'A'J.-vrv * v . rT> j-- • <. > ?■ - - > , |>ite }'.-•• '7 >.>^- v-^r- : •■" j.; is^.I ' ,f x■ K/t £"•.-, .■ - >• @ •■;-• ' - .V? .. v, • •. \h- ■>*$..' RALEIGH, N. 0. Edwards & Broughton Printing Co. State Printers 1916 ■ A- '■ " . - PK'--j^> : .seV. Ilf | 0tW \ j r J - \s' - ’*£••• V - ■ K:; C-l •'...•} • > . A*F s~SHv?* ■ & 32 K - •*• • -■ v Ssspm. iffiy -..«■ £*554 Shi y.V >v:- '■> •' ' ■ -• .7' 7?-~Si i ;i ’ £iy-' y - - " • ; •.. (Enbotoeb bp Wje JStaleettc anb Philanthropic Societies C^zzb NORTH CAROLINA STATE HIGHWAY COMMISSION BULLETIN No. 1 BENEFITS AND ADVANTAGES OF GOOD ROADS HIGHWAY COMMISSION Governor Locke Craig, Chairman. Joseph Hyde Pratt, Secretary. Bennehan Cameron. E. C. Duncan. T. E. IIickerson. W. C. Riddick. Guy V. Roberts. W. S. Faults, State Highway Engineer. i*j / 4 d & CONTENTS PAGE The Relation of Public Roads to Farm Economics. 5 Good Roads and Rural Mail Delivery. 9 The Relationship of Colleges and Universities to the Good Roads Move¬ ment . 17 Public Roads and Public Schools. 20 Benefits of Roads to Non-Abutting Property Owners. 22 Economics of Good Roads . 23 Effects of Good Roads on Immigration. 24 Why Do We Want Good Roads?. 28 The High Cost of Hauling. 34 Economic Problems in Road Building. 33 Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2019 with funding from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill https://archive.org/details/benefitsadvantag02unse Benefits and Advantages of Good Roads THE RELATION OF PUBLIC ROADS TO FARM ECONOMICS By Hon. Logan Waller Page, Director U. S. Office of Public Roads. From the standpoint of a highway engineer, the term “farm economics” must necessarily describe a group of phenomena which are somewhat different from those with which the agriculturist deals. It is extremely gratifying, however, to find that recent developments of re¬ search work in the domain of farm economics are along lines which are ex¬ ceedingly valuable to the men who study the economics of highways. We refer especially to such investigations as are represented by Bulletin No. 295 of the Agricultural Experiment Station of Cornell University, Circular No. 75 of the U. S. Department of Agriculture, and the farm management investiga¬ tions in the Bureau of Animal Industry, which have resulted in farm surveys in ten counties during the past three years. A considerable portion of the data which is obtained from the work along these lines is directly useful for the study of highway problems. For the highway problem at present is to a large degree a problem of economics. The period of agitation and education for better highways is about completed. Although there still remain perplexing questions in highway technique on details of construction, there exists a great body of information and experi¬ ence along these lines. The question of financing improved roads, the desirability of which is uni¬ versally admitted, and the cost of which is largely determined, has not as yet received sufficient attention. It is not possible, for example, today, to satis¬ factorily determine how much a county or township or a state ought to spend for road improvement and maintenance. How are we going to answer such questions? What we need more than any one thing is a sufficient local traffic census; not merely a numerical traffic census, but a census which determines accu¬ rately the number of tons moving over the roads and the number of miles of road in any district which do most of the work. The fundamental unit in such work is the ton mile. This represents the movement of one useful ton a distance of one mile. There are two ways of determining the ton mile traffic upon our highways. The first or most obvious way is to station observers upon the road system who will note the passing travel and make proper inquiries as to the loads and distances. Men who are trained to ask the right questions and who know how to apply the proper checks can obtain surprisingly accurate results in this way. The accuracy of such methods has been strikingly shown by a traffic census on the radial reads leading from Milan, Italy, in the year 1909. It is possible, of course, to determine the error in traffic census work by the usual mathematical theory, and to select the desirable number of observations in accordance with that theory. 6 BENEFITS AND ADVANTAGES The second method of handling the problems of ton mile traffic is by the highway traffic survey, if we might coin such an expression. Such a survey is similar to the railroad traffic survey, which is frequently used in determining the desirability of new mileage for railroad systems. The type of farm survey which has been developed within the last few years is almost sufficient for a complete highway traffic survey, and its deficiencies can probably be supplied with very little additional effort on the part of the observer. It will be necessary, for example, to have some definite method of determin¬ ing the distribution of radial market roads from the market centers. At the present time, in all cases which we have examined, it is necessary to assume the number of main market roads which radiate from market centers, and we are now using six as the proper number. To show the intimate relation which the farm surveys bear to the highway traffic surveys, it is interesting to examine the results obtained by the Cornell Experiment Station from the survey of farms in Tompkins County, New York, in the year 1908. The result of this investigation, as before mentioned, is published in Bulletin No. 295. Tompkins County, in which Cornell University is situated, is in the center of the State of New York and fairly representative of a large area of New York farming country. The investigation in question was carried out by methods which had been developed by several previous years of work. Most of the results are based upon figures from 647 farms in the four townships of Ithaca, Lansing, Danby and Dryden; the area of these four townships is about 260 square miles, while the area of the whole county is about 422 square miles. It is, of course, necessary in determining county-wide figures to exterpolate from these four townships to the remainder of the county. It is possible to derive from the data of Bulletin No. 295 conclusions in re¬ gard to highways which should be as reliable in general as are the conclusions in regard to agricultural facts, which are represented in the tables. For ex¬ ample, we find that the average weight of farm produce which is sold and transported from the farm is little more than one-half ton per acre of land which is under cultivation. This is a fundamental fact on which all our calculations must be based. Next in importance comes the average haul to market; the work done in this county fortunately determined for 948 farms the average distance from mar¬ ket, and not only this, but also showed the number of farms situated at the varying distances from market. Apparently the average distances from mar¬ ket was determined -from the list of farms obtained and not by grouping farmers or individual roads. The average distance is given as 3.16 miles and is very low. The average for the United States is given in Bulletin No. 49 of the Bureau of Statistics, as hay 8.3; oats 7.3; buckwheat 8.2; wheat 9.5; and potatoes 8.2. The distribution of these farms is shown in Table No. 1. If this distribu¬ tion is representative of the actual distribution of farms along the radial roads in these townships, it is so unexpected as to be extremely interesting. The table shows, for example, that the 142 farms are less than a mile; 124 about four miles, and 26 about seven miles from market; whereas, the num¬ ber should increase with the square of the distance, if the farms were of the OF GOOD ROADS 7 same size. Ithaca, with 15,000 population, is the largest market center and is reached by about six main roads of an average length of 10 miles. The question of determining the average distance from market of farms in a given area is a very interesting one. Certain assumptions must necessarily be made. Mr. Frank Andrews, in Bulletin 49, Bureau of Statistics, U. S. Department of Agriculture, determines the average distance from the maximum distance. He says: “Assuming the longest distance of any considerable number of farmers from a certain ship¬ ping point to be 12 miles, the area of the circle including the farmers using that shipping point would be 452 square miles. One-half of this area, or 226 square miles, is included within a circumference drawn with a radius of 8.5 miles from the shipping point. Hence, one-half of the farmers may be as¬ sumed to haul from points distant less than 8.5 miles from the shipping point, and the other half to haul farther than 8.5 miles. This distance is, therefore, taken as the average haul by all farmer^ using that shipping point.” This assumption does not involve the knowledge of how many roads radiate from the market point. The average distance from the farm to the shipping point, as determined by Mr. Andrews, does not, however, coincide with the distance which may be computed by assuming a definte number of radial roads from the shipping point with an equal maximum haul along each road. The average haul for that market will depend upon the number of roads we assume; but in no case will it be as great as the average haul used in Bulletin No. 49. Mr. Andrews finds that the average haul “h” is given by the equation: FT h= 0 where H=average maximum haul If we assume the number of radial roads to be six, the average haul is de¬ termined by the equation: h'=2H' For example, if the average maximum haul is taken as 12 miles, the average haul with six radial roads would be but 7.64 miles. The method that we use really determined the average length of haul as the distance from the market center to the center of gravity of the section of the country served by the individual road. With the average haul of 3.16 miles deduced from the study in Tompkins County, the maximum haul would be thus almost five (5) miles. The total area surrounding each market would be in the neighborhood of 12 y 2 square miles. When we determine the acreage production which is sold and hauled from the farms within this area, we can, with a fair degree of accuracy, measure the service of the six five-mile radial roads leading to the shipping point. In the four townships from which returns are recorded, the census of 1910 shows that 98.6 per cent, or 232.7 square miles, are in farms. The Cornell investigation shows that 70 per cent of the total farm area was in crops, so that in the four townships in question there were about 104,262 acres of crops. The returns from 647 farms show that the average produce, including milk sold from each cultivated acre was .5157 ton, so that, if this figure is applied to the entire producing area of the four townships, we find that 53,768 tons of farm produce were marketed over the roads. In order to determine the service of the market roads in the four townships in question, we divide their area by 12% and we find there should be 21 five- 8 BENEFITS AND ADVANTAGES mile roads grouped about 3.5 market centers. The aggregate miles of market road, then, is 105 miles. Similar figures may be deduced for the entire county and are shown in the Table II of the bulletin referred to above. There are various methods of procedure from this point to determine the value of road improvement. We have computed the total saving to the four townships and to the entire county which would accrue if the roads were so improved that first the cost per ton per mile of hauling was reduced five cents on all produce except market milk; second, the cost of hauling market milk was reduced 50 per cent and the returns or price received for market produce increased by one per cent of the recorded receipts. To assume a decrease of five cents per ton mile for hauling on an improved road is a conservative figure. The Cornell bulletin states that the cost of hauling milk varies from four to seven per cent of its value, and that the hauling can be hired for about one-sixth of the actual cost when the individual farmer carries milk to the station. To assume that adequately improved roads would cut the cost of marketing milk in two is therefore reasonable. The value of opportunity in marketing over roads which are serviceable for an increased number of days in the year and in all weather is certainly worth one per cent. The total saving to the four townships would be $18,932, and on the same basis to the county $37,592. The total expenditure in this county for road purposes for all sources was only $45,958. The saving which we have computed is at the rate of $180 per mile in the four townships, or $192 per mile in the entire county. Capitalized at five per cent, this annual saving would pay for improvement costing nearly $3,600 per mile in the four townships, or $3,840 per mile in the county on these roads which apparently perform the service of market roads. The present tax levy on this mileage could thus be applied wholly to maintenance. It is interest¬ ing to note that the computation we have made shows that the market roads are only 18 per cent of the total mileage both in the four townships and in the county. There were, in 1908, 24 miles of improved roads in the four townships and 45 miles in the whole county; but no account has been taken of this improved mileage in the above computation, as no knowledge of its distribution was available. There are certain striking facts noticed by the author of the Cornell bulle¬ tin. He says that although it is probably true that the best farms lie in the valleys and are consequently nearer the main roads, it is also true that the value of farms decrease from $40 per acre to $19 per acre as the distance from market increases to 8 miles, and that this decrease is not warranted by change in fertility. It is also remarked that even with the low average labor income of $425 from 615 farms, the owner who lives within three miles of market makes about four times as much as is made by those who are about seven miles from market; and furthermore, it is concluded in this bulletin that the farmer can afford to pay five per cent interest on more valuable land near the market and still make much more from his labor. The term “more valuable land” here does not mean more fertile land, but land more valuable to the farm as a business plant, because of its nearness to the shipping point. It is quite apparent, therefore, that a whole new series of computation could be undertaken with a view to determining the relations between improved roads which bring the more remote districts from 50 to 100 per cent nearer the market in point of time consumed on the road. In the matter of agri- OF GOOD ROADS 9 cultural credit, of which much is now published, it is certainly apparent that the borrowing power of farms situated upon improved market roads will be increased. It appears, also, that more remote farms need capital to establish a proper balance between farm acreage and equipment and to operate with greater efficiency. It is quite common to find that the more remote and less prosperous districts pay a larger rate for tax purposes, and that their roads are poor and often run over outrageous grades. Such districts as these get increasing returns from all forms of state or county aid. In summing up the most important needs of the farmers, the Cornell bulle¬ tin remarks that nearly all the good farmers raise crops for sale. Cows are the most profitable kind of live stock in the market. The average cow does not pay. No dairyman who sells nothing but wholesale market milk is mak¬ ing a large profit, and the obstacle has largely been in the sale of milk in small quantities. The farmers do not receive more than their share of the prosperity, and in the past they received less than their share. Only one- third of the farmers make more than that made by the hired men. It would, therefore, seem that in this county, in which the conditions for agriculture are a little better than the average for the State and considerably better than the average for the country, if the labor income averages only $423 and the disadvantages of farm life pointed out above are in any way due to lack of improved roads, there should be no hesitation on the part of the state, county or towns in spending more money to improve the market roads. GOOD ROADS AND RURAL MAIL DELIVERY By Dr. Joseph Hyde Pratt, State Geologist. Mr. President and Members of the Rural Mail Carriers Association . I am supposed to take up today a general discussion of the question of good roads; but I wish, however, to avail myself of this opportunity to consider a particular phase of the good roads question especially in its relation to mial delivery, and, if you wish a definite title to my address, you might call it “Good Roads and Rural Delivery.” This subject has been suggested to me by the fact that I was to address an association whose membership is composed of rural mail carriers; but I have also been influenced in the