The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-05-19
ROAD BUILDING.
Address of Secretary Wilson at the
Good Roads Convention.


St. Louis. No. May 1s.-James Will
son, secretary of agriculture. today
addressed the convention of the Ma
tional and International Good Roads
association. He said in part:
Road building in the United States
has in the past occupied the same posi-
ton in the minds of men as all other
agricultural subjects have held. It has
been left to the localities of the sew
eral states and territories to make such
roads as their intelligence and ability
enabled them to construct. There has
been no chair in any college or uni
versity Wnere practical road building
has been taught as part of a young
mans education. This has been the
case with most agricultural matters.
A large percentage of the taxes paid
by our people into the treasures of
their respective units of government
has been for education, but very few
have had in view the training of the
people VINO cultivate the soil and who
use the public roads more than other
classes.
Road making has not improved very
materially since Macadam applied
broken rock but it has become an eco
nonic question of great Importance to
the American people.
I'VE have established within the de-
partment at Washington an office for
the study of road material. We are
calling upon young men who have
I
to take practical work with US, so that
we may be able to supply the demands
coming from all parts of the country
for men skilled in the art of road max
ing
'sOur laboratory is designed to assist
each locality in determining the use
of the materials it may happen to
possess Few of our towns and cities
have facilities for doing this work
Many of the failures in road building
in the past are due to the use of ma
terials unsuited to the conditions OF
climate and traffic.
1.-The work of the department of agri-
culture along the line of road building
is intended to be educational and ex-
Derimental as it is along other lines IN
which it is engaged. I am we'll salts
fed that the condition of the public
roads at the present time is a conse-
quent indicator of the amount of ed
vocational work that has been done
along the line of road bu1ldlng. II
what the department is endeavoring TO
do now with regard to helping to build
object lesson roads, which has Deen
done in half the states of the union
and the study of road material for the
information of the people had oeeh
done when our government was or
ganized the people would have under
stood the values of the materials IN al
parts of the United States And 1 am
we'll satisfied also that when the peo-
pie are thoroughly informed in the sew
eraI states and territories with regaIo
10 tba science of road building, there
was no hesitation in levying taxes to
carry on the work
"Facn section Of our country has
,roblems neculiar to itself and to the
go +bat an should have considera-
ton the department of agriculture has
a scientific agent in each Of our great
subdivisions, bringing them into toucn
with the laboratory at washington
THE question will be with US always,
and road making viii be cheapened as
research adds to our knowledge of ma
terials. The knowledge of road max
ing will grow as related sciences are
developed