Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1900-04-21
NATIONAL HIGHWAY.
GENERAL ROY STONE FAvORS ITS
CONSTRUCTION.
Would BE an Object Lesson In
Road ImprOvement-POs Savings
Banks VIII Help solve the ~ ObIem
of Better Roads.

New York city on the subject of road
Improvement. General Stone said:
Il would be glad if | could trust my
self to advise you as to the line OF ac-
ton you should take in promoting road
Improvement. 1t would seem as though
you might wisely take up some of the
larger problems which we have consid-
cred, but which We're beyond the
means at our control. In this great
country it is often easier to do big
things than small ones. You have on
ly to catch the public fancy and stir up
public sentiment and unlimited means
are placed at your disposal.
There are three great enterp 'ises in
connection with the good roade work.
any one of which is worthy of your
consideration.
"Three years ago, when the price of
steel rails was below n cent a pound.
we were on the point of success in in
Producing the general use of steel
tracks, but for the lack of $1,000 or
$4,000 to pay for new rolls to make
special shapes of rails we were COM
PEELED to patch up our specimen tracks
from shapes already in the market and
thus failed to make them successful
and attractive. When steel comes
down again to normal value. it be-
comes the logical and necessary road
material. All the considerations of easy
traction. cheap maintenance and even
of moderate first cost are in its favor.
"a second great departure which
many of us have advocated looks to
the provision of vast sums of money
at very low rates of interest for the
general construction of highways
throughout the country. 1t involves
the establishment of postal savings
banks and the loan of their funds or
on county bonds issued exclusively for
road improvement and guaranteed by
the state, the rate of interest to be no
more than that paid by the government
on deposits-possibly per ccnt-the
government gaining its compensation
in the improvement Of the highways
and the better and cheaper transporta-
tion of the mails.
"The campaign for postal savings
banks is already half won. and the on
ly serious drawback to il is the difficult
ty of n lack of the proper investment
of the funds. No investment could be
safer than that in public roads. which
add at least tenfold their cost to the
value of the property which is pledged
for the debt The small interest charg-
ed could in most cases he taken out
of the present amount of road taxa
u
good roads in good order. so that the
great result of good roads everywhere
would be brought about without per-
ceptible increase in taxation. while
their benefits would be accompanied by
that increase of rural thrift and ecOnO-
my which would result from an cX-
tension to all the agricultural regions
of convenient savings institutions and
the saving habit
"There are two or three minor meas
urcs of great practical value in the
gradual development of road improve
ment, such as strengthening and broad
ening the work which the department
of agriculture is doing through the di-
vision of road inquiry In order that the
larger educational work may be done
both in the literary department of the
office and in the object lesson work Of
road constructions: such again as devel-
Oping the employment of convict labor
in the preparation Of road materials In
quarry camps. where the convicts can
be guarded and secluded as we'll as in
prisons and where they can have a
healthful occupation, nOncOmpettive
with free labor. and such finally as the
promotion of state aid to road build
ing under which the most substantial
progress in road construction has so
far been made.
"But the third of the grand under
takingS which | would like to COM
mend to you Is the construction of a
great national object less in road i'm
prOvement and in the advance of val
ueS due to good roads. 1t is the build
ing of n national highway across the
continent and along both its shores.
Such a highway, extending. for in
stance. through all the great coast cit
les of the continent. branching north
and south along the Pacific, would
traverse or touch two-thrdS of the
states of the Union. 1t need not be
built by the general government ex-
cept through Indian reservations and
public lands. where the government
itself would reap the profit in the ad-
vancad values. Each state could build
its portion as n part of its own system
and its own object lesson in road con-
structiOn. The national supervision
would Insure the proper location and
connection of the different state Sec
tons in order to form continuous and
well located through line. Such high
way would he the great thOroughfare
Of business and pleasure travel for
vehicles of all kinds. 1t would soon be
lined with villages. villas and model
farms throughout Its entire length, and
the advance in property values would
be so plain that he who runs may
read
"A project so vast may seem like n
vision of drcamland but in all its vast
ness II is only n fraction of what al
ready has been done i'm the cOnStruc-
tiOn of our continental railways. and
1t is no more than fitting adjunct or
sequence of the great transformation
of travel which the successful advent
OF the automobile has wrought for the
future. Such n field for your vehicles
would multiply their use a hundred
fold. Road and vehicle would tit each
other, and together they would worthi-
ly signalize the advent OF the twentieth