selection of this subject by the fact that I believed the audience would not only be composed of the members of the association, but also of friends of the association from the rural sections. I wish to speak to the carriers and also to the patrons along the rural routes. To the carriers, because they can become among the most influential advocates of good roads and can exert a tremendous influence for the construction of good roads in the counties in which they work; to their friends in these rural sections, because they are the ones who are vitally interested in rural delivery and upon whom the extension of rural delivery, for the most part, depends. In the first place, I want to call your attention to the fact that the exten¬ sion of the rural free delivery system of this country is absolutely dependent upon good roads. This is emphasized by statements and reports that have 10 BENEFITS AND ADVANTAGES gone out from the Postmaster-General’s office. In a report of former Post¬ master-General Cortelyou, he said: “The requirement precedent to the establishment of rural delivery is to be a possible patronage of 100 families on a standard route of 24 miles; that the road be kept unobstructed by gates and with all streams fordable at all sea¬ sons of the year.” Very recently a bulletin has been issued to postmasters throughout the country which reads as follows: “You are directed to inform yourself as to the condition of roads and bridges on the rural roads out of your office, and if you find that they require im¬ provements, you should present the matter in the strongest and most positive way to the patrons and the road officials, informing them that improvements must be made as soon as practicable. If after a reasonable time has elapsed the improvements have not been made or started, you will report the fact to this office, in order that action may be taken looking to the discontinuance of the service. “The department is not immediately concerned in elaborate road improve¬ ments, but in the interest of the best service to the largest number of patrons, it must be insisted upon roads being kept in repair, the lack of which is usually due to improper drainage and unsuitable drainage and survey work, which can be easily and cheaply accomplished by timely work and the regular use of the ‘split-log drag’ or other similar device.” These two quotations are pretty strong evidence that good roads play a very strong part in the extension of rural free delivery, and if it comes to a question of parcel post, it will play even a more important part in rural delivery. It is doubtful if at the present time any of our people living in the rural sections would raise any serious objection to the extension of the rural free delivery, nor are there many of them who would willingly see the rural free delivery discontinued; yet, at the beginning of the rural free delivery system in this country, there was not only considerable objection on the part of Congress to establishing these routes, on account of the enormous expense to the government of maintaining them, but there was much opposition on the part of the people themselves. It may be interesting to give here some idea of the growth of the rural free delivery system during the thirteen years of its existence: Fiscal Year. Routes. Appropri¬ ations. Expendu tures. Increase in Exp's. 1897. 83 $40,000 50,250 $40,000 50,241 $ . 1898. 153 35,401 1899. 412 150,032 150,012 99,771 1900.' 1,259 450,000 420,433 270,421 1901. 3,761 1,750,796 1,750,321 1,329,888 1902.•.... 8,298 4,089,075 4,089,041 2,338,720 1903. 15,119 8,580,364 8,051,599 3,962,558 1904. 24,566 12,926,905 12,645,275 4,593,676 1905. 32,055 21,116,600 20,864,885 8,219,610 1906. 35,766 25,828,309 25,011,625 4,146,740 1907. 37,728 28,200,000 26,661,555 1,649,930 1908. 39,277 34,900,000 34,371,939 7,710,384 1909. 40,028 35,673,000 35,631,034 1,289,095 1910 (June).... 41,089 37,260,000 OF GOOD ROADS 11 In the thirteen years the number of routes have been increased from 83 in 1897, the year that the service was started, to 41,089 routes at the end of May, 1910. Congress has increased its appropriation from $40,000 in 1897, when the experiment was first started, to $37,260,000 in 1910. This shows that the de¬ mand for rural free delivery service is constantly increasing, and that it is not only popular with the people, but that it is becoming now an absolute necessity, just as much as the telephone or the telegraph. We would not want to even think of abolishing the rural free delivery service, for many of us feel that we could not get along without it; and yet there are probably a thousand or more routes threatened with discontinuance if the public roads over which the carriers have to travel are not put in better condition. As we do not wish to see the service discontinued, we should do our part toward making it more efficient, and here again its efficiency is largely dependent upon the condition of the public roads. We should not, however, be satisfied with keeping the public road in just good enough condition so that our rural free delivery will not be discontinued, but we should improve the roads to such an extent that it will be possible for the carrier to make the fastest time possible and at the minimum expense for teams and at the minimum cost of wear and tear on stock and equipment. Right here let me say a few words to the patrons of the rural routes on behalf of the carriers. As you know, the carriers have to sign a contract for the route, for which they receive a definite amount per year, out of which they have to pay for their teams; the carrier also has to pass an examination, show¬ ing himself qualified for the service in which he desires to take part. I have obtained some figures from Rural Free Delivery , a newspaper published in the interest of the rural carriers, which will give, I believe, a fairly accurate statement regarding expenses and net income of carriers. It is a statement for the six months ending December 31, 1909. The items of expense given in this statement are as follows: Corn.$ Oats. Hay . Blacksmithing . Depreciation of vehicles. Depreciation of harness, etc. Depreciation of horses. Paid for tools, blankets, etc. Interest on $390.00, investment in horses, vehicles, etc... Taxes on horses, outfit, etc. This makes a total expense for the six months of.$ 258.70 Salary for the six months. 432.00 Making a net earning for six months of.$ 173.30 or $28.88 per month. Now, without any comments as to whether or not rural carriers are paid in proportion, to what they do, I wish to state how we are responsible for at least part of their heavy expense and small net income. Taking the items black- smithing $25, depreciation of vehicles $40, depreciation of harness, etc., $11, depreciation of horses $50, making a total of $126, these large items of expense 60.00 24.00 30.00 25.00 40.00 11.00 50.00 4.00 11.70 3.00 12 BENEFITS AND ADVANTAGES are due largely to the poor condition of our public roads, and we could readily save our carriers at least one-half of this amount if we would do our part in keeping up the public roads in the condition in which they should be. This would mean an increase of $10 per month on the net income of the carrier. Don’t you think he would appreciate this? The postoffice department, in determining the pay of the letter carriers, does not give very much consideration to the condition of the roads over which the carrier has to travel, as they have a ruling that the roads must be passable at all times of the year. Now, the better the condition of the road, the less ex¬ pense in wear and tear on the stock and equipment of the carrier. If you will examine the statistics of the average net income of the carriers in the differ¬ ent states, you will find that in the eastern United States those states that have the best roads the carriers average the largest net income per month for the service rendered. The carriers are splendid men, selected by examination, who are required to give a bond for the faithful and just performance of their duties, and they certainly should be paid salaries that come somewhere near being commensu¬ rate with their services. Now, what can we do to improve the condition of our public roads? In the first place, we cannot make all our roads macadam roads for many years to come. For when we stop to consider that North Carolina has approximately 47,000 miles of public roads in the State, of which only 2,075 miles are sur¬ faced roads, it will be seen that the dirt road will be our principal road for many years to come, and it is over this type of road that a good many of the rural routes extend. These dirt roads, however, can, with a very little ex¬ pense, be kept up in very good condition; but the trouble has been that we have not given enough thought to this work. The repairing of our dirt roads is usually done only once or twice a year, and very often it is put off till fall, so that just about the time the road has been repaired (?) by throwing the trash and dirt from the gutters into the middle of the road and filling up holes with rock and brush, heavy rains come along and wash most of it out again very quickly, and it never gets packed down before the winter freezes come on. Thus, instead of bettering the road, we have made it a great deal worse. When properly constructed, the dirt road can be kept in good condition throughout nearly the whole year, and where it is part of a system of im¬ proved roads of the county, that is, surfaced with macadam or sand-clay or gravel, the travel on the dirt roads is so much less than on the main thorough¬ fares that it should be but little trouble to keep it in first-class condition, pro¬ vided it has been put in first-class condition at the beginning, both as regards location and drainage. At the present time we have very few earth roads but what can be improved, so that the question of improvement which will render roads more efficient is not a very difficult one to solve. Just as careful thought should be given to the location of dirt roads as is given to the hard-surfaced roads, for in reality the location of a road is its only permanent part, and for this reason great care should be taken to see that the road is located in the right place regard¬ ing grade, drainage, and the benefits it will give to the people of the com¬ munity. Many of the dirt roads in North Carolina over which our carriers have to travel are at certain times of the year almost impassable on account of the mud and steep grades, and in most cases these obstacles could have been a\ oided if the road had been located properly, and can now be avoided 13 OF GOOD ROADS by relocating the road. I don't doubt but that many of you have wondered how the carriers have been able to bring your mail to you every day, when you have known the awful condition of the roads over which they have had to travel. Think of a road in such condition that it takes you five hours to go fourteen miles with a strong pair of horses and a light surrey. What does the carrier have to do in many instances? I have known several cases where the carrier would start out in his buggy, go a certain distance, and then leave his buggy, saddle his horse, and go horseback for part of his route, it sometimes being necessary to leave the public road entirely. It is such conditions that the government has finally decided must be changed or the routes will be discontinued. If we would insist that our town¬ ships and counties would employ competent road engineers to plan out the work that is to be done on our public roads, we could, with the funds avail¬ able, put the greater part of our dirt roads in first-class condition; and then, by organizing and dividing up the road into sections, each section under the supervision of a surveyor, foreman, director (or whatever you have a mind to call him), whose business it would be to go over that stretch of road after every heavy rain and do whatever repairing work was necessary, we would find that our dirt roads would be kept in first-class condition, and we would never be willing to give up the system that kept them in such good condition. One of the best road machines for such road work is the “split-log drag,” mentioned in one of the Postmaster’s circulars. By the constant and wise use of this drag after rains a dirt road can be dragged into shape and the surface kept hard. In the middle western states a large number of the farm¬ ers have made the drags and are using them themselves on the roads that go by and through their farms. In Illinois alone, there are 15,000 of these drags that are being worked on the different roads. In Lycoming County, Pennsyl- vania, there are 300, and in Lancaster County nearly 350. These drags do efficient work, and I want to see thousands of them used in North Carolina. Every farmer can make one, at a cost of $2.50 to $5.00 at most, and, if he would run the drag up and down the road adjoining his farm, he would be surprised at the results. This is one way in which all the rural friends of the carriers can assist them, and they will find that they are not only assisting the carrier, but are also assisting themselves by making a better road between the farm and town. Plans and specifications for these drags have been prepared by the North Carolina Geological and Economic Survey and by the United States Office of Public Roads, Washington, D. C., and either of these offices will be very glad to furnish copies of these specifications to any who desire them. The rural carriers can assist in the good road work along this line by seeing that all the patrons of the route have one of these circulars, and then requesting them to make a drag and use it. There is another way in which the users of a public road can very materially assist in keeping it in repair—while this applies to dirt roads more directly, it is also applicable to macadam, sand-clay, or gravel roads, especially to the two latter—and that is, when you are driving along the public road, do not always drive in the same track as the team ahead of you, for if all the teams use the same place, all the wear will be along one line, and the result will be a rut. By exercising a little care and not driving exactly where the last wagon did, the wear will be distributed over a greater part of the surface of the road, and will keep it smooth, the road remaining in a much better condi- 14 BENEFITS AND ADVANTAGES tion for a longer time than otherwise. A plan has been suggested in which the carriers can assist, and that is to distribute cards, with the following in¬ scription, to all users of the roads: “HOW TO KEEP THIS ROAD FOR YEARS “This road was constructed for your use. “Don’t drive in one track. Avoid making ruts. “If all use one place, all the wear will be in one place and make a rut. “If you use a little care and do not drive exactly where the last wagon did, the wear will be distributed, which will keep the surface smooth and the road will remain good for years; otherwise, it will soon he rutted and the smooth surface gone.” Although the question of the improvement of our public roads has become one of the more important ones of the day, and is not only a state and county question, but a national one, yet there are many people who are still more or less opposed to good roads, and it is still necessary to carry on an educational campaign for good roads, although every person, whether or not they own horses or vehicles that will use the public road, are very materially helped by the construction of good roads, and as our people begin to realize that they are benefited by them they will use their influence to see that they are constructed in their communities. Here, again, the carrier can cooperate with others in spreading the gospel of good roads. Realizing themselves the benefits that a community will derive from good roads, let them spread this information throughout a community, trying to get the people organized into county and even township good roads associations, although the membership at the start may not be more than half-a-dozen. By continued effort, others will become interested in this important question, and before long the routes of the rural carriers will be improved roads. This will do more than any¬ thing else to solve the problem of how fast new routes can be established. As I have already stated, the demand for new routes is constantly increasing, and one of our congressmen has stated on the floor of the House of Repre¬ sentatives that he will not be satisfied until more routes are established in his district and better service of the rural free delivery system is obtained, \ so that every farmhouse shall have its mail delivered at its door. While the accomplishment of this congressman’s desire, which I believe is not excep¬ tional, will require the expenditure of considerable money by the Federal government, yet, to my mind, it is not this large expenditure of money that will delay this, but the fact that this congressman’s district is not traversed by good roads. I