No. 4.] BETTER ROADS. 245 



BETTER ROADS FOR MASSACHUSETTS. 



BY OSCAR S. THAYER OF ATTLEBOROUGH. 



The subject of better ro.ads for Massachusetts is one of 

 vital importance to the welfare of tlie State and to the pros- 

 perity of her citizens, especially in the rural districts, where 

 they are still pursuing the methods of fifty years ago in the 

 care and construction of their roads. In the past twenty-five 

 years rapid progress has been made in our manufacturing, 

 in our railroad accommodations, in our schools and colleges. 

 To-day electricity has spread its network of rails all over the 

 State ; and, could our forefathers of even twenty-five years 

 ago return and see the electric car, the automobile and the 

 bicycle on our common roads, they would think indeed that 

 they had waked up in some foreign country. 



All these things demand better roads. We must adopt 

 modern methods of building them and in caring for them. 

 Take the management of our highways out of politics, and 

 place it in the hands of men educated to the business. No 

 other department in the State has been so badly abused as 

 the department of highways, in some of the outlying dis- 

 tricts, where the management is, in too many cases, in the 

 hands of men who are working politics for a living, and are 

 spending thousands of dollars annually on our highways, 

 without knowing the first [)rinciples of modern road building. 

 When we take up the teaching of agriculture in our common 

 schools, I hope that we may have one department devoted 

 to instruction in modern road building. Good roads bring 

 prosperity, and prosperity brings good roads ; they go hand 

 in hand, each assisting the other. A recent writer has said 

 that Spain would not have lost Cuba if she had Joined the 

 good roads movement. Far-fetched as ihe assertion may 

 seem, it contains the clement of truth. In spite of a long 

 Spanish sovereignty, the conunou iiigiiways of Cuba — most 



