THE PEOPLES STATE, ROAD. 
 
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 ADDRESS 
 
 HON. EDWIN S. STUART, 
 
 Governor of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, 
 
 AT THE ANNUAL MEETING OF THE 
 
 Pennsylvania Bar Association, 
 
 CAPE MAY. NEW JERSEY. 
 
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 JUNE 25th, 1908. 
 
 HARRISBURG, PA.: 
 
 HARRISBURG PUBLISHING CO.. STATE PRINTER. 
 1908 . 
 
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 THE PEOPLES STATE ROAD. ' ’ ' ' ' 
 
 Address by Honorable Edwin S. Stuart, Governor of the Com- 
 monwealth of Pennsylvania, at the annual meeting of the 
 Pennsylvania Bar Association, Cape May, New Jersey, June 
 
 25th, 1908. 
 
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 One hundred and fifty years ago General Forbes was encamped 
 on the spot where Bedford now stands. The place was the outpost 
 of colonial civilization. 
 
 Beyond, an unknown, inhospitable wilderness of mountain and 
 forest lay interposed, where settlement could not spread and where 
 even explorers became disheartened. And farther beyond lay the 
 Ohio valley. 
 
 Explorers had long since sought out a Western Empire, and with 
 light canoes had sped up the St. Lawrence, across the Lakes and 
 down the Allegheny and Ohio and other streams and the Mississippi 
 River to the Gulf of Mexico. Trading points were established on 
 the Lakes, on French Creek and the Allegheny. 
 
 To the east of the Allegheny Mountains, the sturdy pioneers were 
 felling trees, breaking ground, building their houses and churches 
 and developing the country for permanent abode. 
 
 There were advantages of trade between the Indians and the 
 coast people which the red man was not slow to perceive nor the 
 white man prone to overlook. So over the mountains came the 
 Indian from the Alleghem^ valley with his pack horse and peltry, 
 making a main thoroughfare eastward on which at a later date the 
 conquest of the continent was to be witnessed. Quite soon the 
 wandering trader found his way by the Indian trail to the back 
 country and then the struggle for possession began. 
 
 How the Ohio Trading Company, composed of Virginia gentlemen 
 keen to the possibilities and advantages of possession of the west- 
 ern country, obtained a royal charter to land in the Ohio valley, 
 under condition that in seven years it must be settled, erected a 
 store house on Wills Creek at the head of Potomac River naviga- 
 tion, blazed a trail overland through the forest to the navigable 
 waters of the Monongahela River and opened up trade. 
 
 How young George Washington, as special envoy, was sent across 
 the mountains by Governor Dinwiddie of Virginia to invite the 
 French to retire, and in the year following, while preparing a road 
 
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 through the same wilderness for the Virginia army expedition, wa» 
 
 given battle by the French and Indians, was routed, and finally 
 forced to capitulate at Fort Necessity; 
 
 How the savages, emboldened by this victory, made incursions to 
 the settlements and massacred the inhabitants without discrimina- 
 tion, thus compelling the fortification of Pennsylvania and Virginia 
 frontiers; 
 
 How^ the next year, Braddock just from England established a 
 base of supplies and operation on Wills Creek at Fort Cumberland 
 and hewed his way through daily ambuscades, building a road as 
 he went along over Washington’s path, and by infinite toil, patience 
 and perseverance, mastered the precipitous passes and mountain 
 slopes, the gorges, dangerous fords and all obstacles, and led forth 
 his army on the other side of the Allegheny Range to utter route 
 and defeat on the banks of the Monongahela River within seven 
 miles of Fort Duquesne, whereupon hordes of savages overran the 
 borders, drove back the settlers, destroyed the outposts; and how 
 it required Braddock’s defeat to wake up the colonies to the duty 
 of the hour; all of these things come forcibly to our minds when we 
 contemplate Forbes’ Military Road across Pennsylvania. This his- 
 toric highway began at Raystown, now Bedford. 
 
 It has been said that a road stands for the hopes, activity, in- 
 fiuence and character of the people who build it and who use it, — - 
 the story of a need. Never was this more thoroughly exemplified 
 than in the instance of the Pennsylvania Road now beginning at 
 Bedford. 
 
 After three years, General Forbes was conducting a campaign 
 against Fort Duquesne. He too had just come from England, land- 
 ing in Philadelphia. Thence he proceeded through populous Penn- 
 sylvania — Lancaster and Carlisle — traversing the granary of the 
 new world and selecting his base of supplies where they were to 
 be obtained on the ground. Here were the wagons, horses and 
 provisions. He gathered his army together along the road from 
 Carlisle to Bedford, a road previously made over the Indian trading 
 path, in response to Braddock’s appeal for a direct route to sup- 
 plies and speedy intelligence of events in Philadelphia and the 
 northern colonies. The construction of the road had been carried 
 some distance beyond Bedford where it was interrupted because of 
 Braddock’s defeat. 
 
