Good roads . y roads in Michigan, let not the reader think we arein despair. In fact, the glimmerings of the morning twilight ofa better day are already visible ; and although the county roadwith us, after having belonged to the family of States for morethan half a century, must still be considered in the caterpillarage, not yet having reached the chrysalis state, and many leaguesremoved from the full butterfly development, yet we have suc-ceeded in arousing something like intense agitation of thequestion. There are many bills affecting the road law, beforeour lyCgislature, and it hardly needs
Good roads . y roads in Michigan, let not the reader think we arein despair. In fact, the glimmerings of the morning twilight ofa better day are already visible ; and although the county roadwith us, after having belonged to the family of States for morethan half a century, must still be considered in the caterpillarage, not yet having reached the chrysalis state, and many leaguesremoved from the full butterfly development, yet we have suc-ceeded in arousing something like intense agitation of thequestion. There are many bills affecting the road law, beforeour lyCgislature, and it hardly needs the prophetic eye of theancient seer to predict with certainty that the next decade willdo for Michigan in this matter more than the half century thathas past. THIS EDITOR MUST HAVE BEEN BITTEN. IF you pick up a starving dog andmake him prosperous, he will not bite is the principal difference between adog and a man.— Ex. SOME ECONOMIC PHASES OF GOOD ROADS. J. R. COMMONS,Of the Indiana T J. R. Commons. ^HIS subject involves sev-eral questions. The prin-cipal ones are these : Howmuch is the benefit de-rived from good roads ?Who gets the benefit ? Howmuch does it cost ? Who paysfor it ? Who ought to pay forit? General Stone, of the FederalDepartment of Agriculture, hasfound three independent esti-mates which place the yearlyloss to farmers in the UnitedStates from bad roads at about$600,000,000, equivalent to %\an acre annually. Capitalizedat five per cent., this amount, ifsaved, would increase the value of farm land $20 an acre, or atotal increase of $12,000,000,000. As the total value of allfarms is about $26,000,000,000 this would be an increase of fiftyper cent, in their value. As the total annual value of farmproducts is only $2,600,000,000, one-fourth of its value is lostthrough bad roads. Comparisons have also been made with foreign English horse does twice the work of the American horse,the French horse three times the work ; not bec
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectroads, bookyear1892
