134 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



GOOD ROADS 



While Wisconsin has nothing to boast of in the way of 

 good roads, I am still happy to plead guilty when intro- 

 duced as one ojf its citizens who has unbounded faith in 

 our future. All that is needed to place us in the fore 

 front is the right sort of enlightenment on this good roads 

 movement. 



This good roads movement is all right; it will endure 

 unless we find ourselves in the position of the Irishman 

 who had been riding with his friend on the ice wagon. 

 Pat had fallen off and two wheels had passed over his 

 neck ; Mike, the driver, leaned out and shouted : "Are ye 

 killed, Pat?" "Divil a bit," says Pat, "O'im all r ight if ye 

 don't back up." So are we all right if we won't back up. 



This good roads' movement started way back in the 

 days of the Roman Empire, years before Christ. These 

 same Romans knew how to make good laws; laws that 

 today are the foundation of many of our present statutes, 

 they have endured the test of time. So too, did the Ro- 

 mans legislate in favor of public highways, work on which 

 was done by convicts and the soldiery. They made a 

 study of road building, and the proper maintenance of 



T. W. Gilson, Assistant Secretary. 



same. Those public highways have stood through all the 

 ages as a living monument to a people whose influence has 

 rarely been equalled. What was the result? Nowhere in 

 the world do we find such universally magnificent high- 

 ways as in Europe and this good roads movement, started,' 

 two thousand years ago by the Romans, has been the all- 

 powerful influence directly responsible. Generation after 

 generation have carried on this wonderful work; it is a 

 proud inheritance passed on from country to country, 

 city to city, town to town, hamlet to hamlet, father to 

 son; the poor as well as the rich have enjoyed the benefits. 



Extraordinary natural resources or monetary advant- 

 ages had nothing to do with this condition; it was the 

 scientific study of this problem that resulted in a practical 

 economical solution of good road building, together with 

 a keen realization of the advantages accruing to all classes 

 that places European countries in the enviable position of 

 leading the world in the good roads movement. 



How long shall this great country of ours remain in 

 a state of coma on this question of national improvement 

 of our public highways? Shall we longer submit ourselves 



*AddreFS delivered before Good Road Congress, Chicifo. 111., 

 Sept. 28, 1911. bv T. W. Gilson, Assistant Secretary, Mitchell-Lewis 

 Motor Company. Racine, Wis. 



to the humiliation of bringing up the tail end of this good 

 roads procession? Why should this glorious country with 

 all its scenic beauty unequalled in the world be handi- 

 capped for lack of highways that would make it possible 

 for our own people as well as those of other countries to 

 comfortably enjoy them? All this God-given beauty of 

 scenery should be made accessible for the modern means 

 of travel; believe me there is no other one agency that 

 will do more toward the development of this country of 

 ours; for bringing the people in closer touch, to say noth- 

 ing of the tremendous saving to those who must use the 

 highways for business purposes such as the hauling oi 

 freight or the marketing of farm products. 



It is for us to awaken the sluggards, to arouse public 

 enthusiasm to the point where they will become fanatic 

 on the subject of good roads. If politics are being in- 

 jected into this proposition to the detriment of our cause, 

 jet us stamp it out with that never failing weapon educa- 

 tion; let us make the people, one and all, rich or poor, 

 reason it out for themselves, uninfluenced by unscrupulous 

 politicians whose only aim is to serve the people inci- 

 dentally and themselves principally. I believe politics 

 should have no place in this grand movement for good 

 roads; it should be fought out along non-partisan lines 

 to the last ditch with this as our slogan, "Built by the 

 the people for the people." 



Let us have, a national highway from coast to coast 

 built by federal aid, states, counties and townships con- 

 tributing if you please, but no matter how it is built let us 

 have it. 



Right at this point I want to ask why should not 

 the convicts in our federal and state penal institutions 

 do this work of building public highways? As a matter 

 of economic disposition of this convict labor for this 

 purpose there can be no question. Statistics, with which 

 I shall not burden you place this question beyond the pale 

 of argument. It has been proven a money making propo- 

 sition in a number of states. I have seen the result of this 

 work and it is a credit to any state; those people who have 

 exercised their right of franchise to force the use of con- 

 vict labor for road building have done more than they 

 realize for the benefit of this country. 



I ask you how could the people of a state get better 

 results for the money they expend in taxes for the sup- 

 port of convicts than by insisting that their highways be 

 Knit and maintained by convict labor? The people pay 

 the tax and they should reap the benefit. 



To return to the question of a national highway; if 

 the federal government would set the glorious example, 

 acting under the Constitution which provides a govern- 

 ment of the people, by the people, for the people, a wave 

 of good road enthusiasm would be set in motion that 

 nothing could stop and the goal would be in sight. 



To accomplish all this means work, concerted work 

 with never a stone left unturned. We must be unselfish, 

 forgetting political creeds, as I said before politics can 

 have no place in this movement for good roads. Just so 

 sure as we allow politics to creep in just so sure will we 

 clog the wheels of progress. We must, like true Ameri- 

 cans, rise above petty differences of political belief, be- 

 came thoroughly imbued with the common brotherhood 

 of man and shoulder to shoulder strive for the opening up 

 of this country of ours with a system of public highways 

 that will place us where we belong on this proposition, 

 as we are in all others, the leading nation of the world. I 

 wish it were possible for me to outline a campaign that 

 could not fail; that would mean the speedy solution of 

 this problem, but I can only suggest thoughts which to 

 me strike a vital spot in the opposition and which I hope 

 may be worthy of your consideration. 



As I pointed out to you earlier in this talk the theory 

 and practices of good road building and its benefits have 

 been handed down from generation to generation in most 

 European countries; from their youth up the men who 

 were to perpetuate this work acquired the knowledge and 

 the spirit that enabled them to carry on the work of their 

 forefathers. Xow we must inaugurate some system that 

 will provide for the teaching of the boys (and I would not 

 eliminate the girls) who will in future years carry on this 

 work. I would have prepared simple text books on practi- 

 cal good road construction, teach them during this charac- 

 ter building period of the economic advantages to them 



