78 
There is no such thing as a permanent road. They all require con- 
stant care and repairs. And the more perfect the road surface ihe erent 
will be the care and attention required to keep it smooth. It costs more 
to properly maintain a stone road than a gravel road. But a good stone 
road is a better road than a good gravel road. 
Some theorists tell us that if we could have all the money that has 
been expended upon our bad roads we could pave them with gold. Our 
State has expended $70,000,000 in road repairs in the past forty years. 
We are told that if this sum had been expended in building permanent 
roads we would now have a complete system of good roads. They forget 
that good roads cost as much for maintenance as poorer roads; they for- 
get that if we had expended $70,000,000 in building good roads in 1860, 
we would still have had to expend another $70,000,000 or more to keep 
them in good condition to the present time. 
Or if, on the other hand, we had saved that $70,000,000 of repairs to 
now expend in building good roads we should for that forty years have 
had to get along with roads that would have been ten times worse than 
the ones we have had. For there is no denying that the expenditures 
that have been made upon our roads for repairs, although very wasteful 
and not a complete success, have been nevertheless of great benefit. 
To go back to our search for a remedy, permit me to repeat the reasons 
for bad roads in Indiana: 
1. Bad drainage. 
2. Repairs delayed. 
3. Too much repairing at one time. 
4. Too much material, not sufficient labor. 
5. Repairs at wrong season. 
6. Improper material. 
Poor location. 
1. To secure proper drainage of surface water requires constant atten- 
tion. All that is necessary is to keep the road crowned, but it must be 
watched and cared for at all times and especially in wet weather. There 
must be some one whose duty it is to keep the ruts and chuckholes filled 
and the ditches clear. 
2. Repairs need not be delayed if some one is employed whose duty it 
is to attend to them promptly, provided there be a superintendent to see 
that he does his duty. 
