ROADSIDE IMPROVEMENT 



W. N. RUDD, Blue Island 



T IS perhaps hardly twenty years ago that in writing a paper 

 on this subject for presentation before almost any audience 

 in our state, one would have been pessimistic as to its 

 reception, almost certain that it would not be considered 

 worthy of serious attention; perhaps well enough for the 

 women to talk about, along with their posy beds, but 

 nothing for a hard-headed, upstanding, two-fisted man to waste time 

 upon. The writer would have felt it necessary to devote half his 

 space to special pleading, in a timid way, for a hearing, and the 

 balance largely to showing how little really need be done and how 

 very, very cheaply improvements could be made. 



Today, there is not one person present here who does not realize 

 fully the great importance of banishing from our homes, and from the 

 surroundings among which we do our work, all that we can of the 

 ugly and unsightly; and of bringing in all that may be possible of 

 the sightly and the beautiful importance, mind you, not only on the 

 esthetic side but on the cold, hard, dollars and cents side also; in 

 the proved increase in our property values, in the better output of labor 

 when we are working in pleasant surroundings, in the greater happi- 

 ness which will keep more of our young people at home, and in the 

 increased traffic attracted by beautiful drives and the increased busi- 

 ness which it brings to our neighbors who are makers and sellers of 

 things needed or desirable. We can approach the subject confidently 

 today, as one of accepted importance, without necessity of excuse, 

 apology, or special pleading. Our problem now is not whether to do, 

 but what to do ; and how, when, and where to do it. 



It is stated on apparently good authority that there are 96,000 

 miles of public highway in Illinois. Those who are so minded may 

 find interest in estimating how many times these highways, if con- 

 tinuous, would go around the earth's circumference and how many 

 trees it would take, if planted fifty feet apart, to border each one of 

 them on both sides. Truly, in the light of these figures, our subject 

 becomes a very big one indeed. We have no need to be discouraged 

 at the magnitude of the task, however. It will be spread over many 

 years to come, and we and our children and our children's children will 

 all be working at it. 



The work divides itself naturally into two lines: first, to do 

 away with the ugly or unsightly, so far as we can ; second, to add 



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