Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 June 1896 — GOOD ROADS. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

GOOD ROADS.

An Objection to Good Roads. Chief Consul Scherer of Tennessee, tells of a farmer who gave him a severe reprimand for advocating good toads. HJs objection to the modern highways was based upon the novel argumerit that the mud road was more economical. “Why,” said be, “I can drive my mules the year -ound without shoes in the dirt, but on these blamed stone roads it costs me thirty-six dollars per year for shoeing.” Wheelmen Working for Good Roads. That the bicycle hats made every bicyclist an enthusiastic, energetic and indefatigable advocate of good roads is a fact of which the Importance is demonstrated by the other fact that at last the American farmer is beginning to substitute for “good roads cost money,” the refrain he ,has sung so long, another equally true —“Bad roads cost more money than good ones.” This is a really marvelous triumph, and the part which the bicycle has had in winning it makes one regret that there is no satisfactory way of showing public gratitude to a creature who is, after all, only a combination of steel and rubber.—New York Times. Good Work Spreading. The road congress at the Atlanta exposition declared Massachusetts to be at the head of the list in the new movement for good rttads that is begjm among the different States, the standing being determined by the amount of money appropriated for road construction combined with the systematization of its use, says the Boston Cburv ier. The conditions giving to Massachusetts the lead In the matter were, the State highway Commission, the system under which road building is progressing and the liberality of the financial provision for the work, On nil three points this State was readily admitted to take the lead. The fact that this most interesting and important Subject has seriously engaged the attention of a body like the organized exposition of industry and Improvement held at Atlanta contains the sure promise of the rapid spread of

Its influence among all of the Union, and incites the sanguine hope that the day Is not far off when roadbuilding will become a subject of engrossing interest in all parts of our common country. The local productions of a country may be abundant, but unless the means of transporting them at the right time to the waiting markets are prepared they might as well be nonexistent. We may, It Is true, have an oversupply of railroads, but they are fed and sustained by the ordinary roads that are virtually a part of the foundation of civilized communities. Good roads are a matter of public policy. Therefore their construction and maintenance belong to the State as sovereign over all common interests within its borders. This much being conceded, the problem afterward becomes one mainly of detail, in Which a system of construction and of expenditure shall be the purpose of the whole people. No country can justly claim to be advanced in civilization whose means of intercommunication are not at least parallel with its increasing material prosperity.

COMMONLY CALLED A ROAD. (From Good Roads.)