can assure you that an application for a rural free delivery route that will be over a good road will receive very favorable consideration by the Postoffice Department; but if the proposed route is over a poor road, it will be very hard to obtain favorable consideration. Thus it is seen that it is more largely a question of good roads than of the cost of the route that will determine how fast the routes will be extended. As I have stated, the road question is not only a county and state question, but also a national one, and although it may be some time before we will obtain national aid for good roads, yet I believe the time will come when the Federal government will assist the states in the construction of through post roads leading from capital to capital. I do believe, however, that the Federal government will very shortly assist the states in the construction of through OF GOOD ROADS 15 post roads leading to the United States Office of Public Roads to enable them to carry on experiments regarding the best surfacing material for roads, and also to assist the states by giving them engineering assistance, so that there will be a more yniform method in the construction and location of roads throughout the different states. There are two other points in connection with the benefits that a community will derive from good roads that I wish to mention, for the reason that they have a bearing upon rural delivery: (1) Inasmuch as they relate to increase of population in rural districts. North Carolina is a comparatively thinly populated State. Our State is able to support three to five times, or more, the population that we have at the present time, and the question has come up how to increase the population of our rural section. It is not the desire of the State to simply obtain an influx of labor, but to obtain an influx of home- seekers, to become citizens of the State and at the same time furnish the kind of labor that is needed in our rural sections. We desire the better class of home-seekers, and these will want, and demand, schools for their children and good roads to connect them with the town and market. The class of Euro¬ pean immigrants that North Carolina would desire have been accustomed to excellent roads in their own country, and it is natural that a section of coun¬ try that is traversed by good roads connecting the various farming districts with the market and providing the means of intercourse between different neighbors would be more attractive than those districts in which the roads are poor and at some times of the year almost impassable. This class of immigrants, however, is not the only one which North Carolina wishes to bring into her border; we wish to attract Americans from other parts of the United States, and we have to offer them splendid investments in farming lands, waterpowers, and manufacturing industries. The class of people who will come and take up such industries will demand good roads, and it is up to us to provide good roads if we expect to induce these investors and home- seekers to come amongst us. Let us now see what influence such an influx of people would have on rural delivery. It would mean a greater number of people in our rural sections, which would increase the number of families along certain routes, and there would, therefore, be a greater reason for the establishment of these routes. It would also mean that the new settlers would be, in the majority of cases, good-road advocates, and would do their utmost to see that the roads were improved and maintained. Have you ever noticed how the railroads are constantly improving their roadbeds and their rolling stock, and spending large sums advertising the railroad facilities of certain sections through which they pass, in their at¬ tempts to induce labor and capital to locate there, in order to build up those communities and so increase the traffic and passenger revenue of the railroad? If the railroads consider this necessary, how much more important that the counties and towns should improve their roads, making them, as far as possi¬ ble, macadam, sand-clay, or gravel, and thus offer the strongest inducements for capital and labor to invest in their sections. It is a substantiated fact that no state in the Union is so attractive to every class seeking new homes and new investments as North Carolina. Most of these people will select their locations on good roads. Some will be deterred from investing on account of the poor roads in the sections wheie the> had 2 16 BENEFITS AND ADVANTAGES expected to settle. Many do not want to settle in our cities, towns, or even villages, but want to be out on farms five or ten miles from the city or town, but want to be connected with the city by good roads. If good roads are so im¬ portant to those coming into North Carolina, whether they be capitalists, health, pleasure or home-seekers, or laborers, how much more important should good roads be to those already settled in North Carolina. The second point that I wish to take up is the relation of good roads to our rural people. Improved roads will make possible, at all times of the year, social intercourse between neighbors and between country and town. It will be possible for neighbors to visit each other at any time without walking or driving through the mud. To my mind, this will be one of the strongest factors toward keeping the young people on the farm, and we will not have so many of our boys and girls rushing to towns and cities to accept positions, at small wages, in stores and mills, preferring more or less hardship in town to the isolation of the farm. Notice, for instance, how many of our city people are buying up property in the country where it is connected by im¬ proved roads with the city, preferring country life, provided they can easily and quickly reach the city. At the present time it is possible for any country place to have all the mod j era conveniences that can be found in any city, and at no greater expense; yet, even if the country home is supplied with all these, if it is separated by five or ten miles from the city by bad roads, these other modern improvements count for little; for it is the isolation that the young people are objecting to, and not the work or the life on the farm itself. Recently I made inquiry at one of our county-seats regarding the number of young people who, becoming of age, had left the county. I found that within the past three years, out of forty young people who had become of age, and who had resided within three miles of the courthouse, all but five or six had left and gone to other places to live. In the majority of cases the reason was bad roads. Improve your roads and you will be able to keep the young people on the farms; improve your roads and you will find the men coming back to the farms. The farmer who has improved his soil, and is making farming a scientific profession, and is connected with town and market by a good road, is the most independent man alive; and the whole country is beginning to realize this. Thus we see that good roads will increase the population of our rural dis¬ tricts by bringing in outsiders who are attracted by the investments offered, and keep our own young people on the farms, and this, as I stated before, as much as anything else, will increase the rural free delivery routes in different sections of the State. OF GOOD ROADS 17 THE RELATIONSHIP OF COLLEGES ANI) UNIVERSITIES TO THE GOOD ROADS MOVEMENT By Dr. Edward K. Graham, President University of North Carolina. The most obvious relation between what is called higher education and good roads is in furnishing adequate instruction in civil and highway engi¬ neering for students who wish to make road-building their profession. A second relation of a direct sort is in the expert engineering service college professors may render the communities in which they live. Both of these functions of instruction and leadership we have undertaken at the University of North Carolina and with gratifying results. We have a four-year course in highway engineering that is attracting some of our best students. Between five and ten men are specializing now in this work, and those who have already been turned out have immediately “made good.” Our professors are actively engaged in road construction in Orange County and in the State at large. It is our purpose to develop this department as rapidly as means are available along lines of wider service and efficiency. But beyond this direct service in teaching and supervision there is a deeper relation that is more important. It furnishes the answer to the interesting- question as to why it is that colleges that used to exist to teach Greek, history, mathematics, Hebrew, and the like, to prospective ministers, teachers, law¬ yers, and doctors find themselves adding to the standard courses of the classi¬ cal curriculum courses in road-building or whatever else our present civiliza¬ tion needs to know. The answer is simple. Education has come to see that the whole field of our present civilization is its field, and that it is the great cooperating agency in converting material forces into more productive and higher values. It has come to see that a sound physical and material life promotes a sound spiritual life, that we do not have to choose one and discard the other. The good Samaritan did a religious act when he healed the physical wounds of the man by the road and then provided him with money to keep him in physical comfort. Learning has not abandoned the high standards of its earlier da^s, it has abandoned its remoteness and mystery. It has come from its cloister to make its temple in the streets and on the roads where men dwell. The modern college has not lost any of the heights that the old college won; it is meiely making those heights more accessible. We still believe that Homer and Shakespeare and the political science of Adam Smith and the binomial theo¬ rem are immensely important. We still believe that it is important to know the economic status of the ancient Roman. But we believe that it is more important to know the economic status of the present North Carolinian. Road-building, corporation commissions, hookworm campaigns, rural credit systems, taxation adjustments, market facilities—all the hundreds of mani¬ festations of our complex material life are necessarily a part of any education that is vital. It is the business of education and of all of the so-called higher interests to know every detail of the material life of North Carolina in order, through sympathy and efficient cooperation, to facilitate genuine progress. We will have poverty-stricken, disintegrating country churches 1 18 BENEFITS AND ADVANTAGES our religion does not take account of the present bread-and-butter life for everybody under a wise, practical economy, as well as a happy future life for a few under an abstract theology. We will still rest oppressed at the bottom of the column of illiterates until we people who believe in good schools realize more fully that for the schools to be prosperous the people must be pros¬ perous. It is so with all the aspects of good citizenship. It is difficult to be a good citizen, and build a strong commonwealth, on an empty stomach. Nor does such a statement magnify the function of the stomach. It is merely to say that the higher functions must see that the stomach is sound; that all those who are careful for the higher interests in the uplift of the State should re¬ member that the material well-being of all our people is a part of the min¬ istry of us all. We need to see our State life as a unit and not as divided into banker against farmer, town against country, material against spiritual, but as a cooperative enterprise in making good impulses efficient and pros¬ perous. When we look at the facts of the condition of our schools, our churches, our roads, we are discouraged and wonder what can be the trouble. When we look at the facts of our yearly community surplus, on which these community enterprises are conducted, we see clearly enough what the trouble is. Dr. Bradford Knapp told the bankers in Asheville a few months ago that the peo¬ ple of North Carolina were sending $39,640,885 out of the State every year for supplies that might have been raised at home. Secretary Leake' Carraway of the Charlotte Club says the feedstuff imported into the State for this year will amount to more than $50,000,000. The farms of the State in 1909 created 209 millions of dollars, but the feed bill was 223 millions. In the words of Pro¬ fessor Branson, who compiled these figures, the wealth-creating power of North Carolina and of the other southern states is enormous, but our wealth-holding power is feeble. We have produced in two and a half years more than we have accumulated on our tax books for two and a half centuries. It is on our yearly cash balance that all of our public enterprises depend for support. There, then, is the problem for the good-roads people, the good-schools peo¬ ple, the good-churches people: how can we make the community bank account more prosperous? We can make this question more concrete: how can we protect and promote the prosperity of the home of the productive man on the farm? For if we picture our southern civilization from any angle we choose, looking at it through the school, the church, the store, the railroad, we see as the saving grace of it the prosperous farm, tilled by its owner. There is the living heart of the matter. The civilization planted on a prosperous home- owned farm is like a tree planted by rivers of water; planted on political and social economy that discourage and prevent ownership, its leaf and fruit will be withered and barren. None of our institutions will be prosperous if this productive farm is not safely prosperous, and the facts tell us that it is not safely prosperous. Home ownership of our producing farms is decreasing instead of increasing. In 1880, 33 per cent of the farmers in North Carolina were tenants; in 1890, 34 per cent; in 1900, 41 per cent; in 1910, 42 per cent. Tenancy has left its black blight across civilization after civilization, scorch¬ ing spiritual as well as material life. Under tenancy the yffiole social scheme becomes unstable and falls into decay. Sir Horace Plunkett, prime mover in restoring landless peasants to land-ownership and thereby redeeming Ire¬ land, says of our farm-tenancy system: “It is the worst of which I have any knowledge in any country.” OF GOOD ROADS 19 But I do not mean to discuss in any detail the Question of farm tenancy; I merely mean to emphasize the fact that however material this and similar questions may seem to be on the surface, they are vitally related to every higher aspect of our civilization. We have enough good citizens in North Carolina and in other southern states to solve this and all other complex problems of our rapidly expanding industrial life. In solving them, I have the temerity to believe that good citizenship will express itself in some form more statesmanlike than great philanthropic gifts to alleviate human poverty and crime. Better business and a truer citizenship and philanthropy are those that prevent poverty and crime rather than attempt to relieve them after they have been a party to their creation. Asylums and jails are more often a sign of bad civic economy than of deliberate sin and bad human mo¬ tive. Education that goes with a plan of increased local tax in one hand should go with a plan of increased ability to pay in the other; Christian philanthropy that goes with a plan of salvation on one hand should go with a liberal land lease and credit system in the other. We need conferences on good roads for the good-roads people, and conferences on good schools for the good-schools people, and on good churches for the good-churches people; but we need conferences for the common good by all the good people in every county in every southern state to discover all the facts of our present civilization and their common relationship, and so develop the spirit of efficient and sympa¬ thetic cooperation that is the basis of the permanently progressive life we are all seeking. A few days ago the newspapers pictured an incident that transfixed the at¬ tention of the world. A ship loaded with hundreds of human souls was burned at sea in a terrific storm at night. The shell of wood in the grip of fire and wind and wave and darkness and the precious freight it bore was a pitiable spectacle in its contest with the omnipotent forces that sought to destroy it. But the same power that rode in violence upon the storm had provided through the slow and painful civilization of the years the means of protection. The miraculous voice of the wireless called through the noise of wind and wave and assembled the sympathy and courage of the citizenship of the sea; it reached across miles of darkness and storm and found a repre¬ sentative of perfectly organized American business efficiency—the oil ship. And the annihilating warfare of the most terrific of natural forces