 Forbes now sought to continue this route. His pathfinders were 
 out in the mountain passes and from them came daily reports of 
 discouragement. 
 
 A short road from Pennsylvania to the Ohio valley was distaste- 
 ful to Virginia. She had looked upon the west as her own. She had 
 
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 been foremost in the field and given of her money and sons. Now 
 should Forbes build a road from the rich counties of Cumberland 
 and Lancaster and from Philadelphia directly to the forks of the 
 Ohio, there would be opened up for all future time an advantage 
 of usefulness to Pennsylvania detrimental to Virginia interests. 
 So rivalry and controversy as to the routes from Raystown grew 
 intense. 
 
 But there was a law of necessity. A line of least resistance, a 
 ridge road avoiding swamps and rivers and fords and floods, pas- 
 sable always and direct to the western country was demanded. So 
 such a way was found and built and fortified, and at the close of 
 the year Forbes occupied Fort Duquesne. 
 
 It need not be told how to the end of the military era, this road 
 proved a barrier to the foes of the unborn rep.;ublic; how in 1763 
 Bedford was again a place of rendezvous for Bouquet's expedition 
 of relief for Pittsburg against Pontiac's attack and seige; how 
 every fortification in the country fell except Fort Pitt and the 
 strongholds along Forbes' Military Road; and how in the Revolu- 
 tionary period it was the main artery of communication from the 
 Atlantic Coast to the West Country; all of which is most interest- 
 ing; but it is the subsequent part which the great Pennsylvania 
 thoroughfare to the Ohio played in the development of the country 
 that we wish to briefiy contemplate. 
 
 Tales about the wonderful land beyond the Alleghenies, conquered 
 but still unclaimed, came over the mountains. With characteristic 
 restlessness, sturdy pioneers soon appeared upon the way in haste 
 to occupy the ^^promised land." The fever for exploration, dis- 
 covery and settlement was epidemic. More than a footpath was 
 needed through the mountains by the surging emigrant trains. Poor 
 as was Forbes' Road, the multitudes travelled over it by tedious 
 stages, experiencing great hardships. 
 
 The Keystone State, ever mindful of those things needful to pro- 
 mote and conserve the interests of the Union, arose to the situa- 
 tion and began in 1785 the contruction of a State Highway from 
 Chambersburg to Bedford, and from Greensburg to Pittsburgh. 
 When completed, the Pennsylvania Road thereafter held supremacy 
 from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, from the Coast to the West for 
 fifty years. In 1795 the only macadamized turnpike in America was 
 the eastern end of the Pennsylvania Way, from Philadelphia to 
 Lancaster. And those days of stage coach, conestoga wagon and 
 tavern life were the most romantic in the annals of American his- 
 tory. 
 
 Over all this stirring scene was the impelling force, the immutable 
 law of need. The infant settlements of the Ohio called for better 
 
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 access^ to .tbe World. Enterprise and prosperity waited on free 
 and easy communication. Commercial control of the Trans-Alle- 
 gheny Empire became an issue. The study of river improvements 
 then absorbing England’s attention found echo in the young Ameri- 
 can nation. Congress gave consideration to the navigation of the 
 James, Potomac and Mohawk Rivers. 
 
 The sagacious mind of Washington encompassed the situation 
 and immediately after the Revolutionary War he counseled the 
 binding of the east and west by ties of commercial intercourse. 
 
 The rivalry between Philadelphia and Baltimore for the Ohio 
 Basin trade became keen. Philadelphia, eager to overcome a dis- 
 advantage of one hundred miles, early took up the matter of in- 
 ternal improvements of an advanced pattern. The Cumberland ^ 
 Road proposed was exerting an influence to be feared. Pittsburgh, 
 the point of entrance to the immense territory of the Ohio, Missis- 
 sippi and Great Lake region, was the objective terminal. The 
 exertions of Maryland and Virginia to promote the improvement of 
 roads and inland navigation for the expansion of commerce by river 
 routes, and the progress of the Potomac Company, were admired and 
 felt. Pennsylvania likewise, desired to share in the trade of the 
 river region and to keep the trade of the lake territory, since the 
 best harbor on Lake Erie was her possession. 
 
 As Forbes’ Road had eclipsed Braddock’s, and as the State High- 
 way superseded Forbes’ road, so now Pennsylvania sought a water- 
 way, and in 1834 opened the Pennsylvania canal, which eclipsed 
 ail other routes to the Ohio valle^^, thus maintaining her ‘‘Keystone 
 position” as a seaboard metropolis. 
 
 The canal era, while it lasted, witnessed the partial decline of 
 the turnpike and through-wagon road. Upon the advent of the 
 steam road in answer to American expansion and a need for rapid 
 transit between long distances, the practical abandonment of both 
 historic canal and wagon-way wms acomplished. Today their ruins 
 only remain. One has been utilized in places for railroad occupa- 
 tion. The other is entirely forgotten, a road now of local utility 
 only. Little is left to tell the story of their preponderating in- 
 fluence over society and affairs in general, and of the consolidating 
 and strengthening of the bonds of the Union to the aggrandizement 
 of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. 
 
