OFB'ICE OF PUBLIC ROAD INQUIRIP^S. 811 



The specimen of good road built iTiider the direction of your Depiirtment last 

 year is in good condition and is well constructed. The building of this road has 

 aroused public interest in the improvement and consti-uetion of good roads, and 

 there seems to be a general demand for road improvement in this county. I think 

 it will not be a very great while before there will be a concerted effort on the part 

 of the citizens of this county looking to the construction of better roads through- 

 out the county. I find almost a universal desire and demand for it. — Stokely D. 

 Hays, President Tennessee Good Roads Assoeiation, Jackson, Tenn. 



The mile of road built here last summer from El wood avenue to the country 

 club, under the direction of your Office, has proved a very useful object lesson. 

 Your visit and the sample road has awakened interest in the movement throughout 

 the State. As you will remember, when finished it was a beautiful, smooth, solid, 

 earth road. Since then the country club has had it macadamized, and it is as 

 pretty a road as one could wish to see. The building of this road has resulted in 

 the organization of the county good roads association, of which Col. I. B. Nail is 

 president. The Louisville Commercial Club has been actively engaged in pro- 

 moting this movement for four years or more, and is now, on account of the 

 newly awakened interest, doing more for the cause than ever before. ^J. C. Van 

 Pelt, Secretary Kentucky Good Roads Association, Louisville, Ky. 



RESULTS OF THE SOUTHERN RAILWAY EXPEDITION. 



While the enthusiasm worked up when the train was in this city has somewhat 

 siibsided. there is still a very healthy interest exhibited in the good-roads work in 

 many portions of the State. The executive committee of the State good roads 

 association, of which I am a member, recently held a meeting at Montgomery and 

 formulated an address to the people with suggestions in regard to the formation 

 of good roads associations in every county in the State. We desire these county 

 organizations to select delegates to attend the convention to be held in Montgom- 

 ery this fall before the next meeting of the legislature, in order that we may agree 

 upon a system of road laws to supersede the obsolete laws w^e now have. This 

 movement, I believe, will be productive of practical results, the idea being to have 

 one central State organization, of which the county organizations will be parts 

 and duly represented. To show the interest taken, I am glad to say that every 

 member of the State executive committee was present at the meeting except one, 

 and he was unavoidably absent.— Henry Fonde, President Southern Alabama 

 Good Roads Association, Mobile, Ala. 



I have made inqiiiry of a number of the residents of this city and the vicinity 

 who make use of the raodel road built under your supervision in this neighborhood. 

 The traffic varies from the passage of a light buggy or wagon to the heaviest 

 hauling, and I find no dissatisfaction expressed with the road by any class of 

 users. As yet we have built no roads since your visit, but I think the example will 

 tell when new construction is begun.— Charles Minor Blackford, Jr., M. D., 

 Lynchburg, Va. 



It gives me pleasure to say that the increased interest in building and main- 

 taining good roads has been very marked in North Carolina since the visit of the 

 good roads train. Though little actual work has been done, yet from all sections 

 of the State, especially from those sections where the good roads train stopped 

 and conventions were held, numerous inquiries have come to me for information 

 and for copies of the recent road laws passed by our legislature, the adoption of 

 which is optional with the county commissioners. Other evidence of various 

 kinds shows the awakening of oiir people to the great necessity of road improve- 

 ment. I am sure of the great value of the work your Office has undertaken, and I 

 wish you continued success.— S. L. Patterson, North Carolina Commissioner of 

 Agriculture and Immigration, Raleigh, N. C. 



The road built north of the city by the good roads train is an excellent piece of 

 work, and is standing the travel beyond my expectation: in fact, it is almost a 

 perfect piece of work. I believe the good roads movement is also growing in 

 almost every county in this State, and within twelve months, in my judgment, 

 its friends will be organized and ready for work. This means a great deal for 

 North Carolina. It will cost in this section to build such roads as we are build- 

 ing, with granite bed in the center 9 inches deep and 10 feet wide, with a dirt 

 driveway 8 feet wide on either side of the macadam, about $2,000 or $3,500 per 

 mile. I wish the good roads train could repeat its circuit this fall through this 

 section. It would do more, in my opinion, to promote the good roads move- 

 ment than anything that can be done. I hope the good roads movement will 



