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Improves Health Conditions.

The public road bears a direct relation to the public health. Although
this is sufficiently obvious to those who have given attention
to the matter, it is nevertheless a subject that has been overlooked
by the general public. Figures and statistics do not apply to the
discussion of this phase of the question, but experience and observation
will justify the statement that many an infant has been sacrificed
at birth, owing to the difficulty experienced by the doctor in
reaching the farm at the proper time. Every country doctor is an ardent
advocate of road improvement, since he knows better than anyone
else the direct bearing that the condition of the roads has upon
his ability to get about and provide the aid and succor which it is his
business to supply. The impossibility of rendering first aid to the
injured, whether child or adult, over bad roads, is undoubtedly responsible
for many deaths and deformities.

The danger of spreading disease by means of dust and poor drainage,
particularly in relation to tuberculosis and typhoid fever, emphasizes
the fact that the condition of the public highways is a subject
that can not be overlooked in any earnest inquiry into the compelling
reasons for systematic road improvement. It has been said
that the public road is the main dust factory of a nation, and the
thoughtful man can not deny the truth of the statement.