was stilled into peace. Behind this dramatic spectacle we can see the spectacle of our civilization working out its salvation by the same processes, through the co¬ operation of the same forces: knowledge taking account of material facts and using its facts to build to higher knowledge and joining with commerce, and faith, and heroism, and brotherhood toward still higher power and the free¬ dom and more abundant life that comes from learning the use and laws and ways of material forces. This is what we call civilization. The thing that happened there on the sea makes up our everyday life. The river slips by the town and runs to the sea, a muddy, turbulent stream. Its force is caught and converted into usable power. It turns the factory wheels, lights the streets, lights the school and the home and the church. It is purified and cleans the town and gives it health. We have mastered the fact of it, its ways and its laws, and the turbu¬ lent stream is no longer mere material, undirected force; it is spiritual life. We call this process of mastering the ways and laws of material forces, that they may lead to high and higher productivity, education. It knows no high and no low. 20 BENEFITS AND ADVANTAGES That is why education is interested in the good road. It is an instrument of material progress. It is an open door to civic and spiritual expansion. It is an avenue at once of commerce and culture, an invitation to individual and community development. It leads everywhere and is symbolical of all progress; “The road that leads in front of my door is the road that leads to the end of the world,” and the wonderful fact is that for me it is the only road. PUBLIC ROADS AND PUBLIC SCHOOLS By Dr. Joseph Hyde Pratt, State Geologist. Charles Sumner once said: “The road and the schoolmaster are the two most important agencies in the advancement of civilization.” This is well put, as the efficiency of the schoolmaster, or public school, is closely allied with the condition of the public roads of the neighborhood, especially in the rural districts. The relationship between the public roads and the public school may be summarized as follows: Good roads well maintained make it possible to have— (1) Larger school districts, with more money, larger and better-equipped houses, and the possibility of having a graded school rather than the old-time one-room schoolhouse with one teacher teaching all grades. (2) Through the agency of good roads, school attendance will increase from 50 to 75 per cent, for parents along a good road could employ a wagon or carriage to transfer the children to and from school, thus making it possible for them to attend during all kinds of weather without danger to their health. (3) Along good roads you will find better kept homes, more attention to cultivation of flowers around the home, better social life, and happier rural communities. In fact, a state's rating educationally may be said to be directly dependent upon the condition of its country roads in so far as its rural communities are concerned. Statistics have shown that in five states with a large percentage of bad roads, the average school attendance is 59 per cent; and in five good- road states the attendance is 78 per cent. In four bad-road states—Arkansas, Missouri, Mississippi and North Carolina—there are over 8,000,000 people, and about 400,000 native-born white people in these states cannot read and write. In calling the first good-roads convention ever held in the State, our “Educa¬ tional Governor,” Charles B. Aycock, spoke as follows: “We can never educate the children of North Carolina unless we shall have huilt such roads as will bring them close together, whether they live within a few or many miles of each other.” He further said: “If we expect to get the power of combination and unity, we must make better roads. We have de¬ termined to educate all the children of the State; in order to attain that de¬ sirable end we must have larger school districts; in order to have these we must put the roads in such condition in the country that the children can attend school from longer distances.” In connection with the “Good Roads Days” set apart by Governor Craig in November, 1914, a pamphlet was issued by the State Board of Education and OF GOOD ROADS 21 distributed largely among the public schools, giving certain information and data regarding the public roads. In his letter to the county superintendents and boards of education, Mr. Joyner says: “To become permanent, all great movements for civic and industrial im¬ provement must begin with the teaching of the children in the school. The rising generation should be taught the necessity and importance of good roads in North Carolina; should be brought to see the relation of these to the future comfort, progress and prosperity of the State along all lines. Nothing is more essential than good roads for increasing the efficiency of our schools. Con¬ solidation and transportation, so necessary for larger schools; larger taxation areas; better houses and equipment; more and better teachers, with better organized, more advanced and more practical courses of study, for better preparation for life and its daily occupations, are practically impossible with¬ out good roads. The National Education Association, made up of eminent educators, thor¬ oughly familiar with conditions existing all over the country, have studied this subject, and they state that the solution of the educational problem of the rural district is to be found in the consolidated township school, and that, instead of having eight or ten isolated schoolhouses placed at intervals at the cross-roads throughout the township—bleak, dreary and uninviting—there should be one centrally located graded school at the most convenient place, with provision made to get the children to and from school. To accomplish this, good roads are absolutely necessary. It is also the idea of those who are now working for civic advancement in the rural districts, that the schoolhouse should be the center for neighborhood gatherings; that it should have a library and reading-room to be used not only by the children but also by the parents; that lectures should be given at the schoolhouse and the men of the community encouraged to gather and discuss questions of community, state and national import. It was General Grant who once said that the solution of the problem of country life was to be found in good roads and good schools. Because of the lack of good roads in North Carolina, as well as other states, the trend has been for some time from the farm to the town and city, and the rural com¬ munities have been constantly losing their strongest asset—the brightest and strongest of their youth. This drain upon the rural communities is having- far-reaching results, affecting all of cur citizens, whether in the country or in town. When the intelligent portion of a community is gone, the farm lands are turned over to the less intelligent, who work the farms with the idea of getting what they can with the least expenditure of energy and money. It is an historical fact that when tenants begin to have charge of lands there is a quick and constant decrease in farm products. With the advent of good roads through any such communities and the easy facilities offered by them for social intercourse and for marketing farm products, the more intelligent youth will see the abundant opportunities for engaging his activities in an occupation which offers not only success and prosperity, but happiness, on the farm. The rural educators are beginning to encourage young boys and girls to learn the scientific principles of agriculture, poultry raising, dairying, etc., and this movement can be encouraged and made more effective with the build¬ ing of good roads. The rural free delivery has become an established fact among our rural peo¬ ple, and has had a potent educational influence. The Postoffice Department at 22 BENEFITS AND ADVANTAGES Washington, however, has made certain rules with regard to the discontinu¬ ance of routes if the roads along these routes are allowed to become impassa¬ ble or are not kept up with some degree of efficiency. If, therefore, we are to have full benefits from the rural free delivery system, we must have not only our systems of main country roads well surfaced, but a system of secondary dirt roads well shaped and well maintained. If, then, education means liberty, and if poor roads mean illiteracy or worse, as we are shown by statistics, have we a right not to build good roads even if they would not pay for themselves well within the generation that builds them? To quote Professor N. S. Shaler, of Harvard University: “Perhaps the best of the many measures which may be applied to the United States in order to determine the degree of advancement to which they have attained, may be found in the condition of their common roads. On the character of these ways intimately depends the ease with which the people secure neigh¬ borly communication as well as advantageous relations to the outer world. It is doubtful, indeed, whether a sound democracy, dependent as it is on close and constant interaction of the local life, can well be maintained in a country where the roadways put a heavy tax on human intercourse.” BENEFITS OF ROADS TO NON-ABUTTING PROPERTY OWNERS Southern Good Roads for January, 1915. The road-building specialists of the department, in Bulletin No. 136, enti¬ tled “Highway Bonds,” have the following to say about the benefit of a well- constructed highway to property owners whose property is not directly on the road to be improved: In planning the highway system or the main market roads it will be found necessary to omit many roads the improvement of which is greatly desired by abutting landowners. The fact that such property holders must pay a tax for the bond issue is only an apparent injustice, for if the highway system is well planned the entire county will feel the benefits of the improvement. As a rule, main market roads reach the majority of producing areas, and when they are improved all land values tend to increase. The fact that cities and larger towns are frequently taxed for bond issues to build highways outside of their own limits is sometimes made a point of debate in bond elections. It is argued that because a large part of the county wealth is within the corporate limit of such cities and towns, highway bond money should also be used to construct their streets. It is even urged that the ex¬ penditure should be made proportionate to the assessed valuation within the city limits. If the proceeds of highway bond issues were distributed in this way, their purpose in many cases would be defeated. The primary object of the county highway bond issue is to build county market roads, and not to improve city streets, although a high percentage of the assessed valuation may be city property. It is now known that the expenditure of city taxes on country roads is a sound principle, and that it is one of the best features of state aid for highways. In Massachusetts the city of Boston pays possibly OF GOOD ROADS 23 40 per cent of the total State highway fund, hut not a mile of State-aid high¬ way has been built within its limits. New York City also pays about 60 per cent of the cost of the State highway bonds. Some state laws prohibit the expenditure of proceeds of state highway bonds within corporate limits of cities or towns. The improvement of market roads results in improved marketing conditions, which benefit the city. Most cities are essentially dependent upon the sur¬ rounding country for their prosperity and development. The development of suburban property for residence purposes is also dependent upon highway conditions, and it is becoming evident yearly that whatever makes for an increase in rural population must be encouraged. Since the introduction of motor traffic, country highways are used to an increasing extent by city resi¬ dents. In fact, the cost of maintaining many country highways has been greatly increased by the presence of city-owned motor vehicles. The general advance in facilities for doing country business from town headquarters, when roads are improved, is no inconsiderable factor in the commercial life of the community. ECONOMICS OF GOOD IIOADS By D. A. Tompkins. Economics is simply a science of doing a thing in the cheapest and best way. Nothing is more astonishing than the variations in the cost of trans¬ portation. To illustrate this I have compiled the following table: One horse or mule, or one H. P. electricity or steam can pull at the rate of three miles an hour, as follows: (1) Over common dirt road, such as the average of our county roads, 1 bale of cotton (about 14 ton). (2) Over a graded and drained road, 2 bales of cotton (about y 2 ton). (3) Over a graded and macadamized or sand and clay road, 4 bales of cotton (about 1 ton). (4) Over a graded way on a trolley track, 20 bales of cotton (about 5 tons). (5) In a canal boat on a canal, 100 bales of cotton (about 25 tons). ( 6 ) I 11 a steamship on the ocean, 200 bales of cotton (about 50 tons). It will be noted that the ocean is the cheapest means of transportation in the world. Next to the ocean comes the canal. The ocean is the superior of the two because of the bigness of the ship which may be employed, and of the speed of the ship which may be attained and maintained. In a canal, if there is too much speed, the banks wash and the canal is ruined. In the olden time the ocean was practically the only means of cheap transportation, theiefore all the big cities developed on the ocean, and with ocean facilities. To get into the interior the canal was the first cheap means, then came the lailroad, still not so cheap, and yet cheap enough to go far into the inteiioi, then came graded macadam highways. Interior points must of necessity have some bet¬ ter way of communication with ocean cities, and some better way of interior communication, than the old dirt road. Civilization means citification, which in turn means many people and mul- 24 BENEFITS AND ADVANTAGES titudinous exchanges of products. This exchange is accomplished by trans¬ portation. Transportation facilities are chiefly comprised of two factors: the permanent way and the vehicle. The ocean is one permanent way and the ship is its vehicle. The canal is another permanent way and the canal boat is its vehicle. The railway is another permanent way and the cars are its vehicle. The graded macadam highway is another permanent way and the wagon or other instrument of carriage is its vehicle. The most important side of these factors is the permanent way. It counts far more than the vehicle. In most cases the vehicle couldn’t move at all without the perma¬ nent way. It is almost true that on parts of the old mud roads you couldn’t use any vehicles at all. Therefore, as civilization grows, and we wish to make any community civilized, we must provide good transportation facilities of the kinds suited to the pursuits of the people. Therefore, we need good roads. EFFECTS OF GOOD ROADS ON IMMIGRATION By Col. M. V. Richards, Land and Industrial Agent of the Southern Railway. It is customary, as we all know, to preface a public talk or speech with some perfunctory remarks; but mine will be limited, at least, in expressing my sincere pleasure that I am permitted to be with you, to participate in your deliberations, and to make my contribution to the subject in the interests of which this congress is assembled. The topic assigned me “Effects of Good Roads on Immigration,” while bear¬ ing directly upon the main proposition that good roads are followed by cer¬ tain results, has its limitations. Substantially, it implies a single, plain proposition: “Is immigration into a given section influenced by the presence of good roads, and if so, how?” The answer can be given instantly, in one word—Yes. The balance of the proposition can be treated concisely and needs no long-extended speech, no discursive arguments. Any opinions I may advance in dealing with this question are based, not at all upon abstract theories, but upon observations extending through a long- period of years devoted to the study of material conditions in the South mainly, and incidentally in nearly every portion of the United States. One of the most important duties of the Land and Industrial Department of the Southern Railway is to watch local conditions and study local features in every part of its territory. If a district or town is not progressing, we seek the cause and undertake a remedy. If a section is poor in public improve¬ ments, it is at a disadvantage, since it fails to attract strangers. Now, apply the rule to an agricultural section. We will say that the de¬ partment I represent has induced a citizen of a northern state accustomed to the use and presence of good roads to visit the South in search of a home for his family. He is seeking better conditions and not worse conditions than exist in his neighborhood. We equip him with information and guidance