The Harrison Times

VALUE OF UNITING SHORT STRETCHES
OF GOOD HIGHWAYS.

A Review of the Present Conditions
and a Demonstration of the Neces-
sity For Improvement as Stated by
Colonel W. L. Dickinson.

At the recent annual meeting of the
Springfield (Mass.) Automobile club
Colonel W. L. Dickinson, chairman of
the executive committee of the New
York and Chicago Road association
spoke as follows on the movement for
continuous good roads, says the Munic-
ipal Journal and Engineer:

"The movement for better roads is
gradually spreading over the entire
country. Their value is so universally
understood that undoubtedly within a
few years nearly every state in the
Union will have taken some action
toward improving its highways. The
good example set by those eastern
states which have given state aid has
been followed until seventeen states
of the Union have taken steps in imi-
tation of these pioneers. I do not mean
to say that all of the seventeen have
made large appropriations of money,
but they have all provided some state
authority to have jurisdiction in the
matter of road improvement.

"During the past few years we have
been building short stretches of good
roads to demonstrate the value of such
roads. Their value has been fully es-
tablished, and their cost cannot be
compared with the great benefits de-
rived. The time has now arrived when
we should connect these short stretches
of roads to make continuous good
roads or trunk lines leading across the
country in various directions, giving
first class roads to the various centers
of trade, which will particularly bene-
fit the rural districts.

"Hon. James I. MacDonald of Con-
necticut is the first state highway com-
missioner to recommend a state appro-
priation for connecting these links to
make continuous good roads. An ap-
propriation for this purpose has been
made by the Connecticut legislature.

"With a continuous good road farm-
ers can haul their products to market
with a great saving of horses, vehicles
and time as compared with a poor road
or one which has short sections in good
repair with most of it in poor condi-
tion. A perfectly good road enables
them to deliver their products at any
time and take advantage of a favora-
ble market.

"The benefits derived from continu-
ous good roads are of great commer-
cial value to the country, affecting all
branches of trade. Reducing the cost
of transportation of our products to
market results in a reduction of the
cost of these products to the consumer.
A large percentage of the freight car-
ried by the railroads and on our water-
ways is first hauled over our common
roads. All transportation companies
should be greatly interested in the con-
struction of well built roads, capable
of being used at all seasons and in all
weathers, as such roads would assist
in preventing congestion and in equal-
izing their freight traffic.

"In large cities where roads are good
the motor truck is rapidly displacing
the dray horse. It is cheaper, more
convenient, more efficient, more busi-
nesslike and more cleanly. Large motor
trucks are used for freighting purposes
and the delivery automobile is used by
merchants to deliver their goods. Ex-
press companies use them to collect
and deliver express matter. Under fair
conditions they everywhere seem to
perform their work with convenience
and efficiency. In the west the farmer
uses the traction engine to plow, har-
row and seed his land and cut his
grain. With the great improvements
that are constantly being made in the
manufacture of motor vehicles it is
fair to assume that the day is not far
distant when they will be used by the
farmer to carry his products to mar-
ket. The motor vehicle is certainly al-
ready a success, and how long a list
of other important uses the future will
show no one can predict. The automo-
bilist and the farmer should get to-
gether and work for good roads.
There
is
growing
sentiment
throughout the country that the federal
government should appropriate money
to assist in building trunk lines of
roads. Large sums of money have been
expended by the national government
to improve our waterways, to encour-
age the building of trunk lines of rail-
roads and to build roads in the Philip-
pines. It would seem as if public con-
venience and necessity demanded that
the same government should equally
assist in the internal development of
our country by improving the high-
ways. It seems strange that a country
which leads the world in progressive-
ness should allow its roads to get into
such a deplorable condition, ours be-
ing the only civilized country that
has neglected its highways. European
countries have national systems of
roads, the best features of which could
well be copied by this country to its
great advantage.

"The different elements favorable to
improving our highways should unite
and urge favorable action by congress.
The people of this country are awaken-
ing to the economic importance of this
great reform, which in the near future
will become our next national work for
internal development. It calls for con-
centrated action, and all those interest-
ed in this great problem should do every-
thing in their power to aid the move-
ment for better roads and to insure the
construction of a system of highways
which will meet the real needs of the
country."