Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 176, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 July 1914 — ROADS ROADMAKING [ARTICLE]

ROADS ROADMAKING

COUNTING THE COST. Bad Highways Levy Tax of Half a Billion Dollars Annually. It is estimated by the Agricultural Department at Washington that the farmers of this country carry upon their shoulders a tax of not less than half a billion-dollars a year, due solely to the almost criminal condition of the roads. This applies tc the whole country. Carefully prepared statistics prove that each ton hauled over the country roads of America costs the man who hauls It thirteen cents more than the hauling of a ton costs the farmers of Europe, where good roads are appreciated and carefully maintained by the government There are in this country 85,487,0*0,000 pounds of farm products hauled annually from the farm to the railroad shipping point Chip does sot Include that which is hauled to the mill and back to the farm, nor dees it include those things which are shipped by express, as the figures are compiled from the railroad freight tonnage. Neither does It include the product 0f mine and milL It is the actual haul of farm products, and yet the average farmer does not give concern to the cost of his proportion of it The average haul from the farm to the railroad in this country is estimated at 9.4 miles, at an excess of 18 cents a ton in cost of hauling which thp American fanner pays more than his European brother, the farmer then pays $1.70 tor every ton hauled over the country roads msre than it costs the fanner of Eufope.