Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1901-12-13
TO GET GOOD ROADS.
NARROW ROADS AND WIDE TIRES
SOLVE THE PROBLEM.

Military Highways of the Old Ro-
mans Were Made Narrow - Wenr
Better and Cheaper to BuiId-Wide
Roads More Susceptible to Ruts.
L. Lodian, writing in The Motor Age
on 1.-THE Roads of the World" declared
broad tires and narrow roads are the
key to the good roads problem. ut
stands to reason" he says, that IL
road is narrow it is self wearing even.
1t is far more economical to build,
quicker to construct and easier to main
tain when it needs looking after. We
see proofs of this in our own country
dstricts-narrow roads that are al
most hard as adamant, while the wide
roads are often muck burrows"
Continuing, Mr.. Lodian writes: "Au-
tomobiles may be seen running over
roads in Italy that were constructed
more than 1000 years ago-the self
same roads, hundreds of miles long,
over which the Roman lcgions tramped
flushed with victory, over which st.
Paul walked and over which the French
troops so repeatedly marched in the
early part of the century just passed.
And through all those ages of centu-
rics the roads have scarce felt the touch
of repair. In fact, most of them have
never been repaired during 1000 years
of existence simply because they have
never needed repair.
"Whcn the Romans built their splen-
did military roads. they built them on
a sort of self repairing principe-that
is, they built them narrow enough to
compel traffic to wear them down even
ly; for the-what seems to us moderns
-naITowncss of the old Roman roads
has often been a matter of remark.
The real object of this narrowness |
have never yet seen stated in any ex-
position on road engineering other
than the idea being advanced of econ
omy and rapidty of construction. But
l learned the real motive during tray
els in Italy in 1912.
1--WE all know that n wide road is
only too liable to be worn into ruts. The
wider it is the more ruts it will de-
grade into unless sharply looked after.
l have seen some natural made roads
in Siberia quarter of n mile wide, but
such collection of ruts. on the other
hand, during travels in the Mexican re-
public | have seen narrow-say - feet
natural made roads running through
a marshy country almost as hard and
compact and smooth as some of the as
phalted streets of New York, Paris or
Berlin. These roads in Mexico to which
l refer had on either side of them the
! quick mud country. In popular Ian
guage this country is termed quick
sands but. like a good many other
things popular, this is erroneous. The
earth is literally a quick mud, a tena-
cious clay, and sticks like glue to the
clothing if you happen to sink a foot
into it, as did the writer. Among rail
road engineers this quick mud is
known as gypsum and to handle the
trcacherous ground properly has been
a problem in track construction So in
Mexico the traffic. being forced to con-
fine itself in the quick mud country to
IL II foot gauge, has in the course Of
years hammered out track as hard as
first class French highway.
'Now, the Romans built their 1000
year lasting highways purposely mar
row so that the roads should be self
repairing,' self mending,' or self wear
ing even,' or what expression you like
to apply to a road which automatical-
ly. so to speak, keeps itself in good
order for a couple of millenniums.
Since the old Romans never extended
their conQuests to America we are not
possessed of any remains of their
roads. but the traveller in most parts
of Europe will see them. You will
even find them as far north as old
Scotia-since the republic extended its
conquest even unto Caledonia. A sec
tional view of Roman road shows
that the successive layers Of material