IN CIVILIZED FRENCH AFRICA 



307 



commission into these 

 northern African colonies 

 build some national roads 

 of our own. I would like 

 to see a movement started 

 to build a national road 

 from Washington to San 

 Francisco in as direct a 

 line as could be laid, and 

 then have it crossed by an- 

 other from Chicago to New 

 Orleans. Ignore every city 

 or town that did not come 

 in the direct line of survey 

 and allow the various 

 States to connect with it as 

 they wished. With such a 

 foundation this country 

 might soon have roads 

 worth an incalculable 

 amount to every industry. 

 The travelers of the world 

 would forsake the old wat- 

 ering-places of Europe and 

 come to us. This plea 

 should not be made for mo- 

 torists, nor for horsemen, 

 nor for any particular in- 

 dustry or mode of locomo- 

 tion, but it should be built 

 as a forerunner of a better 

 inter communication, for 

 military purposes, and for 

 local travel. It would cost 

 millions, but those millions 

 would be spent entirely 

 among our own people and 

 our own workmen would reap the pri- 

 mary benefits. 



In Tunis and Algeria every adult male 

 inhabitant is taxed three days' work on 

 the main roads and one day on the minor 

 roads. This tax can be worked out or it 

 can be paid in cash at the rate of one 

 franc (twenty cents) per day. In the 

 first two years some discontent was ex- 

 perienced in Tunis, but as soon as the 

 natives saw the results they changed their 

 attitude, and now they gladly do their 

 work, for even the poorest of them real- 

 izes the great benefits. 



It was not my intention to dwell upon 

 the roads of Tunis and Algeria nor to 



Photo by James F. J. Archibald 



the: road between jijeeli and bougie, which has 

 been cut out oe the solid rock face oe the 

 cliee eor many mi ees (see page 306) 



proclaim this motorists' paradise, but my 

 great admiration for the French as colo- 

 nists has prompted me to write fully of 

 their work. 



During the last fifteen years my work 

 as a war correspondent has taken me into 

 many of the more remote colonies of the 

 world, and during that time I have tried 

 to give the subject of colonial govern- 

 ment some study, but not until I visited 

 the French colonies of northern Africa 

 did I find what I considered a most per- 

 fect form of colonization, and I now 

 firmly believe that the French people and 

 the French government are today the 

 most practical colonizers of the civilized 



