as city people well know. "The citizens of Birmingham," said the mayor
of that city, "enjoy the benefits of fresh products raised on the farms
along these [improved] roads. The dairymen, the truck farmers, and
others ... are put in touch with our markets daily, thereby receiving
the benefits of any advance in farm products."

Poor roads are like the interest on a debt, and they are working against
one all the time. It is noticeable that when good roads are built,
farmers, who are always conservative, adjust themselves more readily to
conditions. They are in touch with the world and they feel more keenly
its pulse, much to their advantage. Too many farmers, damned by bad
roads, are guilty of the faults of which Birmingham's mayor accused
Alabama planters: "The farmers in this section," he said, "are selling
cotton today for less than seven cents per pound, while they could have
sold Irish potatoes within the past few months at two dollars per
bushel." Farmers over the entire country are held to be slow in taking
advantage of their whole opportunities; bad roads take the life out of
them and out of their horses; they think somewhat as they
ride--desperately slow; and they will not think faster until they ride
faster. It is said that a man riding on a heavy southern road saw a hat
in the mud; stopping to pick it up he was surprised to find a head of
hair beneath it: then a voice came out of the ground: "Hold on, boss,
don't take my hat; I've got a powerful fine mule down here somewhere if
I can ever get him out." You can write and speak to farmers until
doomsday about taking quick advantage of the exigencies of the markets
that are dependent on them, but if they have to hunt for their horses in
a hog-wallow road all your talk will be in vain.

When we seriously face the question of how a fine system of highways is
to be built in this country, it is found to be a complex problem. For
about ten years now it has been seriously debated, and these years have
seen a large advance; until now the problem has become almost national.

One great fundamental idea has been proposed and is now generally
accepted by all who have paid the matter any attention, and that is that
those who live along our present roads cannot be expected to bear the
entire cost of building good roads. This may be said to be settled and
need no debate. Practically all men are agreed that the rural population
should not bear the entire expense of an improvemen