I
Cbe Conservative. 11 i
a good thing for the state , for , while
the new line will not bring a war of
rates the greatest of evils to trade and
industry it will moaii genuine compe
tition between the two great rivals to
secure and retain traffic by good service ,
fair treatment and attention to the needs
of the public. The Southern Pacific
will loss some of the through business
which it had built \\p by its pioneer
risks and labors , but it will share in the
increased trafllc that increased transpor
tation facilities in a good field always
bring , and each line will profit by the
development of its local traffic. The
presence of a competing line in Central
California will stop the false cry of the
chronic complainers that the state is
crushed by a gigantic monopoly , and
will show the grumblers that the fault
is in themselves and not in the lack of
ample transportation facilities and
reasonable rates if they do not prosper.
HAD 1IIOOI > .
When a tree begins to decay at the
heart , it is best , on all accounts , to cut it
down at once and be done with it ; its
case is hopeless.
There are human families in which a
sii"lar diseased condition exists , and for
which there is no more hope than for a
rotting tree. This is not a mere asser
tion of opinion ; it.is a fact , easily proved
by vdata in the possession of every
student of such matters , and up-borne
by instances within the knowledge of
each of us , when once our attention is
called to their significance.
This taint is hereditary ; it may have
arisen from weakness or old age in some
ancestor , from alcoholism , or from any
one of a great many causes. And it
appears moreover to be certain and un
avoidable. That is , when the condition
of weakness , or degeneracy , as it is
called , is once present in a family , the
weakness will appear , iu one form or
another , in every future recipient of the
impaired blood. In one family there
may bo a tendency to deaf-mutism , or
blindness , iu another to tubercular
troubles ; feeble-minded or epileptic
children will begin to appear ; the sons
are likely to become drunkards and law
breakers , and the daughters to mis
behave after their kind.
Nature has provided , as may be seen
everywhere else in the animal and
vegetable kingdoms , that a stock thus
blighted shall speedily become extinct ;
not only because crowded out by the
strong and healthy breeds , but by a
failure iu the reproductive powers of the
family itself. A degenerate blood seems ,
if left to itself , to work out its own
destruction in about five generations.
This desirable end we seem to be trying ,
with our present well-meaning but most
ignorant system of public charity , to
defeat entirely , or at least to postpone
as many generations as possible.
Probably nature will have her way ,
and extinguish every such corrupt line
soon or late ; but how about the many
sound and hopeful sons and daughters
of'healthy families , who have been
sacrificed in the moan time by inter
marriage with these infected stocks ?
Where are our eyes , and where our
sense of responsibility to posterity , that
instead of smoothing the way to merci
ful extinction for such a breed , when
once detected , we lay upon ourselves
instead the burden of maintaining their
useless lives beyond their natural term ;
making existence easy and comfortable
to them , encouraging them to continue
their doomed race , and receiving their
offspring as a sacred trust , to be fostered
and passed on as a burden to our chil
dren ?
Visitors to the Omaha exposition of
1898 know what a baby-incubator is ;
sundry kind-hearted individuals have
attempted to secure one of these devices
for every reformatory institution , that
the prematurely-born children of the
criminal female inmates may be pre
served to fulfill their useful careers in
the world. What does the reader think
of this ; taxing still further the thrifty
and members of the
law-abiding com
munity , many of whom already sacri
fice their own ambition for parentage ,
lest they may be unable to provide as
they should for their children ; and all
that the unlimited reproduction of
tainted and accursed lives by the reck
less and vicious , who have to bear none
of the consequences , may be still further
encouraged ?
MONEY VAtUIS OF GOOD ROADS.
The report of the Maryland geological
survey of 1899 announces that the people
ple of that state have expended over
$6,000,000 in the last ten years on their
common roads ; most of the money has
been wasted in continual repairing.
Many of the roads have no natural
drainage. They are bad roads a part or
all of the time. The survey has made a
careful estimate showing that it costs
the people of Maryland $8,000,000 a year
more to do their hauling over poor high
ways than it would cost if they were
turned into first-rate roads.
This estimate supplements the information
mation collected by the department of
agriculture in 1895 , when , it received
data from over twelve hundred counties
from all over the country and found that
the average cost of hauling a ton load
one mile was 25 cents , while the average
cost in six European countries that
possess improved highways was almost
exactly one-third as much. More than
one factor enters into the cost of hauling ,
but the main reason why our farmers
pay three times as much per mile as
European farmers pay is that they can
haul , on the average , only one ton over
poor dirt roads , while the European
farmer hauls from three to four tons at
a load over flue highways.
No one knows the'Ctptal'mileage of our
common roads , but the.ir length in New
York state is estimatoq-at 128,000 miles.
The more important highways of Massa
chusetts have a mileage 'f 20,500 miles. i
All students of highway Wprovemont
agree that the condition oft iost of the
common roads in America is abont that
of the English roads , early iahis cen
tury , when they were so bad and toll
rates so high that the question of im
provement was forced upon the British
public. England had no railroads then
and if it had not been for the wonderful
development of our railroads the ques
tion of highway improvement would
have come to the front long ago in this
country. The people , however , are
more and more impressed every year
with the fact that road improvement is
necessary to reduce the cost of hauling ,
to make roads fit for pleasure driving
and to save the enormous waste of labor
now expended on bad roads. When wo
fully understand that there is no eco
nomical way to obtain good roads except
by building the best , our practical
education will have made a long step.
This lesson has not yet been learned
thoroughly. Many of our so-called
good roads are not the best , and , there
fore , are not economical. The men who
built them would have done better work
and spent no more money if they had
profited by the experience of England
and France.
Maryland has gone about the work of
road improvement in a way that prom
ises excellent results. The state has
recognized the fact that geological con
siderations are a most important factor
in good road-making. In 1898 the
general assembly passed a bill for the
annual expenditure of $10,000 by the
geological survey in the investigation of
road construction in the state. The
first published result is this comprehen
sive report on the distribution of the
rock material required for good road-
making , on the failure of the "im
proved" roads to meet the needs of
modern traffic , chiefly owing to the fact
that they were built without competent
engineering supervision and without
care as to grades and drainage , and on
many other practical matters. The re
port will help to place road improvement
iu Maryland on an intelligent basis. It
should likewise promote the cause of
good roads throughout the country.
New York Sun.
Charles A. Towno says that he thinks
ho can carry Minnesota and Michigan.
Mr. Towne was once elected to Congress
from Minnesota as a republican. Ho
afterwards rail as a silver republican in
the same district against the regular re
publican. In one fight he was beaten
by 2,000 and in the other by 1,000. Ho
might as well say he can carry Yer-
'mont. Chicago Chronicle ( dem. )