enabling him to make up an itinerary covering a particular section of conn- OF GOOD ROADS 25 try within Southern Railway territory. All the natural advantages existing at each of the points to which he is directed, or in their vicinity, are fully stated, and he is attracted to that section, believing it offers what he is in search of. He stops off at the nearest station and employs livery to take him through the region he desires to inspect. His interview with the liveryman develops the fact that his objective point is, say, five miles or ten miles from the railway station. Accustomed to good roads where he came from, he reasons that he can make the trip comfortably and cover the ten miles easily in an hour and a half, with a lively team. But the liveryman tells him that because the roads are in such bad condition it will take three hours. If it is in the rainy season, the road is washed out, intervening creeks are up and not fordable, and it will be necessary to make a long detour—perhaps a mile or two miles—to reach a bridge, and then a mile or two miles to double back on the other side of the creek. Or, he may be told that the old bridge is unsafe, or that it has been carried away by the recent flood, and he will be obliged to wait a day or two before the trip can be made at all. If it is in winter, a graphic description will be given him of hardened ravines in the road, or of mire a foot deep in the bottoms to be crossed. Now, how does all that appeal to him? Perhaps he reflects that, having come so far, he will go on to the bitter end, and he makes terms for the team and a driver. Owing to the bad road, which demands six hours for the trip instead of three hours; which strains the buggy or hack and may break the harness or gearing, strains his stock and perhaps will cripple it; while two horses are necessary instead of one—because of the bad road and a hill or several hills of difficulty are to be overcome—the charge for the outfit and driver is twice as much as would have been charged for the same service over a good road. The bad road at the very beginning takes a heavy toll from the possible settler. Not alto¬ gether discouraged yet, he orders the team; and when it is before him the chances are that it will be a sorry spectacle; horses broken down, spavined, wind-broken, and lean; vehicle mud-painted, weatherbeaten, wornout, and ready for the coming catastrophe. A mile or less from the town the terrors of the road begin; and if the prospector reaches his destination without one or more breakdowns, he is at least thankful. But by this time he has had enough of that section; his eyes have not been cheered by the landscape, they have been fixed on the bad road and watchful of the ruts. He has come with hope to the railroad station, and it dies on the road to the farm he might have bought. He is lost to that neighborhood. But, besides the loss of a thrifty, useful and substantial settler and neighbor, there are consequences to follow. When he returns to his old home he paints a picture. He tells the story of his hardships and his disappointments. He tells of the poor farmhouses— good enough for such roads, but repelling to the eyes of thrift. That is an advertisement of the section he had visited; and all the effort and all the money expended previously in his neighborhood creating a sentiment and inspiring a movement to that section of bad roads are wasted, and not one from his neighborhood nor from any other community he can reach will listen to us or to any other who may again attempt to secure settlers for a section rich perhaps in possibilities but damned by its bad roads. Take another example, that of the actual settler. Good soils, a fine climate, heavy yields of crops, excellent conditions for stock, have induced him to locate in a particular section. He succeeds as well as his neighbors, gathers good crops, and there are markets waiting for them. But the roads are im- 26 BENEFITS AND ADVANTAGES passable; he must wait; and while he waits his product loses value, or is de¬ caying and lost altogether; or the market declines; or all of these things occur together, and he is a loser instead of a gainer. The bad road did it. He ruminates over this condition; he finds that it costs too much to get his crops to the railroad; or that sometimes he cannot get them there at all until it is too late. He is a man of thrift, of intelligence, and he sells out and leaves that section for one not any better in natural advantages, perhaps, but where the roads are good. That neighborhood loses a good citizen and neighbor; and is advertised abroad as an undesirable section. He has written to his old neighbors and warned them to keep away from it. Another and a most serious evil inflicted by bad roads wherever they exist is their prevention of educational progress. You find the fewest schools, the poorest school accommodation, the smallest attendance, in school districts cursed by bad roads. Every hardship imposed upon a pupil in going to and coming home from the school is an impediment thrown in his way. Into such a section comes a prospective settler. Back at his home he has a family of boys and girls of school age. He investigates school conditions and facilities; finds them deplorable or doubtful; and finds that his children must travel several miles over broken and often dangerous roads between home and schoolhouse. He moves on; and buys a farm in a progressive section where good roads exist and school facilities are on the same plane. Another case may be cited, where a family is established. The agricultural features are all right; the climate is inviting; the people are hospitable and agreeable; a good railroad town is only five or ten miles distant. The new settler came in the dry season, when even the worst roads may be traveled. The road leading from the station to the farm he has purchased is just then wearing its best face, though evidently it is a Janus face. In the rainy season, in midwinter, it is no road at all; it is a nightmare. The new settler’s best team can haul only part of the load over it on some days, and on other days none at all. The wife, the daughters, with their faces against the dripping windows, watch the elements and the road. They have wanted to go to town, or to visit a neighbor some miles away, for days or for two weeks; but the bad road reminds them of some of Christian’s experiences in Pilgrim’s Prog¬ ress; and they are women. The Sunday is lamentation day. No church, no Sunday School, no outing; nothing but dull monotony and disappointment. They can go nowhere; and nobody can come to them. In this case, the bad road is a trouble-breeder; the family is in rebellion; there is neither peace nor hap¬ piness in that home, but discontent sits on the hearthstone. The settler moves out; and the neighborhood has one more advertiser—of its demerits. There you have the negative side of the question; bad roads prevent the settlement of the section by the most desirable classes; and drive out those who have overlooked or been deceived by road conditions. It is easy now to make our deductions, in dealing with the other side of the question. It is a pleasure as well as a relief to pass to the bright side of the subject. Good roads more than anything else transform the rural district. They add the most pleasing feature to the landscape. They induce the building of good fai mhouses along their highways, well furnished and supplied with modern conveniences and the comforts of home. Fine horses and vehicles follow, for the firm, smooth road which leads past the farmstead to the city or town and OF GOOD ROADS 27 through prosperous neighborhoods tempts the farmer and inspires him with emulation when he sees well-groomed and well-bred roadsters and handsome equipages passing his door daily, in good weather or bad, with no risk of break or strain, even at a clipping gait. Good roads, therefore, bring good stock; and with good horses and a good road, communication between distant neighbors is easy; intercourse between communities is established; social enjoyment is complete. Good roads greatly increase school attendance; therefore, better school buildings and more of them are demanded and are built along the safe and inviting highway. Good roads enable the rural populations to regularly attend the country, village, or city churches. More and better churches are built in the rural districts along the good road; and these churches cement the community, elevate it, and add immensely to the social conditions. Good roads, more than anything else, in rural districts, increase land values. They increase the demand for real estate. They make investments in land secure. They justify and encourage rural development. They draw families from the nearby congested cities or towns, and such people build handsome homes, adding to the attractions of the neighborhood. Good roads shorten the distance, computed by time, between the farm and the railway, can be traversed at all times and in all seasons by heavy teams with full loads, facilitating the movement of crops to an incalculable extent and minimizing the cost of hauling market products. The cost of living in the market town is reduced in proportion, and this becomes a factor in secur¬ ing additions to its population. Good roads carry more freight than bad roads to the railroad, increasing its revenue and thereby enabling it to give better facilities to that section. With good railway service, towns expand and industries multiply, with a correspond¬ ing increase in the demand for outside labor. Now, my personal experience with the desirable class of immigrants, during the many years of my service in promoting the settlement of such people is, invariably, that the new location must offer advantages sufficient to justify them in the breaking up of their homes and the expense of moving into a strange region and there building anew. Not only are soils and climate de¬ manded, but good railroad facilities, good markets, and good communication with neighboring sections and with a trading town. And they want still more than that; good schools and churches, and convenient access to them. The right classes have been accustomed to them; and will seek only such locations as have them. Those who would select a region where conditions are stagnant, because there is no civic pride and no disposition toward progress, are few. Such districts are avoided by the very people they most need. On the other hand, the enterprising and progressive element searches out those localities where conditions are better than in his old environments. He may not even have contemplated a change of location; but learns from some source that a certain section in another part of the country has, in addition to natural ad¬ vantages, enterprising people, efficient railway service, public improvements, a beautiful countryside, good turnpikes, delightful homes where contentment reigns, fine road stock, good schools, and convenient churches. These are superlative inducements, and he contrasts them with the unfavorable condi¬ tions that surround him. He is a prospective settler; and when he drives over the course, the scene decides him. The good road has brought a good 28 BENEFITS AND ADVANTAGES citizen—and it will keep him. The result has been indirect, but it is a resuit. And because good roads create good conditions, afford better opportunities, increase the farmers’ gains, conduce to comfort, and add to social enjoyment, make intercourse between families and between farm and town, encourage home-building, promote education, and enhance land values, the influence of good roads in attracting immigration is greater than that of any other, yes, than all other local factors combined. In closing, permit me—as a friend of the South and a well-wisher toward all its people—to advise every taxpayer to support to the fullest extent any move¬ ment that will bring about an improvement of the public highways; to bear in mind that every dollar they expend, every effort they make, in behalf of good roads in their respective sections is an investment and not a donation; that the returns will be immediate and ample; that good roads builded by the fathers are rich inheritances transmitted to their children, and monuments to their wise forethought and their generous consideration of their posterity. WHY DO WE WANT GOOD ROADS? From U. S. Department of Agriculture, Office of Public Roads and Rural Engineering, Washington, D. C. It hardly seems necessary to tell people why we want good roads. They ought to know, and perhaps do; but whether they do or not, they make fre¬ quent resort to that old cry, “What was good enough for father is good enough for us.” This is the reason of the lazy man, the short-sighted man, who is content with existence in this age of improvement and progress along every line. If our forefathers had taken that attitude, if they had not seen the need of some better means of communication than the old forest trails and river routes, we would still be following them. But they sought the quickest methods to advance their commerce, to keep up with the best ideas of the world, and profit by them in their own home life; in short; to bring the outside world closer to them. They have been quick to see the advan¬ tage of the railroad, the steamship, the telegraph and telephone, and to pro¬ mote all space-killing, time-saving methods of communication as soon as offered. But in doing all this they left the old roads little better than widened trails. Like the old man in his search for gold, they neglected to look around their own front doors, and seemed to forget that the roads nearest home were nearest their pocketbooks, that it was over these roads they must earn their bread and butter, and take bread and butter to the rest of the world. They lost sight of the fact that without the “common highway and the farm wagon the railroads would have little traffic and the steamboats would rot at the wharves.” Because of this attitude we have a heritage in the way of bad roads that has undoubtedly resulted in a money loss to many of you, owing to inability to market your crops on account of such roads. Perhaps some of you remember how, in 1909, the Chicago price of wheat ranged from 99 14 cents to $1.60 per bushel, the lowest price being reached in August when the roads were at their best, while the top prices were attained when the roads were OF GOOD ROADS 29 practically impassable. In this instance the farmers were shown that if their roads had been in a condition all the time to have hauled the products to the markets they could have obtained, if not the highest prices, at least a price much higher than the lowest. Take the case of a farmer in Sullivan County, Tennessee, who lived only a few miles from town. During the winter before his county passed the bond issue for road improvement, the roads were so bad he was compelled to let 100 bushels of Irish potatoes rot in his cellar, in spite of the fact that potatoes were selling then on the Bristol market for $1.40 per bushel. He afterwards learned that the commission man had been shipping potatoes all the way from the State of Michigan. A merchant there is authority for the statement that about ten carloads of northern and western corn, wheat, oats, hay, potatoes, etc., were shipped in from outside. Another farmer in that same county tried to haul 2,000 pounds of barbed wire from Bristol to Kingsport, a distance of 23 miles. The load for a two-horse team consisted of 500 pounds, and the farmer stated that three days were required to make the round trip. Twelve days were consumed, therefore, in hauling 2,000 pounds of barbed wire from Bristol to Kingsport. Estimating the cost of man and team at $3 per day, the total estimated cost of delivering the barbed wire was $36. On the new road from Bristol to Kingsport, 2,000 pounds can easily be hauled in one day with the same team at an estimated cost of $6. While this may be an excep¬ tional case, it clearly shows that “time as well as quantity should be taken into account as an important factor in figuring the cost of hauling.” Some countries designate the length of the road by the time it takes to travel it. A team of horses struggling along a mud road in the endeavor to draw half a load affords a striking object lesson, when compared to a team drawing a heavily loaded wagon at a comfortable trot along a stone-surfaced highway, or even a good sand-clay or gravel road. Multiply this pitiable picture by about 3,000,000, and you will then have some idea of the terrific effect bad roads have upon the traffic of the United States. It is estimated that the people of this country annually waste $250,000,000 because of bad roads. In other words, that is their “mud tax.” In 1906, through an investigation con¬ ducted by the United States Bureau of Statistics, it was found that the aver¬ age cost of hauling on roads in the United States was 23 cents per ton, the average length of haul being 9.4 miles. It costs the farmer more to haul a bushel