have
| been seen by any intelligent person
! decade ago: and the result is that
| food is going higher and higher all
the time; and the city people are
eating food of a second and third
/ class quality out Of cold storage, or
/ from a tin can costing about three
| times what it would cost fresh If the
women really wished to economic
insisted on the fresh article, stayed
| at home a wee bit more. and attend
| ed to business: still the best business
| in all the world for the average Wo-
man, her home.
! Please pardon this depression from
/ the road question, but it touches 1t
more or less.
| Let us look at this snow removal
! from another angle. There will be
many poor man in the cities this
| winter glad of few days work
! shovelling snow, and would not that
| $4,000 dollars spent on depreciation
and rent alone in but the one city OF
| Portland, go quite a way to help such
men and through them the store
keepers and others? instead of US
ing it to line the Golfers of large
manufacturing concerns way off ir
other States? Is that good business
| Is it justice to those at home? Is il
not booming Maine by helping those
right here? If we really wish tC
! boost and help Maine, let us not dc
it by advertising largely, and send
ing whole cavalcades of autoists
from this State to Florida and Other
states not on the whole as good as
] our own. but begin right at home by