The Polk County Enterprise (Livingston, Tex.), Vol. 6, No. 51, Ed. 1 Thursday, September 8, 1910 Page: 3 of 10
ten pages : ill. ; page 20 x 13 in. Digitized from 35 mm. microfilm.View a full description of this newspaper.
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-f-
THE ROAD IN
AMERICAN ECONOMICS
A Wonderfully Effective
Presentation of the Sub-
ject, ,by Baylor Student.
-(By J. W. Thomas.)
Mr. J. W. Thomas, of Camden,
Texas, was a student at Baylor
University, in the school of
oratory, when he delivered the
address that follows, on Febru-
ary ultimo. He is at this time
principal of the Alta Vista public
school, Route 2, near Waco. Dr.
S. P. Brooks, President of Bay-
lor, was so impressed bv the
timeliness and value of Mr.
Thomas’ remarks that he pro-
cured a copy and sent it to The
Tribune. It is well worth reading.
'Good Roads—An Address.
Principles and ideals of govern-
:ment are and have ever been de-
termining factors in the life and
growth of states. A nation that
seeks world aggrandizement and
plunder rather than the safe-
guard of the social and the finan-
cial environments- of its homes
ignores the basic rocks of
strength and rapidly strides to
its fall. The dramatic story of
the growth and the decay of
states'has been the tragedy of
’governmental despotism, social
disorders, or economic unwisdom
in the financial fields of endeavor
Spain entered upon an era of
spoliation and plunder to the
negle'ct of her social system and
'paid the inevitable price of decay.
The parasites that preyed upon
the vitals of the European nations
in the middle ages, "working
through the monstrous feudal
tree, darkened the world with
gloom. In the light of all history
is read the truth that a country’s?
most momentous and far-reach-
ing problems have their fountain
source around the hearths of its
own homes.
The test of time proves that
pressing problems arise to con-
front a nation’s progress. For
secure and,enduring foundations
institutions must rest on wise
economic principles and the
sturdy strength and moral
stamina of citizenship.
I believe that the one question
that is of most vital importance
to the American people today is
a revolution in the care and con-
struction of our public highways.
And I need not stop here to show
how that the highest agricultural
development of our country is
inseparably linked to a system of
good roads. Our farms will never
be what they should be as factors
for the appeasement of man’s
wants and for the sure creation
of individual and national Wealth'
so long as the farmeyis hampered
by a system of disgraceful roads
as he is today. Mil James J.
Hill, who has been called the
builder of the great Northwest,
says that “it is made clear by
every process of logic and by the
proof of historic fact that the
wealth of a nation, the character
of its people, the quality and
- permanence of its institutions'
depend upon a sound and suffi-
cient agricultural foundation.
Not armies or navies or commerce
or diversity of manufacture or
anything other than the, farm" is
ican Congress week before last
said that there are 5,000 children
in attendance upon the public
schools of the city of Chicago that
go there every morning without
a breakfast, and that 10,000 more
are insufficiently fed and clothed.
The same paper that made /a
report of that speech brought
the startling news that in the
nation’s metropolis 63,000 people
applied to the city authorities for
aid during 1909. These,are in-
stances of the want and misery
that are abroad in our land. The
exhausting demand and ‘wanton
waste of the country’s native re-
sources has become a matter of
national peril. To this may be
added the fact that our people
are losing the enormous sum of
one-quartgy of a billion dollars
every year due to a disgraceful
system of roads. When we con-
sider the lossage in haul, wear
and tear of vehicles, storage, and
the extra food rates the figures
amount to the stupendous billion
dollar mark. These figures are
authoritative and mean by a per
capita distribution a tax of twelve
dollars on every man, woman and
child in this country.
But more startling still is the
returns from the outlay and ex-
penditure. Experiencefehows
that property along the improved
highway is in every instance
greatly enhanced in value. Ask
the property owners along tlie
good roads their opin i o n
of the importance of this
question. In Eastern Texas, take
Polk county for example, where
there is not one mile of improved
road, i mproved land that prod uces
more than a bale of cotton per
acre sells for less than$10. Your
land through this section of the
state that yields less sells for
more than $100. These facts are
significant and must be con-
sidered-along with the cost ot
road-building.
But the cost of road construc-
tion need not be burdensome.
Billions of hoarded money are
waiting for investment in safe
bonds, and that at low rates of
interest. In this way any sec-
tion of country desirous of build-
ing better roads might distribute
the rtiising of the amount neces-
sary over an era" of twenty-five
years, and the burden borne in
taxation would hardly be felt. An
unexampled era of prosperity
inevitably follows in the wake of
the etycient roadway. I n twenty-
five years after the good road
construction began a section
would doubtless be, in many in-
the equivalent of these five days
labor in taxation, equitably dis-
tributed among the taxpayers,
and then expend it wisely in road
construction: -To all who know
anything about our disgraceful
roads there is no marvel that
America is decades behind in
development in this important
public necessity.
