HIGHWAY CONSTRUCTION IN MASSACHUSETTS. 73 

 HIGHWAY CONSTRUCTION IN MASSACHUSETTS. 



BY CHAKLES LIVY WHITTLE, M. E. 



IN the course of time there have been many changes in the 

 method of transporting merchandise from town to town and 

 from one country to another. Here, as in everything else, we see 

 the gradual evolution of transportation, at first by man or beast, 

 and finally by steam and electricity. Early man used himself as 

 a beast of burden, and finally the ox and other animals were 

 made to do service in his stead. With every improvement in 

 method came a wider and wider range of trade and its consequent 

 benefits. Efforts to improve the means of transportation resulted 

 in the early invention of carriage by water. Hence we see the 

 maritime peoples were the first to attain any considerable com- 

 mercial prominence. 



At the time this country was settled the lack of adequate 

 means of moving commodities, excepting by water, led to the 

 settlement of lands bordering the ocean, streams, and lakes, while 

 equally good lands, not in close vicinity to water, offered but little 

 attraction to the settler. Gradually the frontier was pushed far- 

 ther westward ; the narrow and obscure Indian trails were trans- 

 formed into paths for horses and eventually became carriage 

 roads. Before the railroad was devised public roads that pos- 

 sessed any claims to excellence were limited to the more popu- 

 lous States bordering the Atlantic coast. It is without doubt 

 true that, had not transportation by rail been invented until the 

 present time, the public roads of this country would be in a far 

 more satisfactory condition than we find them to-day. With the 

 advent of the locomotive came the withdrawal of active interest 

 in the character of our highways. All the energies of our people 

 were devoted to extending and perfecting the vast network of 

 railroads that cross and recross the United States. Railway con- 

 struction has now reached an equation of demand and supply, 

 and we once again see the Commonwealths awakening to the im- 

 portance of good roads, many communities vying with one an- 

 other in their efforts to lead the States and earn a reputation for 

 the excellent character of their highways. 



The natural conservatism of the farming element of our peo- 

 ple has been a difficult feature of the problem of arousing public 

 interest in better roads to overcome in the past. The farmer has 

 had but few object lessons in what a road should be. Adding to 

 this the objections he has to an increase of taxation, we perceive 

 the difficulties that stand in the way of educating the people up 

 to the point of appreciating the numerous advantages that would 

 accrue to them with a system of highways properly constructed 



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