of wheat 9.4 miles, from his farm to the railroad station, than it costs to ship it from New York to Liverpool, a distance of 3,100 miles. Is this cost really necessary? The expense of hauling in Europe might give us some answer to this question. Our consuls report that the average cost of hauling in France, England, and Germany is about 10 cents per ton per mile. If the farmers of this country could reduce the cost of hauling to one-half the pres¬ ent average, or 11% cents a ton, they would save that $250,000,000 which now represents their mud tax. In addition to the high cost of hauling, bad roads place a limit upon the variety of crops which the farmer can raise. Such farm products as berries, vegetables and green stuffs from the truck garden, milk and cream depend upon good roads for their successful transportation. Over a long, bad haul they are ruined before reaching the market. With good roads, however, the farmer can bring these in and find a ready market for them at a much larger profit per acre than is usual with the cereal crops which are safest to handle on a bad road. He would also be encouraged to cultivate a much 3C BENEFITS AND ADVANTAGES larger area, if he felt sure that he could safely get his crop to town and not lose, say, half the profit on this berry crop because he was unable to get them to market in decent condition, or because they were ripening faster than he could haul them. But, because these bad roads are a veritable wall of China between him and the successful sale of his crops, he allows many acres near him to lie uncultivated and profitless. This point is very well illustrated by assuming a series of concentric circles to be drawn about a market town or railroad station, constituting zones of production, in all of which the roads are uniformly bad. Within the first zone, all products can be delivered to market at a profit. Within the second zone, certain products must be eliminated because of the length of haul. Milk, small fruits, and certain kinds of vegetables requiring quick delivery and careful transportation might be cited as examples. In the third zone still other products must be eliminated because of the prohibitive cost of hauling. The fourth zone will include only those products which can be held until the roads are passable and then hauled long distances and still sold at a profit. Beyond this zone the land must be left unproductive or utilized for grazing and timber. Every improvement in the roads leading from this market widens these zones, makes unproductive land productive, and enables the farmer to exercise a wider discretion in determining the character of his crops. The individual farmer is more prosperous, railroad traffic in¬ creases, and the consumer receives far better supplies for the value of his money. And while speaking of crops, let me remind you that in neglecting your roads you are doing that which seriously hinders the development of a crop most important, not only to the farmer, but to the nation at large, a flock of intelligent, rosy-cheeked children. Don’t forget their welfare; it means more than a “bumper wheat crop.” If you have ever lived in a locality where the roads have been improved you have undoubtedly noted how property values increased. To cite just one instance out of many that have been brought to the attention of the Office of Public Roads, take the Williamsburg and Jamestown road, built in Virginia under the direction of the office in 1907. This road extends from Williams¬ burg to Jamestown Island and is part macadam and part sand-clay. After its construction a farm with a good standing of timber, offered before the road was built for $4,500 without a taker, was sold soon after the road was com¬ pleted for $8,000. Since then the owners have been hauling 1,800 to 2,000 feet of lumber with two mules, where before it was impossible to haul more than 600 feet. Another tract of land of 205 acres, of which 100 acres were in tim¬ ber, was sold before the road was built for $4,000, and since the road was^built the standing timber alone was sold for $3,500. In short, improve your road and your farm will sell for more money, or, if you do not want to sell it, then it will be a pleasure to live on it, which will be the best thing that could happen. How to stop the ceaseless flow of popu¬ lation to the city from the farm has been a problem of serious worry to our country. They realize it is not the money question, for many of those who drift to the cities prefer poverty there to the farm with its loneliness. In the report of the Commission on Country Life it is shown conclusively that be¬ cause of the isolation and deadly monotony so prevalent in the country, farm life has become intolerable, at least for the women and young people, and as it is they who make the man’s home, their needs must be considered. The farmer has not seemed to wake up to the fact that he might bring some of OF GOOD ROADS 31 life s comforts into his home, while as for pleasant neighborhood gatherings, they are almost impossible. With bad roads he has all he can do to take the crops to town, without bringing back a load of things that they can do without. No sense in bringing music into the home; the child couldn’t get to town to take lessons. Then it's too hard on the horses to pull through the mud or over the hill at night to a neighbor’s after working all day. A large number of our people are, therefore, isolated from the outside world during those seasons when the roads are at their worst. “A mud embargo” cuts them off from many of the advantages which our modern civilization offers. Discon¬ tent comes with a continued deprivation of those privileges, and with discon¬ tent the abandonment of many farms throughout the country. It must be seen this condition would be much improved by better roads. You may trace the lack of comforts and even necessities of life in many country homes di¬ rectly to bad roads. The farmer is unable to market his products to advan¬ tage when he has to haul them through miles of muddy roads. It so often costs him more in time and effort than he is able to obtain in dollars and cents that he finally contents himself with raising only enough for his own use, and wife and children must suffer in the end for lack of comforts which he is unable to purchase. No matter how isolated the farm may be, or how bad the roads may become, a man will manage to get out in spite of those difficulties and go, perhaps, horseback or even walking to the country store, the blacksmith shop, or on an errand to a neighbor’s. Then, after swapping the news of the day with the neighbors he meets, he comes home, perhaps to a good meal, and retires early. His wife may want to go to the meeting at the country school, where she would have a chance to meet some of the other farmers’ wives and enjoy a little change of scene and thought, but with roads so bad that she can’t take the already exhausted horses over them again, much less walk there, she gives up, and so their plan for a little meeting failed, because the other farmers’ wives were in the same plight. The hus¬ band has been out in the open all day, busy with healthy work, and none of the nagging details to bother his brain, such as his wife has met during the long day. But she is penned up, with the same monotonous round of duties and no hope of change from one Sunday till the next, and not even then, if the roads keep her from church also. She cannot keep a servant to help her, as they refuse to be shut up week after week away from the world. Experts on the diseases of the mind claim that a considerable percentage of the in¬ mates of insane asylums are women, the wives or servants of farmers, who have been driven to despair by the unbroken monotony of their lives. Is it any wonder the women and children hate the farm and would seek the ad¬ vantages of city life? I cannot help but recall here a story of a farmer whose wife had recently become insane. In discussing the trouble with his doctor, the old farmer said he couldn’t for the world see why Maria had gone crazy, she hadn’t had a thing to distract her attention, she hadn’t been out of the kitchen for eighteen years. And yet, with good roads, some of the advantages of the city can be brought to the country. Rural delivery is made possible in a region of decent roads, social gatherings become more frequent, and doubly pleasant because of the enjoyable drive to and from the place. You have doubtless heard the story of the young woman who was returning home from the country church with her friend. He was so busy managing the horses over the rough, bumpy road that he paid no attention to her. She became more and more indignant, and 32 BENEFITS AND ADVANTAGES at last exclaimed, “Nobody loves me and my hands are cold.” At that instant they went over a terrific bump and these words were jerked from him, “Well, God loves you, and I guess you’ll have to sit on your hands.” Then, too, the doctor can reach the farm more readily in case of sickness. That roads have a direct bearing on public health is quite obvious to any thoughtful observer, but the general public seems to have overlooked that fact. While figures and statistics can scarcely be given in this connection, observation will corroborate the statement that many an infant has been sacrificed at birth, owing to the difficulty experienced by the doctor in reach¬ ing the farm at the proper time. Every country doctor is an earnest advo¬ cate of road improvement, since he knows better than anyone else the direct bearing that the condition of the roads has upon his ability to render the aid it is his business to furnish. It has been said that the public road is the main dust factory of the nation, and any thoughtful person can readily see the truth of the statement. The public road, by means of its very active and ever-willing agents, dust and poor drainage, is continually spreading disease, especially tuberculosis and typhoid. Hence, this phase of the subject should not be forgotten in any sincere inquiry into the reasons for systematic road improvement. The health of the country school child has often been seriously affected by the condition of the road over which he must travel. The roads are wet and muddy almost all of the long, cold winter months. The bleak winds are merciless in their attacks upon him, especially in open country, so that by the time the child reaches the schoolhouse, very often a poor affair, with little or no ventilation and not much heat, he is so chilled and exhausted that he is rendered unfit for either study or recreation. People argue, “Oh, well, it won’t hurt him; it will make a man of him.” Possibly so, if he doesn’t join the angels first. Such a condition, continued day after day, does not tend to build up a child’s constitution, and he is rendered quite fit for the attacks of the usual damp and cold weather germs, grip, pneumonia, etc. Then, too, these bad roads cause such irregular attendance, besides increasing the child’s horror of school. Parents sometimes keep their children at home rather than have them subjected to such conditions, arguing that the injurious effect upon the body from exposure is greater than any good effect of education upon the mind. Furthermore, many country schools are closed during the worst of the winter months on account of impassable roads, while those which are not closed have a very poor average attendance. According to the reports of the U. S. Bureau of Education, in 1911 there were 27,750,000 children in the United States of school age, but only 17,500,000 were enrolled in the public schools, or about 63 per cent. Of the 6,000,000 children, then, who are not attending school from some reason or other, there is little doubt that a large number of these are prevented from attending on account of bad roads. In Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Ohio, and Indiana, the states which have a large mileage of improved roads, the average attendance of enrolled pupils in 1908-9 was 80 per cent. In Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, South Dakota, and Georgia, states noted for bad roads, the average attendance for the same year was 64 per cent—80 per cent in the good-roads states as against 64 per cent in the bad-roads states. In the states first named, 35 per cent of the roads have been improved, while in the latter group of states there are only ly 2 per cent of the roads improved. This rela¬ tion between illiteracy and bad roads is also brought out in data obtained OF GOOD ROADS 33 from the twelfth census of the United States. Of course other factors combine to produce illiteracy, but it seems rather significant that where you find illiteracy you usually do not find good roads. In four states, where less than 2 per cent of the roads are improved, there were 374,788 native-born white illiterates in 1900, or 4.8 per cent out of a total population of 7,800,000; whereas, in four other states, where 30 per cent of the roads are improved, there were only 20,500 native-born white illiterates in 1900, or about 0.35 of 1 per cent out of a total population of 6,025,000. In several of these good-road states the improved travel has made it possible to consolidate the schools and to establish graded schools in the rural districts. The one-room, one-teacher schools are being replaced by central schoolhouses, with half a dozen rooms and as many teachers. Wagons are sent out every day to gather up the children and to take them home again in the evening. All of the children within a radius of four or five miles are thus provided with the most modern school facilities. In some of these schools, courses in manual training, agriculture, and home economics have been introduced, scientific apparatus utilized, and teachers having special qualifications and training employed. This has been done at a minimum cost. For instance, in Durham County, N. C., which has 18.54 per cent of its roads macadamized, the number of schools prior to the road improvement were 66, which were located indiscriminately throughout the county. Since the im¬ provement of the roads the number of schools has been reduced to 44, about two-thirds of them being large, centrally located school buildings, accommo¬ dating the children from a larger area and being accessible to them practically every day in the school year. In contrast with this, it is the practice in sev¬ eral Virginia counties to open school in August and close in December in order that the winter months may be avoided. At present there are about 2,000 of these consolidated rural schools in the United States. Massachusetts, Ohio, and Indiana seem to have made the greatest progress along these lines, and it is rather significant to note that in these States about one-third of the roads have been improved. In 1899, Massachu¬ setts reported having spent $22,116 to convey pupils to the consolidated schools, but ten years later this sum was $292,213; while Indiana spent $86,000 in 1904 for this purpose, and $290,000 in 1908. These transportation expenses would tend to show the extent and success of this new educational movement. “It has not proved itself an additional burden, for with the de¬ crease in the number of schools and in the economy of operation it has been found to cost less proportionally to build, equip and operate these consoli¬ dated schools than the one-room, one-teacher variety.” The average annual cost per pupil for 45 consolidated schools located in different parts of the country in 1907 was $33.83, but taking Hardin County, Iowa, as an example of the district school system, the average cost per pupil was $40.78 for the 15 district schools. Moreover, the average daily attendance at the consolidated schools was 139, while the average daily attendance at the district schools was only 6. The advantages of this new system of education are quite apparent, but bad roads establish a very effective obstacle in the way of its adoption. The surest way, then, to break up this combination ot bad loads and poor schools is to start in with the crusade for better roads, and then only will the country child begin to have an educational chance more nearly compaiable with that of the city child. . If the crusade is to be successful, where better can it be carried on than 34 BENEFITS AND ADVANTAGES with the child in the school, and with the mother in her women’s clubs? Each mother and each child should study the subject and be helped to an under¬ standing of what good roads will do for them, and what they can do for good roads. If each and every child, girl or boy, could grow up with the idea that they need not tolerate bad, muddy roads, and if, along with this intolerance, they could be given clear, sensible ideas in regard to road building, road maintenance, the planting of trees and shrubs along the roadside, and the management of road finances, then the success of the good-roads campaign would be assured. For the child is father to the man. THE HIGH COST OF HAULING It Costs More to Carry the Farmer’s Wheat to Market Than