The National Good Roads Campaign Book. Price 20 cents. GOLDEN ROADS (abridged edition) The Good Road is the Golden Road By LEIGH H. IRVINE Author of: The Struggle for Bread, The Magazine Style-code, A A History of California, An Affair in the South Seas, A History of Humboldt County, The Palace of Western Edition Published by LEIGH H. IRVINE San Luis Obispo, Cal. T HIS epitome of the original work represents Golden Roads as it would be seen through a diminishing glass, or as one would view a landscape by looking through the reverse end of a telescope. Should these pages lead the reader to desire further information on the subjects treated, I shall be glad to hear from him with a view to supplying amplifications. In sundry respects a digest of a digest, or an epitome of an abridgement, is certain to prove a disappointment. Being a guide-post containing somewhat explicit directions, however, it may serve a useful purpose wherever the people of a community are earnestly trying to improve city streets and country roads. The author, who is "on the job" to forward the building of a lateral from the beautiful beaches of his own County to the great San Joaquin Valley, and who has long been engaged in good roads campaigns by tongue and pen, often "converting" hostile audiences to the cause of progress, feels that his experience in field-work enables him to say that Golden Roads supplies the very information the public requires. As an editor, a public speaker, and an author, the writer of Golden Roads feels that it is a step in the right direction. Leigh H. Irvine, Secretary, Chamber of Commerce and Secretary, Valley to Coast Highway Association. San Luis Obispo, Cal., March, 1916, E WHY THIS BOOK? VERY editor, legislator, public speaker, or other person who advocates the building of modern highways to supplant the haphazard, unimproved roads which disgrace the larger part of every state in the Union should be able to give logical reasons for the faith that is in him. Intelligent readers and auditors, sitting as jurors who are to pass on tax levies and bond issues, demand facts. Why increase taxes? Why vote bonds? How long will the road last? What is the best type of construction for our section? What form of bond is the best? These and scores of like questions can not be evaded without danger to the good roads cause. Talking "in the air" and writing glittering generalities will not make converts who will work for that form of community development which finds expression in the construction of modern roads. If improved roads have helped farmers and towns, and if bad roads have retarded development, destroyed schools, and made times bad, where are the proofs? Who says this and that? and where and why did he say it? There should be a definite place for information of this character. It is at present scattered and inaccessible to the general reader. It is impossible for a writer or speaker to convince a doubtful farmer, a hostile clientele, or an audience "from Missouri" unless he can show them just what a modern road can do for the individual and the community. Yet it is shamefully true that many willing workers are unable to lay their hands upon the very facts so eagerly desired. The facts are hidden in many scattered volumes and reports. It is common knowledge that whenever bond issues or like propositions affecting highways are submitted to the public there is a demand for information on almost every phase of the good roads problem. Where is this information to be found without ransacking great libraries? Nowhere. This is the regrettable reply to the call for knowledge. There should be a popular book on good roads and why we need them. It should treat of construction, cost, maintenance, and similar features; and it should emphasize the economic, social, and educational benefits of modern highways. Concrete and convincing examples showing the value of good roads should abound in such a work. It should be a book for the average voter rather than a treatise for engineers. |