EDITOR'S TABLE. 



413 



Just how loss arises from bad roads is 

 being shown very ably in the magazine, 

 Good Eoads, now in its second year, 

 which is edited by Mr. Isaac B. Potter, 

 of New York. The farmers are the 

 greatest sufferers. Where wagon wheels 

 sink hub-deep in mud at some seasons, 

 a farmer who has much hauling to do 

 must keep one or two more horses than 

 he would need if he had only hard, 

 even roads to go over, and his loss in 

 the wear and tear of horseflesh, har- 

 nesses, and wagons is a heavy tax on 

 his income. It often happens that a 

 farmer finds the roads absolutely im- 

 passable with a loaded wagon just at 

 the time when some of his produce 

 would bring the highest price if he could 

 haul it to a railroad, and he is forced to 

 wait and take a lower price later. Liv- 

 ery-stable keepers and all other owners 

 and users of horses and vehicles suffer 

 from bad roads in similar ways. 



The welfare and prosperity of a dis- 

 trict that has bad roads suffer in many 

 respects. If getting about for business 

 or recreation is unreasonably difficult, 

 its inhabitants tend to crowd into the 

 towns and cities rather than live in the 

 more wholesome conditions of the open 

 country. Manufacturing concerns are 

 often driven to place themselves in the 

 villages and draw their employees to 

 them there, when, but for the one item of 

 teaming over bad roads, they could be 

 carried on to better advantage in the 

 country. Good roads would keep the 

 employees of these concerns and the 

 other persons above mentioned in the 

 farming districts, thus making these dis- 

 tricts more thickly settled and increas- 

 ing the value of their lands. 



In order to obtain better roads two 

 things are necessary. The first is to 

 create a general conviction that the im- 

 provement of our highways is impera- 

 tive, and that money wisely expended 

 for this purpose is sure to return. The 

 second requisite is to place all road 

 making and mending under the charge 

 of competent road-builders. Various 



efforts to secure these ends are being 

 made, and the aid of county and State 

 authorities, and even of the national 

 Government, has been invoked to fur- 

 ther the movement. While it is very de- 

 sirable that the highways of adjoining 

 localities should be under some central 

 supervision, so that they may be made 

 to form a connected whole, it may yet 

 be questioned whether the national Gov- 

 ernment could be an effective agency in 

 road improvement. Why, for instance, 

 should the dwellers beyond the Missis- 

 sippi and on the Pacific coast be taxed 

 to maintain in Washington a school for 

 road engineers and a museum of road 

 construction that few. if any, of these 

 distant communities could derive any 

 benefit from ? A more practicable 

 scheme would be to have instruction in 

 road engineering given at each of the 

 State Colleges of Agriculture and Me- 

 chanic Arts. In a country showing such 

 wide differences in soil, rainfall, tem- 

 perature, and topography between differ- 

 ent sections as the United States does, 

 road-building can be taught and admin- 

 istered far more efficiently by the State 

 or the county than by the nation. 



There is need of much intelligent 

 care in framing legislation in the inter- 

 est of the movement for better roads. 

 Annoying prohibitions should be no 

 part of the policy of the road reform- 

 ers. For instance, large loads carried 

 on wheels having narrow felloes and 

 tires do great damage to roads; hence it 

 has been proposed to prohibit narrow 

 tires on heavy wagons. A much better 

 policy is that adopted in Michigan, of 

 giving a reduction of one half their road- 

 taxes to those who will use broad tires. 

 The movement for good roads shows a 

 lusty vigor. The success that it has al- 

 ready achieved is splendid testimony to 

 the efficiency of voluntary association 

 of individuals, and if its leaders continue 

 to carry it on without the paralyzing 

 patronage of the General Government it 

 is likely to attain great results. 



