University of Virginia Library

Bad Roads Hinder Development of Waste Land.

Another great loss sustained by this Nation on account of its
wretched public highways is that it has left undeveloped and uncultivated
more than 400,000,000 acres of available and desirable land in
the United States. If our roads were properly improved this land
would be at once occupied by thrifty and prosperous farmers, thus
adding greatly to the national wealth and power. Farm lands would
greatly increase in value from improved public roads, and the country
population would rapidly increase, greatly to the betterment of
the Nation, both morally and materially.

Some economists have estimated that the annual loss to this Nation
on account of wretched country roads exceeds more than
$400,000,000 annually. I do not believe this is an exaggeration.

There are 850,000,000 acres of improved and unimproved farm land
in the United States. It is estimated by the Agricultural Department
that good roads would increase the value of this land from $2 to $9
per acre. This great increase of value would more than pay for the
cost of improvement.

I feel justified in saying that one of the paramount questions before
the American people to-day is the improvement of our public-road
system. The farmer, in the future, in order to increase his
profits, must reduce the cost of transportation. As the farming lands
of Canada, South America, and Africa are opened and developed, the
farmers of this country will have greater competition. To meet this
competition, they will have to reduce either the cost of production
or the cost of transportation. I hope this Congress will not adjourn
without reducing greatly the cost of production. The cost of production
in this country is greatly enhanced by the excessive tariff
duties imposed upon everything purchased, on account of the Payne-Aldrich
bill.

The Democrats of the House of Representatives have sought to
bring the farmer relief from these excessive exactions by passing a
bill known as the farmers' free-list bill, which, if enacted into law,
will greatly reduce to him the cost of living and the cost of production.
I hope the Senate will promptly concur in the passage of this
bill, and this deserved relief will come to the great agricultural masses.
The cost of transportation to the farmer is composed, first, of hauling
over the public roads, and then over the railroad or steamboat
lines to the markets. Within the last 70 years the cost of transportation
over the railroads and waterways has greatly decreased, while
the cost of transportation over the country roads has been increased.
In 1837 railroad rates were 7⅓ cents per ton per mile. Now it is
estimated that the average cost of hauling by rail is 7.8 mills per
ton per mile, or about one-ninth of the original rate. Seventy years
ago the charge for hauling on the old Cumberland Pike was 17 cents
per ton per mile. This charge permitted a profit. It is now estimated
that the cost to the farmers, without profit, is 23 cents per ton
per mile. Thus, while transportation over railroads has decreased
to about one-ninth of what it was about 67 years ago, transportation
over the public roads has increased about 35 per cent. Water transportation
has so decreased that it now costs the farmer 1.6 cents
more to haul a bushel of wheat 9.4 miles from his barn to the depot
than it does to haul it from New York to Liverpool, a distance of
3,100 miles. This fact strikingly illustrates the importance of road
betterment not only to the farmer, but also to the rest of the country,
who are users and consumers of farm products. The greatest saving
to accrue in the future to farmers from reduced transportation will
come not so much from reduced railroad transportation as from reduced
cost of transportation over the public roads, resulting from
their improvement.

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