it Hoes to Ship it From New York to Liverpool. Wliy? Had Hoads By Logan Waller Page, Director, United States Office of Public Roads. It costs the farmer who lives nine and one-half miles from the railroad, over which he ships his products, more money to haul a bushel of wheat that nine and one-half miles than it costs the buyer to ship that bushel of wheat from New York to Liverpool, England. To be exact, it costs the farmer just one and one-sixth cents more. Something is wrong. It is the roads. Before the railroads were built the cost of hauling over the country roads was high. But since the railroads were built—counting back sixty-eight years for the sake of comparison—hauling over the railroads has been cut to about one-ninth of the original cost—from seven and one-third cents a ton a mile in 1837, to seven and eight-tenths mills in 1905, or about one-ninth as much. But the cost of hauling on the country roads has gone up. Seventy years ago, on the old Cumberland pike, it cost seventeen cents to haul a ton a mile, and this allowed a profit. Today, the average cost of road hauling a ton a mile is about twenty-three cents. If the cost of hauling in this country can be reduced to one-half the present cost, or eleven and one-half cents a ton, the saving to the people will be two hundred and fifty million dollars a year. If wise and equitable road laws and good business management could be substituted for the present anti¬ quated and wasteful system of handling our roads, there could be an addi¬ tional saving of forty millions of dollars. So it is apparent that in the two single items of hauling and road administration the people of this country have it within their power to save themselves two hundred and ninety mil¬ lions of dollars a year. The reports of the Interstate Commerce Commission show that the railroads handle upwards of 900,000,000 tons of freight originating on their respective lines each year. Of this amount, agricultural, forest, and miscellaneous products constitute about 32 per cent, or approximately 275,000,000 tons. If we assume that 200,000,000 tons, or less than 73 per cent of this total, were hauled over the country roads, the cost, at 23 cents on an average haul of 9.4 miles, would be $432,400,000. To this must be added the enormous tonnage OF GOOD ROADS 35 hauled from farms to canals, wharves, and docks for shipment by water. If the cost of this hauling is placed at only $67,500,000, the total would reach the sum of half a billion dollars annually, and this does not include the products hauled back and forth between farms and mills. To meet the possi¬ ble contention that this is a high estimate of the agricultural, forest, and miscellaneous products hauled by wagon, attention is called to the fact that many million tons of mining products are hauled by wagon, but these are not considered in this estimate. The high cost of hauling is not the only burden which the American people aie carrying by reason of their bad roads. In traversing a country isolated from markets by reason of bad roads, one is struck by the waste in untilled land and by the lack of variety in the products. This is due more frequently to lack of adequate transportation facilities than to the lack of industry and intelligence. Draw a series of concentric circles about a market town or railroad station. Call these zones of production,” in all of which the roads are uniformly bad. Within the first zone all products can be delivered to market at a profit. Within the second zone certain products must be eliminated because of the length of the haul. In the third zone still other products must be eliminated because of the prohibitive cost of hauling. The fourth zone includes only those products which can be held until the roads are passable, and then hauled long distances and sold at a profit. Beyond this zone the land must be left unproductive or utilized for grazing and timber. GOOD ROADS-BETTER FARMS. Every improvement in the roads leading from this market widens these zones, makes unproductive lands productive, and enables the farmer to exer¬ cise a wider discretion in determining the character of his crops. The pros¬ perity of the individual farmer becomes far greater, the traffic of the railroad increases, the consumer receives better supplies at lower prices, and thus the beneficial effects continue in an ever-widening circle, like the ripple produced by a stone cast into the water. There are over 400,000,000 acres of uncultivated land in the United States. Improved roads will prove an important factor in developing this great do¬ main. The tiller of the soil finds golden possibilities as soon as he is brought into touch with the markets and can practice intensive farming successfully. Census reports say the average value an acre of vegetables produced in the United States in 1899 was $42.00 and of small fruits $80.80. The average value of corn was only $8.72, wheat $7.03, and oats $7.34 an acre. The meaning of these figures is recognized by intelligent farmers who are studying the problem of how to make their farms pay best, and it is only a step further for them to recognize that good roads are necessary to the complete working out of this problem. It is impossible to tell in exact figures just how much good roads increase land values, but it is generally believed that the average increase within the zone of influence of an improved road is from two to nine dollars to the acre. As there are about 850,000,000 acres of farm lands, improved and unimproved, in the United States, the possibilities of increases in values through road im¬ provements are enormous. In counties where there are first-class roads the population has increased in almost every case. The sections of country which have lost in population 36 BENEFITS AND ADVANTAGES are conspicuous for impassable roads. Here is an example: In twenty-five counties, selected at random, in which an average of only one and a half per cent of the roads were improved, the population, between 1890 and 1900, fell away over 3,000 persons in each county. In another twenty-five counties, selected at random, but in which there was an average of forty per cent of improved roads, the population in each county increased over 31,000. Whether good roads cause good schools, or vice versa, it is true that they exist together, and that one of the most important reasons for good roads is their effect on school attendance in the country. If the country schools are to do their best work in training and instruction, the children must be afforded facilities for reaching the schools with dry feet at all seasons of the year. The possibilities of a region of improved roads are seen in the school wagons regularly gathering up the pupils and hauling them to and from the graded school, which, through good roads, is replacing the little one-room, one-teacher schools so prevalent in many sections of the country. When the roads are put into such condition as to make this practice general, education in the United States will have received tremendous impetus. In the five states of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Ohio and Indiana, in which, in 1904, 34.92 per cent of the roads were improved, seventy- seven out of each one hundred pupils enrolled attended public schools regu¬ larly. In the five states of Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Georgia and South Dakota, which had, in 1904, only 1.5 per cent of improved roads, only fifty- nine out of each one hundred pupils enrolled attended the public schools regularly. But good roads are on the increase. We have 176,429.3 miles of good roads now, as against 156,664.3 in 1904. Then, only 7.14 per cent of our road mile¬ age could be called “improved.” Today, 8.2 per cent of the roads are improved. In macadam roads there has been an increase of twelve and a half per cent since 1904; in gravel, of fifteen per cent; and in special resurfacing materials, of twenty-five per cent. But to do this cost the people nearly $80,000,000, which was out of all proportion to the results accomplished. WHY OUR ROADS ARE BAD There are three main reasons why our roads are bad. First comes the policy of localization, which until the past few years prevailed in all the states. This places upon the county and, in most cases, upon the road district, or township, the entire burden of constructing and maintaining the roads, and leaves to it the initiative, as well as the final determination, of the policy which shall be pursued in carrying on the work. It naturally follows that the more progressive counties distance the less progressive counties, that the undeveloped sections of the country have a tendency to remain undeveloped, and that in the poorer counties the result is stagnation and decrease in population. The second reason is that our road laws generally disregard the necessity of skilled supervision in road work. Nine-tenths of the work is done under the direction of men who have no knowledge of road building, and, what is worse, who have only a passing interest in it. The third element, which alone would prove a hindrance to efficient work, is that of statute labor, or the method of assessing road taxes in terms of day labor, and of placing in charge of road improvement an undisciplined body of workmen who have no inclination to render an adequate day’s service, OF GOOD ROADS 37 who have no knowledge whatever of the work, and who frequently are unused to manual labor. In practice, it is a matter of common knowledge that work¬ ing the roads more frequently develops into a pastime than into a real and earnest endeavor to secure good results. Hoad building is an art based upon a science. In this age of specialists it almost surpasses belief that the American people, so practical in all other lines of endeavor, should permit their golden millions to be frittered away by men who for the most part know little or nothing about either the science or the art of road building. There are today more than one hundred thousand petty road officials in the United States. Very few of these men devote more than a fraction of their time to road work, because their interests lie else¬ where and their compensation is too small to enable them to give their entire time to the work. It is not surprising that a century and a quarter of this kind of supervision has resulted in the present chaotic condition of our public roads. The reforms that should take place will provide a comparatively small body of trained and competent road builders devoting their entire time to continuous road work. But the greatest element of weakness in our road system lies in our method of maintenance. As a rule, we repair our roads at such times as farm work will permit. This means that the roads receive attention once or twice a year. So hard and fast has this custom become in many of the states that, even if costly macadam roads are constructed at great expense, they are allowed to go to ruin because minor defects are permitted to go unrepaired until they result in practical destruction of the road. In France, every mile of road is inspected daily, and the slightest defect repaired at its inception. The maintenance-of-way departments of our great railroad systems do not provide a more thorough inspection of railroad tracks than the French do for their public roads. The changes which should come in the American system will mean the adoption of a continuous system of repair and a methodical inspection of all roads. The national government, through the Office of Public Roads of the United States Department of Agriculture, is, by education, research, and experiment, aiding materially in carrying forward this all-important work. The service of its corps of engineers and experts are given free to the people of the United States. A sign of the awakening public interest in good roads is the recent organi¬ zation of the American Association for Highway Improvement, with offices in Washington, D. C. Its directorate includes railroad presidents, editors, law¬ yers, engineers, college presidents, and prominent government officials. This association, with the help of many other good-roads organizations, is working vigorously to arouse public sentiment for road improvement. It is suggesting needed legislation for efficient road administration r.*i the classi¬ fication of all roads according to traffic requirements. The correlation of road construction, so that important roads of each county shall connect, is another of the reforms for which the association is striving. That this association has been formed strikingly illustrates the almost universal appeal of the movement for better roads. 38 BENEFITS AND ADVANTAGES ECONOMIC PROBLEMS IN ROAI) BUILDING By Hon. John H. Small, Representative in Congress from the First Congressional District of North Carolina. Prefacing my paper, it is proper to say that I shall make no effort to indulge in “high-flown” language, and even if I should do so, it would, perhaps, be unwise in the discussion of so practical a problem as that of securing good roads. Sometimes, in the flood of words, ideas are either discolored or lost in the maelstrom. Perhaps I may have the satisfaction of bringing to the public one or more thoughts which may be helpful in the wise solution of this great economic problem. It is a very practical subject in all its phases, and is interwoven with the economic and industrial progress of our State. This subject of public roads is closely interwoven into the warp and woof of our economic life. As North Carolina is yet, in large degree, an agricul¬ tural State, I may illustrate best this proposition by showing the important • relation which improved public roads bear to agriculture. It is estimated that the cost of hauling products over the average country roads is 25 cents per ton per mile. Upon a first consideration this may not appear to be an excessive cost for transportation, and yet when you consider that the average cost of movement over the railroads of the country is only about seven mills per ton per mile, you can see that it costs about thirty-five times as much to haul products over the average country roads as it does upon an average to haul them over the railroads. We have in the past, and still are, exercising ourselves to obtain better freight rates, and to eliminate all descrimination as between individuals and sections, and the wisdom of this agitation cannot be doubted; yet we only pay, upon an average, one-thirtieth upon our railroads as compared with the amount we pay for transportation upon the average high¬ way. It is estimated by one authority that the average haul upon our roads is twelve miles, and that the average load is two thousand pounds, and, as stated, the average cost is 25 cents per ton per mile. According to the report of the Interstate Commerce Commission in 1906, the railroads handled 820,164,000 tons of freight, and of this aggregate that 32 per cent consisted of agricultural and forest products, amounting to about 265,000,000 tons. Of this latter quantity it was estimated that 80 per cent, or 200,000,000 tons, was hauled on the country roads, which, with an average haul of nine miles and at an average cost of 35 cents per ton per mile, would make the enormous sum of $432,000,000 per annum. The cost of hauling over the improved roads of Germany, France and England is estimated at 10 cents per ton per mile. The cost of hauling over the dirt roads of the South, containing mud and ruts, is 39 cents; over wet, sandy roads, 32 cents, and over dry sandy roads, 64 cents. If you assume that the average cost of hauling over the average country road is 23 cents per ton per mile, and that by improving the road we could reduce this cost by one-half, or lly 2 cents per ton per mile, it would mean an annual saving of $250,000,000. The weakest link determines the strength of the chain; the minimum depth of a stream determines the draft of vessels it can accommodate, and the worst portion of a highway and the most difficult grade determines the load which can be carried as between any two given points. OF GOOD ROADS 39 Here is another illustration of the waste from bad highways. It is esti¬ mated that the average cost of hauling corn in the United States is 7 cents per hundred pounds. In North Carolina it has been estimated at 12 cents. In eleven southern states it was estimated at 15 cents per hundred pounds, which is double the average in the United States. If you estimate that one- fifth of our corn crop is hauled over the country roads, there could be saved annually by improved roads $7,200,000. As to our cotton crops, which are more largely hauled over the roads, first to the gin, then from the gin back to the farm, and finally to the market, it is estimated that we could save annually $4,800,000 on the cotton and $6,000,000 on the cotton seed. In my first consideration of this problem of improving our reads, two' diffi¬ culties presented themselves to my mind. One was the great mileage of roads, and the other was in the process