But the penny.-Wise cry that
the town. By 19:*), it is said, at
the present rate of growth,.more
than half of our entire people
will be in the urban districts.
This means an inevitable shifting
of power from the honest agri-'
cultural classes to the masses of
the city who, in the nature of
things, are under the dominance
of masters of wealth. This must
be stopped before the foundations
we are already over taxed, and of our government and institu-
fact of statistics pertaining to
the school system. In four states
having bad roads out of 7,000,000
people there are 375,000 unable to
read and write; in the same num-
ber of good-road states out of
6,000,000 population there are
only 20,000 illiterates. ,
Most of you already know what
a bad road means, and if any of
you are concerned in the cost of
the morning meal the above facts
demonstrate that all are vitally
interested in this question under
consideration. Bad roads force
the farmer to hurry his produce
to market, and as a result a large
per cent of-it goes into storage.
It is estimated that the producers
in Minnesota and North Dakota
lose annually $10,000,000 in this
way. This sum is more than
Texas spends on her magnificent
public school system. It does
not take an economist to see that
this is useless waste. The spec-
ulator does not lose these millions
for he adds them to his selling
price. The consumer has it to
pay.
In Europe where roads are
good the moving of farm produce
to the market costs only 7 to 9
cents per ton to the mile; in the
United States where only 7 per
cent of the highways are im-
proved the farmer has to pay 23
cents for the same returns. The
Interstate Commerce report
shows that the railroads earry
every year 265,000,000 tons of
farm products. The average
distance from our farms to the
market is nine miles. On one
ton we lose nearly $2 and for the
whole tonnage $500,000,000. . It
costs twice as much to carry a
bushel of wheat from the farm to
the railroad as it does to trans-
port it from New York to Liver-
pool, a distance of 3,100 miles.
The losses as indicated would
stances, 1,000 per cent richer
than before. And bear in mind
this is only the dollar side of the
proposition. Of vastly greater
and more vital consequence is
the moral feature of it.
Moreover, economy may be
exercised in road improvement.
A costly central road through a
section of country might be justi-
fied by the volume of business
that would pass over it, while the
converging branch lines could be
made entirely efficient at a min-
imum expenditure. The govern-
ment has road experts and en-
gineers that are at the disposal
of the states. Further, it has
been successfully demonstrated
in several sections that the burnt-
clay road good as the ma-
cadamized structure and far less
expensive. Throughout our tim-
ber districts the tire would not
cost much and the expense of
road building would be incon-
siderable. Fire kills the adhesive
nature of any soil. And, too, the
railroads, with true business in-
stinct, generously offer to trans-
port gravel to any section where
it is intended for road improve-.
no muioareu WUUiU
the anchor that will hold through build 200,000 miles of macadam-
the storms of time which sweep ized road-each year at the maxi-
all else away. 4 mum cost of $5,000 per mile. , In
With the ushering in of the ten years' every one of the
century there conies a new era
in American economic^. The
daily cost of living grows greater
and greater as the years go by.
Within the short span of a decade
the prices of the absolute nec-
essaries- of life have doubled.
Congressman. R. L. Henry in a
notable speech before the A'mer-
2,151,000 guiles of public high-
way, if this prodigious waste
were turned into construction,
would be such as the famous
Roman roads.
All-industrial enterprise's cost
large sums of money. But from
a business viewpoint the price
must be measured by legitimate
ment. In thousands of instances
all that is needed is an intelligent
system of grading.
But labor is the greatest item
in the cost of construction. Just
here lies a splendid opportunity
for the settlement of another
perplexing problem that is weigh-
ing upon the conscience of our
people. A question of great moral
and sanitary moment is the
crowding together of state con-
victs into dirty dungeons found
in the state prison. Besides,
under the present' despicable
lease systeni$. the poor unfortu-
nates’ life-blood under the biting
sting of the thong, is often sac-
rificed to graft and greed. Our
state might use these poor
prisoners on its roads, thus
bettering their condition, and
lessen the cost of road improve-
ment by more than half.
Many of the states need to
revise their laws pertaining to
road service. In Texas able-
bodied men between the ages of
18 and 45. not by la w exempt,
may be required to labor on the
road not to exceed five days in
the year. This work is often
worse than lost, clone, as it is,
under the supervision of un-
skilled ovetseers. Far better
would it be if our state required
for their pains and ruinous policy
they are ' penalised in pound
measures. One of the greatest
banes to the progress of the
American people is their criminal
penuriousness in the payment of
taxes. It surpasses belief and
yet is true that a large per cent
of our people will vote against all
proposed increase of taxation,
whether it is meant for a more
efficient system of public educa-
tion or any other beneficient
cause. Contribution to the pro
motion of good government and
the welfare of society ought to
be the dominating principle of
every man’s life.