 Some one has remarked that each succeeding Trans-Alleghenv 
 line of transportation has followed closely the old line, beginning 
 with the buffalo trace, then the Indian trail, the military path, 
 the t.’ading road, the turnpike and the canal. Each in turn served 
 its purpose, and each had its rise and decline. 
 
 We have no occasion today to prophesy the passing of the steam 
 railroad, but we do know that never before has progress in trans- 
 
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 portation facilities made such rapid strides and the benefits of 
 internal communication been so widely distributed and appreciated. 
 The good roads era is in its dawn. 
 
 Pennsylvania has inaugurated the beginning of a system of good 
 roads for all counties to be built on the co-operative plan of pay- 
 ment. The State Highway Department has completed three hun- 
 y dred and forty miles of good roads and has in course of construc- 
 
 tion three hundred and fifty additional miles. 
 
 And now we may approach a subject and project worthy to com- 
 'i mand popular support in proportion to its immense importance. I 
 
 speak of the advisability of a rehabilitated Pennsylvania Highway 
 across the State between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. Separate 
 and distinct from the present method of procedure, the project I 
 have in mind is to survey the old State Road, rebuild and improve 
 it and complete the work from one end to the other in its entirety, 
 commencing simultaneously at Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. 
 
 Pennsylvania’s geographical position affords opportunity. It is 
 both an Atlantic and Central State. It possesses at the Seaboard, 
 a metropolis, the chief manufacturing city of the Union, and at its 
 west portal the wonderful steel and iron district of Pittsburgh is 
 located, — places of unusual prosperity and wealth, whose influence 
 in trade, manufactures and commerce is felt all over the world. 
 
 Between these great municipalities is another one of importance, 
 the Capital City of Harrisburg, and the chief place on the Susque- 
 hanna, a city whose location makes it the gateway to the bitumin- 
 ous coal fields, the oil and gas fields, the lake regions and the west. 
 
 To the east of it along the old Pennsylvania Road, is Lancaster, 
 the banner agricultural county of the United States in point of 
 value of crops produced. To the west of Harrisburg are the agri- 
 cultural counties of Cumberland and Franklin, whose seats of gov- 
 ernment, Carlisle and Chambersburg, are becoming prosperous 
 ^ manufacturing towns. And farther on are the sparsely populated, 
 
 wooded, mountainous counties of Fulton, Bedford and Somerset, 
 beautiful in scenery, possessed of a salubrious atmosphere and 
 i noted health resorts, abounding in game preserves and streams, and 
 
 rich in fertility of soil, capable of supporting a large population. 
 And finally, are the extensive coal fields of Somerset and Westmore- 
 land counties, whose mine operations and coke ovens give employ- 
 ment to increasing numbers of men and foster allied industries. 
 
 This highway should be an avenue of common communication and 
 transportation adapted to the period and the future. Its facilities 
 should comprehend the pedestrian and equestrian, and vehicles of 
 all kinds. Since it is to be a trunk line for the people, laterals will 
 naturally extend from it north and south. 
 
 Rural mail delivery is an established fact and the farmer would 
 
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 not be deprived of tliis service now that he knows the benefits. 
 Rural trolley freight will likewise soon become an established fact. 
 
 Such a modern highway from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh would 
 bring a continuous stream of tourists from the far east and west 
 through Pennsylvania territory and would tend to open up many 
 new avenues. It would promote activity in real estate and would 
 be so long that private monopoly would be out of the question. 
 Emigration would follow, as w’^ould development and house building 
 and improvement and use of idle land. Production of crops and 
 stock raising would ensue. The usefulness and value of existing 
 farms would be enhanced. 
 
 In fact, individual county and state wealth would be augmented 
 by the improvement. The markets of the Pennsylvania farmer are 
 local. His business is co-dependent upon the general prosperity of 
 the nearby town or city. Whatever makes for progress there is a 
 factor to the farmer. Many industries are fitted for small towns 
 and could be made profitable by good road transportation. These 
 industries would be more generally distributed were proper induce- 
 ments afforded. 
 
 Furthermore, those more lasting things, the manifold blessings 
 of intercourse, the domain of thought, feeling and sympathy which 
 operate in so subtle a way on the general welfare of society, are 
 sure to be fostered and promoted by such a channel of internal 
 communication as is proposed. 
 
 Considerations and benefits so obvious, varied and weighty, so 
 comprehensive in usefulness, so impartial, fraternal and universal 
 in disposition, afford an opportunity without parallel in any other 
 State, to inaugurate a public improvement for the common good, 
 extensive enough to be national in importance; a legacy which our 
 fathers to our profit faithfully performed, and which we now may 
 choose to execute as a fitting memorial to those who may come 
 hereafter of our contribution to the needs of posterity. 
 
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