For Good Roads

There Is no doubt that the era of the bicycle will date the beginning of the movement in all parts of the country for better roads. There are just as many lively ai-guments for Uhds public roadway reiorm as there arO users öf the wheel. And -wlien so large a proportion of tlie bicycle riders are ladíes lie will be a decidedly ungallant frllöw young or old, who does not go in heartily for a radical improvement of the roads over whicli tbey ride. Moreover, as a general statement, it is unquestionably true that the civilization of any country is indicated by the character oí its roads. It is remarkable liow ranch attentkm is already being given to tlie questicm of good roads. The latest Issue of the Independent, itself a religious journal, gives place to no lees tlian thirteen articles by experts on the subject. Koswell P. Fowler, who whon Governor of Xew York repeatedly urged the subject upon public attention, leads off with some particularly sensible remarks on good roads for farmers. If the farmers of the state desire good roads, lie says, all they need do isto work out their road taxas assessed now under the existing law ; let thein put in aai hone.st day's werk for every da y assessed, or clse pay cash. In one year 2,700,000 davs work were assessed against the farmers of that state, outsidc of the cities aud villages. If only the farmers will not ehirk the road tax, no one, he says, will be stuck in the mud, no barbees will be broken, and one will Have no excuse íor being anything but a Chrisitna when he lides to town. To the wheel, says Prof. . fi. Shaler we owe the fact that he who pleads lor good roads to-day may assume that everybody wishes him success. Hut te urges there must be some fit method lor the training of men lor the duties of roadmaster. There is a Bciesoe, as well as the art, of good road-making, and in the technical schools there should be, as here ia now iu the Lawrence Scienü.ic School of Harvard University, a distinct department íor preparing men for ihighway engineeiiug. AVii-liout thia a good part of the raoney expended 4y incompetent men will l.e wasted on the dismal repetition ol blunders. In Massachusetts the o. fice of highway commissiouer has been created, wliose imluence and counsel will extend all over the sUite. General Roy Stone, chief of the United States bureau of road inquiry, presents some interesting statements on what the national government may do for good roads. A bilí is now berore cungress to créate a national hlghway commisKiom. Investigations made by the oiike road inquiry sustain the estímate made tluit the losses by bad roads in the Uaüted State samount to $000,000,000 yearly. The total area of farm lande in the United Suites is 1,000,000 square miles. With ome inile, of good road íor every square inile of farm area, tihecash valué oí the farm of the country would be enormously increased. But more tliant hat, as Maurice Thompson claims, it is the cold, hard truth to say that broad, clean, smooth higliways are among the strongest and most persistent of moral forces. Good roads,. if they do not, as llr. Thompson claims, doublé the number of good schools, and good churches, and good places of amusement, and good centers of social attraction, will undoubtedly go far toward doubling the number of pereons who will avuil themselves of such advantages. Referring o the splendid roads running out from all diiections f rom nis own Crawfordsville, Ind., he says : "When I want to go ïishing in summer I meet wheelmen and ■wheelwomen, as they whisk past me like birds, at every iurlomg's end ; they all look happy, and belike I have thes ame cast of countenance, for a good íoad makes a light heart." When villagers and farmers alike come to appreciate the all-round valueof good roads, and how practicable it is to have them the great roadway re.'oi-mation will be well under way. - ínter Oce-an.