How long will it take the people
to see the true economy of the
good road2 One mile of roadway
stretches the entire length of
twenty live acres. Figure ten
acres back on each side of the
road and you have 500 acres on
the two sides together that are
within 700 yards of the road.
Even the macadamized structure
-through these acres of sgil, at
the maximum figures, would not
mean a tax of more than $10 on
each acre. Everyone says that
the improved highway will en-
hance the value of everything
within reach of the road from 25
to 200 per cent. A common sense
calculation will demonstrate the
great economic* wisdom of the
usable roadway.
In 1914 the Panama Canal will
be complete. Already the large
commercial concerns are adjust-
ing their interests to meet the
tremendous trade upheaval that
is bound to follow the opening of
the channel to the world's com-
merce. It is believed that the
United States is about to enter
upon an era of tra.de prosperity
that will be without precedent in
the world’s history. The Orient
with its teeming millions of
hungry men will be placed at a
convenient distance from the
farmer’s crib. This rich trade,
the coveted prize of the ages, is
at last, in the twentieth century,
about to bo realized. The nation
must equip herself by building-
up the farm to meet the demand
that is going to be made for her
products. And I offer this as
another argument for a better
system of public highways.
But the dollar, important as it
is, is not the only vitalizing force
in the life of a nation. I truly
believe that the right settlement
of this stupendous ecbnomic
question will carry with it the
solution of pne of the gravest
sociological and municipal gov-
ernmental problems of this or
any other "age of civilization.
From all corners of this imperial
country cotnes the cry “back to
the farm.” More and more is
the thinking man coming to see
that the farmer is the mud sill of
our civilization. And now I go
back to the premises of my
speech, that all other questions
are of secondary importance to
this great economic problem be-
cause of the inevitable! Jaw that
places it at the root of <111 others.
For more than half a century
the student of our institutions
has noted with ever increasing
alarm the tendency of our people
to vacate the farm And settle irr-
the city. Even .now in some of
our eastern states more thaji 90
per cent of the population is in
turns a re submerged in ruin.
The man that earns the weekly
wage is fast becoming a slave to
the kings of finance. The press
of the country is alive to the
problem a n rl industriously
preaches the doctrine of. farm
life. It paints in pleasing colors
the advantages of rural life, .and
the press and worry of city liv-
ing. But, sad to sajv it is all
fiction and no fact. All the
preachment in the world will not
now and never will induce the
boy to remain on the farm isolated
from. civilization and a ready
market for the fruits of his daily
toil. Far more effective would it
be toward populating the Country
with desirable classes and induc-
ing those already there to remain,
if public opinion could be edu-
cated to the point that respect-
able roads might be built for their
convenience and utility.
Moreover, njAn is a social
creature and r/iust have inter-
course with his fellows. Then,
too, there is not a possibility of
efficiency in the school system
in sparsely settled districts. A
wide-awake man will see^to it
that his. children Ijiave the best
possible educational advantages.
This cause more than any .other
one thing takes the better -class
of our farmers to the town. The
logical thing for out country to
do is to build up the rural school
and place one at a convenient dis-
tance from every farmer’s door.
To make this practicable we must
first thread >1 he country with
usable roads. Population doubles
along the improved highway and
this makes a good shool possible.
In the five states of Massachu-
setts, Rhode Island, Cbnnecticut,
Ohio and Indiana, where 35 per-
cent of the roads arc improved
there is an average attendance
upon the schools of 79 per cent;
on the other hand, in the five
states of Alabama, Mississippi.,
Arkansas, Georgia and South
Dakota, - having .only 1 12 per-
cent of the roads improved, the
attendance is only 59 per cent.
These are powerful arguments
for the improved highway, and
ought to hasten an era of good-
road construction.
Let us first build good roads
from the factory to the farm and
our- people will need no urging to
turn away from the monster
machine-mint that is annually
coining the life-blood of 2,000,000
of their children into profitable
dividends of pelf and greed. Im-
prove the road, the beacon light
and meteor »of civilization, and
the army of 2,000,000 foreigners
coming to our shores every year
shall march on out into the coun-
try and convert the 400,000,000
acre4 of available but idle land
into fertile fields and growing
gardens, and back over the same
road they came, they shall pom-
streams of created wealtu into
the coffers of their adopted coun-
try. An education that will equip
for agricultural efficiency is the
only sane solution of the race
problem. The negro, “the white
man’s burden,” if he is ever to
be made a profitable asset to the
nation and particularly of the
South, must be kept away from
the demoralizing influences of
city life. To do this the farm
must be made attractive and
(Continued on last page.)
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West, W. L. The Polk County Enterprise (Livingston, Tex.), Vol. 6, No. 51, Ed. 1 Thursday, September 8, 1910, newspaper, September 8, 1910; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth660044/m1/3/?q=carry+nation: accessed June 9, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Livingston Municipal Library.