That good roads in good condition are always of great value in a military point of view is plain enough; for any section of active operations the prompt transportation of material and the moving of an army would demand it. --_Major General Oliver O. Howard, United States Army._ The importance of good roads has been brought to my attention most forcibly on many occasions when my wagon trains have been forced to move at a snail’s pace over almost impassable roads, and when every hour’s delay might mean untold disaster. The expenditure of animal force on such occasions was fearful. In times of peace good roads are no less important; the general condition of country roads is a very good index of the civilization and prosperity of the community. It is not difficult to show by mathematical deduction that money expended in constructing good roads is economy from a financial standpoint, while from a social standpoint the benefits are incalculable. We have splendid railroads traversing the whole country in every direction and we have in most cities very creditable means of rapid transit, but the country roads in most parts of the United States are really deplorable. This condition of affairs is something like putting a boy at work on Latin and Greek before he has mastered the alphabet of his own language. --_Brig. Gen. D. K. Stanley, United States Army._ The above are only a small portion of the letters from which they were extracted, but they serve to show that the League of American Wheelmen and such men as Colonel Pope were very active in spreading the gospel of good roads. The arguments in these and hundreds of other letters, from men of all classes and professions, of all political parties from all parts of the nation, cover a very wide range and the effect has been lasting. About this time, also, Senator Charles F. Manderson, of Nebraska, introduced a concurrent resolution in the Senate to print a lot of consular reports relating to streets and highways in foreign countries and distribute them in bulletin form. The edition consisted of 30,000 and served to show how the United States was lagging behind other countries in the matter of road building.[133]