62 ROAD IMPROVEMENT IN NEW YORK.

seems strange that this condition of things should go on un-

changed, yet it still prevails in most towns of the state and a
revolution toward a better system can only be accomplished
after many efforts and much public discussion.
has always seemed to me that if the people of the state
It
could have forced home to them two facts: first, that good
macadam or gravel roads are in the long run the cheapest, as
regards both construction and maintenance; and, second, that
they are inestimably more profitable, both in lessening the cost
of transportation and in improving the value of property, it
would not be long before our present wretched and dilapidated

I r

" IT SEEMS STR\N^rTE TH \T THIS CONniTION OF THINGS SHOUI.D GO ON, UNCHANGED."

VIEW OF COUNIRY KO\D AT EN RANGE OF MARKET TOWN, SHOWING DEEP MUD
I

WHICH MAKES 1 HE ROAD IMPASSABLE FOR LOADED FARM WAGONS. (FROM PHOTO-
GRAPH TAKEN APRIL, i8q2.)

dirt roads would be replaced by a fine system of substantial high-

ways. With a view to emphasizing this question of cost, I some-
time ago sent circular letters to the nine hundred and odd town
clerks of the state, asking them to furnish me information as
to the number of days' work assessed and performed upon the
highways of their town during the last year for which statistics
were available, and also, in addition, the amount of moneys
raised and expended for the same purpose. I have received
replies from only about half of the towns, but using these replies
as a basis for making conservative estimates, I find, counting
each day's work as valued at one dollar, that the money cost of
 :

ROAD IIMPROVEMENT IN NEW YORK. 63

our present efforts to maintain our hig-hways outside of cities

and villages, is over $3,000,000 a year, or an average cost of
something over $50,000 for each county
Now the question which every taxpayer must ask himself
when he is urged to consider the question of road improvement
is whether this enormous expenditure is producing any commen-
surate results, and the general admission, I venture to say,
will be that it is not. The next question which presents itself
therefore is how this same amount of money and effort can be
expended so as to produce commensurate results, and here is
opportunity for difference of opinion as to which methods are
most practicable and the wisest.

"WHETHFK THIS IXORMOUS EXrrxmi URE IS PROnUCIN'O AN\" Cn^r^IE^'SURATE RE-

bULTb." VIEW OF COUNTRY DIRT ROAD AT ITS BEST, SHOWING THE LOOSE, HEAVV
SURFACE WHICH MAKES TEAMING EXPENSIVE. (FROM PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN IN
ONEIDA COUNTY, N. Y., IN JULY, i8g2.)

In the discussion of the subject of good roads four plans of

improvement have been suggested
1. National roads —laid out through states and territories at
national expense and under supervision of a national govern-
mental bureau.
2. —
State roads laid out through the counties of a state at
stateexpense and under state supervision,
3. County roads —
laid out in each county, connecting the
various towns in the county, built at county expense and under
the supervision of the board of supervisors.
4. Town roads —
laid out through each town, at town expense
and under supervision of town authorities.
64 ROAD IMPROVEMENT IN NEW YORK.

To the plan I am tinalterably opposed,

first I can see no
reason whythe general government should undertake such a
work. In these days of improved railroad and water communi-
cation, national highways can serve no purely national purpose.
They are needed neither for inter-state commerce nor for trans-
portation of troops and military supplies. They could be

"I HAVE RECOMMENDED WHAT IS KNOWN AS THE COUNTY ROAD SYSTEM." VIEW OF
IMPROVED (MACADAM) ROAD IN UNION COUNTY, N. J., CONSTRUCTED UNDER THE
RECENT NEW JERSEY LAW WHICH PROVIDES FOR CONSTRUCTION AN D MAINTENANCE
OF ROADS UNDER COUNTY DIRECTION. SIXTY MILES OF SPLENDID ROADS HAVE
BEEN BUILT IN UNION COUNTY UNDER THIS LAW AND OTHER COUNTIES ARE MOV-
ING VIGOROUSLY IN THE SAME DIRECTION.

built now on any comprehensive scale only under the broadest

construction of the general welfare clause of the constitution.
To the second plan I am also opposed. I do not think, in
the first place, that it is a feasible method, for it would not
 ROAD IMPROVEMENT IN NEW YORK. 65

commend itself sufficiently to public confidence. However

honest the impulse behind it and however economically such a
policy was carried out, it would always be criticized as a political
scheme, designed to serve the purposes of the party in power.
The failure of the so-called Richardson bill in the New York Leg-
islature during the past three 5"ears is a sufficient indication of
the popular temper on this method. In practice the plan of a
system of state roads would probably lead to extravagance in
cost and favoritism in the location of the public highways.
In my recent annual message to the legislature I rec-
—
ommended the third method what is known as the county
—
road system giving the two following reasons for the unsatis-
factory character of the present town "working" system:
" First. The tendency in each little district is to make roads
only for its own inhabitants and not for the inhabitants of other
districts. The character of each leading market road through-
out its entire length thus tends to keep down to that of the
worst road in any one of the little districts into which it is subdi-
vided. The load the farmer can carry to market is determined
by the worst point in the entire road he must traverse. The
people of each district naturally say, if the other districts will
'

