The times-news. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1927-current, 1933-08-30
OUR VALLEY
By S. P. WERNER

system of transportation is an
Otter need. The skeleton of the
system is already here, with it's
trunk line highways traversing
and crossing the valley, and the
trunk line railway entering it at
HendersOnville and going to Ashe-
vile one direction and the branch
to Lake ToXaway in another. We
have approximately seventy-five
miles of railway and a hundred
and fifty of hard-surfaced high
ways. Our principal needs are
two more short highway outlets
of about thirty miles, and perhaps
a hundred miles more of improved
secondary roads to be eventually
hard-surfaced.
The plan of highways connect
ing towns, county seats and cities,
first was dictated by a number of
considerations in which economic
productivity was not always the
primary factor. Some of our
roads were built chiefly to cater
to the tourist trade. There are
many miles of these roads through
rough terrain where farms and
industries are conspicuOusly ABB
sent. There is a stretch OF ten
miles of hard-surfaced road in
one part of the valley, passing
through relatively poor territory,
whose total productive output,
from a distance of half-mile on
each side of the road, does not
exceed $4,000 per annum. Yet
there is a parallel secondary road,
not hard-Surfaced, almost impass-
able in bad weather, about two
miles from the first one, along
whose line for the same width the
annual output is fully worth
$150,000 per year. But the
freight carried on this secondary
road must be transported at much
greater expense, or be delayed in
transit. The farmers pay the m
terest on the bonds, but they do
not profit relatively as much as
the general travelling public which
uses the better road Off indeed
the general public does "profit";
much of its travel being for pleas
ure, or seeking jobs, or just rid
ing around.D So the next step
| in transportation is to link up the
neglected productive areas with
the through-traffic trunk lines. It.
can be shown that IL costs q
farmer sometimes as much to get
his produce a mile on poor sec
ondary road to a store on the
hard-surfaced road as it does the
merchant to ship it twenty miles
on the highway.
The relative capacity Of farms
and forests to support highways
in comparison with miscellaneous
general traffic is a complicated
problem. 1t has not yet received
the attention it deserves. The ele-
ments of time saved, of ability 20
respond quickly to the market
changes, of saving on perishable
produce, and of possible coop
erative local shipping, must be
duly considered in calculating the
, economic value of hard-surfaced
roads for almost eXclusively<aH
ricultural or industrial use. But
the stimulative influence of good
roads on rural conditions has been
shown in our valley as conclu-
sively as anywhere else in Amer
lea. They have transformed COM
munities from stagnant back
woods to pulsating thrifty con-
munities in a few years.
Of course taXpayers-whether
on real estate, sales, eXise, or
other-must decide wisely wheth-
err the returns from road jus
tify it's construction. There have
been some mistakes made in this
matter, and some money wasted.
But a truly rich agricultural re-
gion, with all the other factors
favorable also, such as we have in
our valley, will continue to pay
for its roads-and TO profit by
them-for centuries. Amortiza-
ton may safely be spread over as
long a period as desirable.
Engineers who are alsb students
of economies and sociology un-
derstand that roads are not mere
lily matters of grades, levels, !
topography, lines of interurban
travel, but must eventually serve |
distinct economic function in |
the development Of a region and |
the promotion of its social life |
along all lines. Such men, with |
the advantage of their practical
training and clear thinking in
professional matters can serve
high purpose in helping to make
roads real servants of public util-
ity. If they can envisage the fact
that a long road may be worth
more to the public than one which
is merely the shortest route be-
tween two points they may get
the viewpoint desires for the max
imum result. l know where one
road which winds around the toes
of hills next to rich bottom lands
between a country store and
rural settlement for distance of
three miles is of much greater
value to the people of that sec
ton than another road between
those same two terminals only
one mile long which cuts across
rough hills and cannot be reached
from the fertile fields except by
steep climbing and which is Dor
dered by pastures and woods.
Every fifty yards of the first
road furnishes a truck load of
produce several times a year; the
second short road is used chiefly
to get to church once a week
and most of the congregation