FROM MR. PETREE
He Shows How It Is Costing Us
More To Do Without Good Roads
Than It Would To Build Them===
A Strong Letter.
Editor Panbury Reporter:
While I am for Rood roads and
favor the proposed bond issue
now oefore our people I had not
thought to write anything en
the subject. But since Mr.
Oliver's article appeared in the
Reporter a number of citizens
have insisted (by letter and
otherwise* that 1 write an article
in reply to what he has said
Still it is with some degree if
reluctance 1 am constrained to say
an> thing about it. For 1 realize
that the matter of roads and bonds*
is something whu-h reaches to.
and affects either for good or bad
every liber of our national struc
ture. and 1 feel that the subject
is t''i big for me. and had rather
leave its discussion to wiser
heals However, notwithstand
ir my sense ol weakness and
incompetency in the matter, !
have decided to write ym these
lintnot s.i much as a reply to
Mr. Oliv. r as to set forth my
views 'tile s ibieet.
goir.: further I may
s:i v ti-.a: when 1 was a mere
child Mr. Oliver was my teacher
for u short while, and from that
day t > this. he has e* er had a
warm ; lace in my heart. And
to.liiy. there s no one in the
c.tmmui.! .. f r whom I have
greater respect. He gave
splendid, advice when he insis
ted that with minds void of
passion and prejudice and with
none other than the good of all
at heart, we carefully and serious
ly consider every phase of both
silt s of the proposition before
us, in order to arrive at a correct
c inclusM n as to how we should
act in the matter, and then
> rivr l to do that which we de
cide would be best to make our
county a good place in which
for us and those coming after
us to live. Yes, this is good
adv'o ; and i i my investigation
o: tie subject in hand I have
baen governed by the spirit set
f>rih therein: and I feel sure
that '.ir i'rend has been govern
ed by the same. But whib he,
looking at the matter from his
viewpoints, is led to believe that
to vote the proposed bonds
would be a disadvantage to our
county and »«-nd to make it an
undesirable place for our people to
live in, I, Ico' ing at it from dif
ferent viiwpoiirs or rather from
a different num >er of viewpoints,
am led to see ir in a different
light and be lev > that it would
be an advantage to vote the
b:>nds and tend to make the
county a better place to live in. I
feel sure that this difference of
opinions is not the result of prej
udice but arises from our failure
to see the matter from the
same standpoints. So let us all
try to view the matter from
every conceivable standpoint.
For it is only by considering it
from every side that we can
arrive at a correct conclusion as
to how we should vote on it.
What the Present System Of
Roads Is Costing LJs.
We v ill now look at our pres
ent system and try to see what
our bad roads in Stokes are cost
ing us as compared with the
debt the bonds would bind on
us.
While some claim that the
bonds would run so long we
could vt r pay the debt because
of the accumulated interest, it
should be plain to all that a
sinking fund will be provided,
and that the interest on this,
and the accretions of money and
wealth brought (o our county
by good roads, in the way of
savings in the cost of marketing
our crops, and the many other
advantages the roads would
bring to us would enable us to
Ipiy the debt before it got so
I lar.je.
Before comparing the cost of
bad roads with the cost of the
proposed bonds to build good
ones, I may say that the losses
our county sustains on account
of bad roads are so manifold anil
of such a natuie they are never
considered in their aggregate.
In fact, but very few of them
are ever considered as money
losses at all. For they are
usually of such nature as extra
work performed, extra food and
time onsumed, extra wear and
tear of wagons and harness, and
the shortened life of stock, and
all costs and losses not paid by
a direct money or cash outlay.
But while these are seldom
counted as money losses they
are money losses all the same,
and should be counted as such in
measuring the cost of bad roads
as compared with the cost of
building good roads. It is be
cause we fail to see these tilings
as money losses on the one hand,
and see only the cash outlay on
the other hand, that makes the
bond issue look so big as com
pared with the advantages of
good roads and the disadvantage#
of bad ones.
The Price the I ree Laborers
Are Paying.
Under our present system of
free labor the law requires every ,
man subject to road duty to
work »'> days on the road every
[ year. Ido not know the num
, her of men subject to road duty
. in our crunty. But assuming
I that we have a population of
1 24,000 and that half of these are
malts and supposing that onr> in ;
r every three of these is subject
I to road duty, we would have j
r 4,000 men working 6 days every i
I year. But to be conservative, j
! we will not figure their time at
, what the law requires, but at 3
i days a year. Putting their work
! at one dollar a day they would
\do sl2,''oo worth of work on the ;
roads every year. Multiplying
. this by 30, the number of years
. the proposed bonds are to bear |
. interes r , we have §360,000. We
, will now count the interest on
! this. But as this work would
, not all be done at the beginning, i
but be equally distributed over'
! the 30 year period, we can!
count the interest for only 15 j
. years or half the time. But this
I would give us $324,000 interest.
, This added to the $360,000
, would make $684,000 in all, to be
charged up to our present system.
• And the roads no better than
they were at the beginning.
Another loss chargeable to bad
, roads is the increased cost of
I hauling In order that the
! reader may form some idea
about this, I submit the follow
ing taken from Southern Good
| Roads:
Steep hills necessitate a re
duction in the size of the load
and so increase the cost of haul
ing. A horse that can pull 1,000
pounds on the level, can double
" his exertion on short pulls and
take the same load up a short
" hill of as much as 4 1-3 per cent.
