Bead before the Texas Academy of Science, June 18, 1895. 
COUNTY KOADS, 
By Charles Corner, Assoc. M. Inst. C. E.; A. Mem. Am. Soc. C. E., 
Engineer to the Railroad Commission of Texas. 
Mr. President, Gentlemen of the Texas Academy of Science: At a 
recent meeting of this Academy, a distinguished member, whom we all 
heard with much profit, ventured the assertion that all human progress, 
material, and even moral, would be found in the last analysis to be due 
to science. Now, although I^can not agree with the whole of that state¬ 
ment, it furnishes me an excellent excuse for introducing the subject of 
County Roads to a scientific gathering. For, I believe, sir, little as ques¬ 
tions of pure science enter into this subject, that good roads are not only 
a large part of progress in themselves, but are the prolific parents of a 
great deal more. 
Now-a-days the drift of population is towards the cities, and the energies 
of our people seem devoted to their enlargement and wrapped up in their 
adornment. It is still true, however, that God made the country and 
man made the town, and it is to the country that we must always look for 
the simpler and stronger forces and the sturdier virtues that must forever 
underlie all true progress. If we flatter ourselves that the cities foster 
our highest achievements, we can not forget that they are also the breed¬ 
ing ground of our greatest plagues. It is by making the country dis¬ 
tricts more prosperous, and therefore more desirable to live in, that 
county roads may become an enormous factor in the well-being of the 
State. 
Addressing the Texas Academy of Science, no apology is needed for 
treating the matter locally. It is also my earnest desire to contribute 
somewhat to the actual establishment of these highways amongst our¬ 
selves, and from some technical and practical acquaintance with the mat¬ 
ter in hand, I hope to add my mite to the general fund of knowledge 
♦ 
that must flow from all honest discussion. 
Merely for the sake of illustration, let us glance at some previous phases 
of the subject. 
The Romans, who were an exceedingly practical people, built roads in 
Gaul and Britain whose tracks remain to this daj 7 . They were con¬ 
structed in straight lines, and convey an impression of a desire to get 
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