of selecting those first to be improved. The total mileage and the cost was so great and the difficulty in selection so embarrassing that it seemed impossible to avoid friction and local dissensions. This difficulty is greatly minimized by the consideration of some propositions fairly well established. It is estimated that 90 per cent of the traffic upon our roads is carried upon 20 per cent of the mileage, and therefore that when 20 per cent of the mileage was improved, that 90 per cent of the products to be hauled would be provided for, thus leaving only 10 per cent of the traffic to be provided for by the reniaining 80 per cent of the mileage of the public roads. At the present time, it is estimated that in the south about 6 per cent, or 42,281 miles, of its roads have been improved. This leaves 14 per cent of this 20 per cent of mileage unimproved, or about 94,756 miles. To improve this remaining mileage in order to make up the 20 per cent, at an estimated cost of $2,000 per mile, it would cost in the aggregate $189,512,000. If we apply the amount which we would save upon 90 per cent of the traffic travel¬ ing over 20 per cent of the roads, there would certainly be a saving of ten to eleven million dollars, which would more than pay the annual interest upon the total cost of improving the remaining 80 per cent of the public roads in the South. The principal of this great sum could be paid alone from the increase in land values. In the southern states there are 362,027,852 acres of farm lands. There are innumerable instances where lands have increased in value from the construction of good roads from five to twenty-five dollars and more per acre. If we estimate the average increased value of our farm lands by reason of improved roads at five dollars per acre, then there would be a gain in farm values alone in the South of $181,000,000. This would nearly pay the expenditure. It must be apparent to everyone that every dollar expended in improved roads is an investment upon which a handsome dividend will accrue to the community and the county. Another advantage of improved roads lies in the introduction of improved methods of treating the soil and in crop production. The most profitable crops per acre are those produced by intensified farming. Their value, however, consists in getting them to market quickly and cheaply, and unless these conditions are met, there is no encouragement to the land- owner to engage in intensified farming. The cost to the farmer is estimated by the cost of raising the crop plus the transportation to market, and the difference between this and the selling price constitutes the profit. The farmer cannot always control the selling price of his produce, but, within rea¬ sonable limitations, he can control the cost of production and the cost of transportation over the public roads. Regarding the cost of production, this 40 BENEFITS AND ADVANTAGES may be accomplished by the application of those agricultural methods which have been approved. The State Department and the United States Depart¬ ment of Agriculture are engaged in the work of educating the adult farmer and in bringing to him information of the results of these better methods. Their application means a greater yield per acre at a decreased unit of cost, and this progression widens the margin between the cost of production and the selling price. The apathy and indifference of our people to the great economic loss arising from bad roads is difficult to understand. I presume there has never been a time when our people have not appreciated the necessity for better roads and deplored the existence of bad roads. The diffi- • culty has been in the indisposition to take concerted action to improve them. The mere recognition of the bad condition does not mend it. We must appre¬ ciate the inconvenience and losses which arise from such bad conditions, and the profit which would accrue from repairing the same. We must also have an intelligent comprehension of the methods by which the better conditions can be obtained, and the cost of the same. Point out to me a community where a reasonable proportion of the citizens have intelligently studied this road question, the wastefulness of the one and the profit of the other, who have studied the basic factors which enter into the construction and the maintenance of good roads and the cost of the same, and who are willing to cooperate with their neighbors for improved conditions, and I will show you a community which is actively engaged in the work of road building. A community, like an individual, may get in a rut and apparently have no dis¬ position to move out. There are persons who day after day complain of their condition in life, lament most bitterly their misfortune, who never make the slightest intelligent effort to improve their condition. A man who has become accustomed to the conveniences and improvements which make for his well-being, will not thereafter be content to live without them. The man who has lived in the town possessing good streets, a system of drainage and sewerage, a healthful and abundant supply of water, and well-lighted, cannot be induced to move to another town lacking in these facilities; and likewise, a farmer who has lived in a rural community posses¬ sing good roads, telephone facilities, good public schools, and intelligent neighbors, cannot be induced to move to another rural community which does not enjoy these advantages. The soil may be ever so fertile and the climate ever so salubrious, but you cannot induce him to settle in a community which has not been touched by the wand of progress. If you will take the census of 1910, as I did, and look at the counties in North Carolina which have had the largest increase in population during the last decade, you will find that they have been engaged in road building and in the maintenance of good public schools, rural delivery, and telephones. I met a farmer recently in the city of Washington who was returning from a county in the State of Vir¬ ginia which he had visited with a view to settling, and I asked his impression. He praised the climate, the soil, and liked the people, but stated that in his county in Iowa they had built fine roads, and that it would require very strong attractions to induce him to move to a county with bad roads and with no disposition on the part of the people to improve them. By the way, this suggests the subject of immigration. I am aware that there are some of our people who term every nonresident of the State a foreigner, and who evince an indifference to new settlers. They say, “Reserve North Carolina for North Carolinians, and our lands for ourselves and our OF GOOD ROADS 41 children.” i n my younger days I may have shared to some extent in these picscriptive ideas; but observation and study have changed my viewpoint. I have reached the conclusion that one of the necessities for future growth lies in attracting settlers to our State, who shall make their homes among us. If they are intelligent and patriotic, and willing to work, I do not care where they come from. We need more industrial workers in this State. To obtain them, we must treat them just as we would like to be treated if we moved among strangers; we must not only extend the glad-hand, but we must give them a square deal. Good reads are inseparably connected with good public schools, and, for that matter, with the maintenance of strong churches. I heard a gentleman from Chatham speak of the difficulty of selecting school districts in his county, owing to the bad roads. It is a fact that the movement on the part of our State Board of Education to consolidate rural schools and 'make for better school buildings, better teachers, and longer terms, has met its most effective obstacle in bad country roads. We shall not reach our ideals in public edu¬ cation until these schoolhouses, of which we are building one each day, can be reached by good, dry roads. I sometimes think that we who live in town are not sufficiently mindful of those who live on the farm. Just a few years ago, when some evil-minded men attempted to create friction and enmity between the town and the coun¬ try, many of us regarded it as most deplorable; surely it was; and yet we may as well be honest with ourselves and admit there was some foundation for it. Eighty per cent of our population are dependent upon the soil for their livelihood, and there is scarcely an urban community in the State which is not dependent, in more or less degree, for their prosperity upon the success of the farm in the tributary section. The urban and the rural communities are interdependent, and there should not only exist between them a mutual bond of sympathy, but a disposition in all practical ways to help in upbuilding the other. In attending some of the farmers’ institutes in this State in recent years, I have been surprised to note not only the absence, but the absolute indifference, of the townspeople to these meetings. There were no conveni¬ ences provided and not the slightest indication of intelligent interest; and yet every merchant would welcome each of these farmers into his store, and understand that his own prosperity depended upon the prosperity of the farmer. May we strive toward that era when the town people and the coun¬ tryman shall possess a homogeneous spirit, each working for the betterment of the other, when each shall work only for the truth about the other, and each shall realize that his own interests are one and inseparable. During all time the farm has been the nursery from which has come the new, the strong, and the virile men and women, who have filled the gaps in the cities and kept going the industry and commerce of the urban life. If the nursery is not maintained, the whole body politic will languish. The bottom factor in the healthy growth and maintenance of rural life is the improved country road. We have of late been doing things in North Carolina. We have progressed. Manufacturing, principally in textile lines, has shown a most gratifying growth. Farm methods have been improved. Yet we must remember that transportation is the very lifeblood of commerce, and that greater production requires enlarged avenues of transportation, and unless we improve the public road, the most important instrumentality of transportation, that our progress will reach its limitation. 42 BENEFITS AND ADVANTAGES There have been some difficulties in the past in this matter of road building. First, there has been extreme localization. Efforts have been too largely confined to the rural district and the township. I now believe with Dr. Pratt, that the county should be the unit of organization, and that in some cases even this area might profitably be enlarged. Again, we have not appreciated the importance of supervision. We have entertained the pleasant delusion that anybody could edit a newspaper, conduct a hotel, operate a farm, or plan and build a public road. The error has been apparent in the bad results obtained in each. We are gradually learning that public road improvement requires skill in the planning and in the execution. Only a road engineer of approved skill and experience should be permitted to lay out a public road and make plans for its construction and improvement, and no road should be built except under his supervision. The county of Forsyth affords a con¬ spicuous example of a community which has learned this lesson. It is among the first to secure the exclusive services of a trained road engineer, and I congratulate the people of Forsyth upon their good fortune in obtaining the services of that skilled engineer and loyal citizen, Mr. W. L. Spoon. Another difficulty has existed in our method of furnishing the labor. Stat¬ ute labor, or the plan of paying the road tax in labor, has never yet resulted in a good road, and never will. The building of roads is a public function, and should be secured in the same manner as other public benefits. The revenue should be secured by the levying of taxes, by which every citizen will contribute in accordance with his means. It constitutes one of the public burdens which must be assumed by every citizen. There has been a time when it was regarded as extremely impolitic for a man in public office to advocate road taxes, and yet I believe it is the duty of every man who dis¬ cusses public questions to tell the truth as he sees it. The people are not as gullible or as foolish as some public men profess to believe. No man in public life can hope for universal approval of all his public acts, but he can maintain his own self-respect and integrity of purpose. So far as I am concerned, I would rather have the confidence of the people, even though they thought I was wrong upon a public question, than to have temporary applause when I knew I was wrong. One other difficulty with our road problem lies in failing to maintain them after we build them. Many of us in the east have come to regard Mecklen¬ burg as the banner county for good roads; but it appears that her people built good roads and expected them to take care of themselves. Good roads, like all other human institutions, do not “stay put”; nothing is permanent. Disintegration is the law of nature, and the price of permanent highways is eternal vigilance. At good-roads meetings held recently, many of the speakers have referred to “politics” as one of the obstacles in the movement for better roads. Why should this be true? Neither the term nor the man who is active in politics should suffer under this opprobrium. The ideal of every political party should be one of sympathy and cooperation with every movement which makes for the material betterment or the moral force of the people. Such an ideal is absolutely consistent with the militant democracy of a people (I am not using the term alone in its party sense), but there are such con¬ spicuous delinquencies at times which seem to furnish a basis for this criti¬ cism. For instance, as a part of this movement for better roads, every intelli¬ gent man knows, we need a State Highway Commission, in order to afford OF GOOD HOADS 43 intelligent assistance to and cooperation with the counties in the building of roads. The last Legislature was asked to pass a law creating a highway com¬ mission and to make an adequate appropriation for its maintenance; and yet that body turned a deaf ear to this demand of the people. I have a great deal of respect and sympathy with the charity of Dr. Pratt, in the excuses which he made for this omission of duty, to the North Carolina Good Roads Association in June; but they do not excuse. The excuses which were made by the gentleman from Johnston County, at this same meeting, for the omis¬ sion in failing to pass an act authorizing the people of that county to vote upon a bond issue, are also creditable to his heart, but they do not furnish an excuse. The criticism of “politics” must be based upon this lack of sym¬ pathy and helpfulness by public men and political parties toward the several economic movements in our State. What is the remedy? It lies in the people themselves. The people have such officeholders and such legislators as they deserve, and if we have legislatures which are unmindful of their duties to the people, it is the fault of the people who nominate them and elect them. There never was a man who held a public office who was not regardful of the sentiments of his constituents. If the people fix high the standard of public duty and insist that those whom they elevate to positions of trust shall live up to that standard, there will be an immediate response and a rejuvenation of political parties. We must educate the people upon the subject of public roads. This good- road propaganda must be maintained and promoted. Less than twenty years ago, more than twenty out of every hundred of our white population above ten years of age could not read and write. We had neglected our duty to the children of the State, and we had fallen behind. Then came those two matchless champions of the rights of the children, Charles D. Mclver, now gone to his reward, and Edwin A. Alderman, since come to the full stature of manhood, who went out among the people to preach the gospel of public edu¬ cation. Many of us enrolled under that standard, most conspicuous of whom was the great Educational Governor, Charles B. Aycock, and we have estab¬ lished among our citizens such a standard of duty to the children that we are engaged in building a new schoolhouse day by day, and raising the standard and compensation of teachers, lengthening the school term, and bringing the children into the light of knowledge and liberty. So with this public road problem. We must not depend entirely upon Dr. Pratt, or upon the officers of the North Carolina Good Roads Association. They cannot assume the entire burden; we must find progressive young men of intelligence and loyalty to duty and send them out, also, to preach the gospel of good roads. FOR USE ONLY IN THE NORTH CAROLINA COLLECTION JNIVERSITY of n.c. at chapel hill 00049322179