not make good roads for us, they do not deserve that we should
make good roads for them, and there is but little advantage in
our making such short strips of good road for ourselves. Under '

such a system there can be no concerted action for a tmiformly

good market road, and the inevitable result is a uniformly bad
road.
"Second, The smaller the area of taxation the more eco-
nomical will be the taxpayers, whether the tax be paid in labor
or money. The county road district is the smallest area of tax-
ation in the state, and by the inevitable tendency of human
nature the country roads receive the stingiest treatment of
any of the public works. Each locality is extravagant enough
in its demands for local improvements at the state expense, for
each inhabitant of the locality thinks that the rest of the state
pays the entire tax. But each inhabitant of a road district
naturally seems to think that he is paying all the expense of
any improvement in his local road."
Between these two extremes of extravagance in state ex-
penditures and stinginess in local expenditures I suggested the
county road system as the golden mean. "At least the lead-
ing market road in each county should be maintained by
cotmty taxation, expended imder the supervision of a compe-
tent county engineer, subject to the general direction of the
board of supervisors. It is suggested that the legislature
should pass a general law prescribing certain kinds of im-
proved roads, outlining the methods of raising and expending
the necessary moneys, and authorizing any county, upon the
66 ROAD IMPROVEMENT IN NEW YORK.

vote of the board of supervisors, to avail themselves of the pro-

visions of the statute."
I am prepared to go farther than this, however, and
authorize any town to take advantage of analogous provisions
if its taxpayers so vote.
Such legislation should be permissive, not mandatory.
While it is to the interest of the state that the highways of
each county should be in good condition, the movement for im-
provement should originate with the people of the county upon
whom the cost must fall and who share the largest measure of
advantaofe. Whether the various counties would avail them-

" WE HAVE 250.000 FARMERS IN THE STATE WHOSE CROPS MUST BE TRANSPORTED BY
HORSE POWER FROM THE FARMS TO THE MARKETS. WHO WILL ESTIMATE THE AD-
DITIONAL COST TO THESE 250,000 BY THE WEAR AND TEAR ON WAGONS AND HOKSLS
WHICH BAD ROADS IMPOSE?" ROAD SCENE AT ENTRANCE OF NEW YORK VILLAGE,
SHOWING CONDITION OF IMPORTANT FARM COUNTRY ROAD IN MAY, 1892. (FROM
PHOTOGRAPH.)

selves of the provisions of such a general statute as I have

outlined, is of course an open question. I have confidence that
they would. But any substantial reform requires agitation, and
such excellent work as the publication Good Roads is doing
will accomplish much toward stimulating popular interest and
inducing local action.
The $3,000,000 now annually spent in work and money on
the roads of this state would build five hundred miles of good
macadam road. It would pay the interest and contribute
 ROAD IMPROVEMENT IN NEW YORK. 67

toward the sinkings fund on a bonded indebtedness sufficient to

build 10,000 miles of good substantial highways.
As citizens of "the richest and most powerful state in the
Union we cannot afford to be backward in this national move-
ment for better roads. We have more at stake in this regard
than most states. We have a beautiful and picturesque rural
territory which attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors from
other states every summer and whose value and attractiveness
might be immeasurably enhanced by an earnest and intelligent
effort to improve its highways. We have thousands of square
miles of agricultural land which would be vastly increased in
value by better means of highway communication. We have
250,000 farmers in the state whose crops must be transported
—
by horse power from the farms to the markets; who will esti-
mate the additional cost to these 250,000 by the wear and tear
on wagons and horses which bad roads impose?
These material advantages have but to be pressed home to
our farmers and to our other taxpayers and soon there will dis-
appear any vestige of opposition to road reform.

The total sum raised by taxes for all purposes in the State
of New York, in the year 1891, was about $60,000,000, of which
the town and county tax amounted to about 90 per cent, and
the state taxes (proper) less than 2^ per cent. The smallest
total of assessed valuation in any county was about $2,000,000,
being the Hamilton County assessment.

The State of New York

has never expended a single dollar
for the permanent improvement of her roads nor for the collec-
tion or distribution of information which might add to the
knowledge of her people in the construction and maintenance
of the common hisrhwavs.

During the twenty years thousands of appliances and

last
conveniences designed to quicken the travel, to simplify and
cheapen the business transactions and to enhance the social
condition of the people, have been introduced among the popu-
lous cities and villages, which, almost without exception, have
enlarged in population, wealth and commercial importance.
Meanwhile the farmer has been denied the advantages of these
improvements, and is travelling at the same rate and doing
business in miuch the same way that was followed by his father
and his grandfather. Result Out of sixty counties within the
:

State of New York, the census shows actual decrease in

population in twenty-one counties, all agricultural, within the
last ten years.