1 grade, but he could not take the
1 same load up a 5 per cent, grade,
nor up a long hill of even 1 or 2
i per cent, grade. The following
I table gives approximately the
i increase in cost of hauling up
t different grades:*
i
Increase in Cost of Hauling a
Load Over Roads of Different
j Grades.
/; 1 per cent, grade, or 1 foot irt
f 100,11 per cent.
II 2 per cent, grade, or 1 foot in
r i 50, 23 per cent.
1 4 1-3 per cent, grade, or 1
j foot in 24, 100 per cent.
fhE DANbURY REPORTED
5 per cent, grade, or 1 foot
|in 20: 150 per cent.
10 per cent, grade, or 1 foot
in 10, 400 per cent.
"Uttluoted from Tattle p.ti. Fiirmers
lliil. i:w I*. *•. Dept. >f Agrleulture.
From this table we gather
that if we can reduce alO per
cent, grade and there are
many such in the mountains—by
changing the road to a 4 1-3 per
cent, grade, we reduce the cost
of hauling one fourth.
The improvement of the sur
face, however, is just as im
portant as the grade. The ap
proximate cost of hauling one
ton over a level road with dif
ferent surfaces is given by Dr.
Joseph Hyde Pratt* as fol
lows :
On broken stone (macadam),
dry and in good order, 8 cents.
On sand-clay road, dry and in
good order, S cents.
On compacted gravel road, 13
cents.
On earth road, dry and hard. 181
cents.
On earth road with ruts and 1
mud. 39 cents.
"I I LIOIHLX MM YEMENI in (IK*
Smith" 111 Anti.iU uf tin l Amerli'iin
Ai"il'iii\ iif I*• illtU-.*i 1 ;111 1 Sm-lal
Si-U'isri's. \ nl. \\\v. No. 1.
It can be seen by this that the
cost can be reduced from one
half to one-fourth simply by im
proving the surface.
The I.oss In hauling Tobacco To
.Market Over lsad Roads.
We can get some idea from
the above to serve as a kind of
basis upon which to figure out
the loss (due to bad roadsi in
hauling our tobacco to market.
I do not know just the .yearly
average number of pounds ot
tobacco Stokes produces. Hut
we will put it at 5.000,000. This
multiplied by 30, the number of
years the proposed bonds are to
run, would make 150,000,000
pounds of tobacco produced by
our people in the 150 years. Now
taking 1,500 pounds as the j
average size load the farmer,
could haul there would be 100,-;
000 loads to haul in that period
of time. But if we had good
1 roads, instead of 1,500 pounds,
each team could easily take;
'2,000 pounds to the load, and
there would be only 75,000 loads
! to haul instead of 100,000. Here, 1
then, are 25,000 fifteen hundred
pound-loads of tobacco to haul
on account of bad roads. Charg
ing six dollars a load or 40 cents
a hundred for this hauling it
would amount to $150,000. This
equally distributed over the 30,
! years would draw $135,000 in- j
terest, and this added to the j
$150,000 would make $285,000.!
But this is not all. This calcula- i
1 tion takes into account only the j
i loss due to the reduction of the j
size of the load hauled, and doesi
| not take into account the extra j
amount of food consumed to;
produce the extra energy over j
and above that which would be'
required to haul the 1,500 pound ;
loads if the roads were good.
Of course I cannot give the
exact cost or loss from this
standpoint, but I will try to
approximate it and make it low
enough by figuring from a con
servative basis. So many pounds
of corn and hay will produce so
many units of energy, and so
many units of energy is equal to
a horsepower, and so much
horsepower will haul a load of
tobacco to market. Men who
claim to know, tell us that a
work horse or mule should have
about one pound of hay per day
for each 100 pounds weight. In
other words, a horse or mule
weighing 1,000 pounds should
i have about 10 pounds of hay per
1 day. We will take 1,000 pounds
| as the average weight of the
( horses and mules in Stokes
I county, and to make an estimate
I low enough we will say that at
1 ordinary work each would do on
1 10 pounds of hay per day. But
[at hard work like two hauling
i 1,500 pounds at a load over bad
! roads, each should have at least
i 2 pounds more or 12 pounds per
day. We have already seen that
in the 30 years there would be
100,0C0 fifteen-hundred-pound
loads of tobacco to market.
And it would take a man and his
team at least 2 days to haul a
load. The two extra pounds of
hay each horse or mule would
consume per day on account of
the increased strain put upon
him by reason of the bad roads
would, when multiplied by the
number of loads hauled and the
number of days it would take to
make a trip, amount to SOO.OOO
jwunds or 400 tons more than
what would be required to feed
the teams while hauling the to
bacco to market if the roads
were Rood. Putting this hay
at twenty dollars a ton it
amounts to SB,OOO.
To make the loss or cost of the
extra grain consumed to get the
tobacco to market, low enough,
we will allow each horse or
mule only 2'more ears per feed,
(of such corn as would shell a
bushel per every 10) ears.) while
hauling. This would m:ike a
(Continued on page 5.1
Ba i r iShoe Store
436 Liberty St.
WINSTON-SALEM, N. C.
Edmunds, Jerome & Johnson
REAL ESTATE
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PHONE 22
WINSTON-SALEM, N. C.
1. 1 :
TAT ONLY OT CHECK
|
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Account At the
Bank.
; ALSO THE SAFEST WAY
I
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the Successful Business Men
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HANK OF ST>KKS COUNTY.
Danbury or Walnut Cove.