The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1906-04-16
Broad tt Tres Urged

Editor Tribune Your editorial OF
Friday morning, entitled 1.-The Kind OF
Paving" suggests that there is still
another kind of paving that 1t might
be profitable To consider The paving
have In mind is the portable kind; the
kind that each wagon carries along, ana
uses wherever it goes, Longer ago than
some people can now remember, when
l was a farmers boy on the muddy
prairies Of Illionls. we used TO feed our
stock largely on wild slough hay. The
sloughs where we made hay were most
Of them too soft to carry an ordinary
wagon, so when the time came TO haul
hay the old OK cart, with It's broad tires,
was always called into service, and the
hay was moved readily In view of the
fact that at certain seasons the whole
country is a slough, / used to wonder
then, and have been wondering ever
since, why we did not have all our
wagon tires somthing like those OF the
old OK cart, so that we might ride over
the surface of the earth instead Of wal
lowing our way through 1t.
Coming down to more modern times.
the days of the Civil war, and recall
Ing the scenes which all us old hulks
Of the rebellion" have witnessed, tho
miles upon miles Of artillery and wagon
trains that insisted on going to the
deep, Instead OF rolling peaceably over
the earth's surface, as they could ami
should have done; how whole armies OF
us sweat and swore, houndered and
broke our backs trying to lift these
trains along. only to find out when we
got there we were just one day too
late; considering all the delays, LOST op-
portunities md military failures, IT Is
a safe bet that the Civil war cost $780,
100000 too much. simply because the
ordnance and quartcrmaster depart
mentS stupidity insisted then, as they
do now, in making their wheel tires
three inches too narrow. But-dont let
the chief Of staff know I said this, I
don't want to be court-martlaled now In
my old age for disrespeCt to my Inferior
no; l mean superior-oftlcers
But the above is not all OF IT, The
people OF the United States are un-
doubtedly out of pocket q good round
million dollars every day now by de-
lays and extra wear and tear on horse
flesh and vehicles, and something like n
similar sum for the cutting and ripping
up Of roadways, all because everybody
insists on using wagons with narrow
tires
Every broad-tired wagon adds TO the
efficiency OF team from 10 to 40 per
cent. Every broad tired wagon that
passes over a road improves It
Every narrow tired wagon that passes
over a road is a damage 10 it.
Broad-tired wagons made a bad road
passable, a tolerable road excellent and
a good road perfection.
Every narrow tire passing over a soft
road cuts little deeper than the pre-
no
Every broad tire packs the surface
little flrmer
A narrow tire finds all the noles and
cuts them deeper
a broad tire finds the elevations and
smooths them down.
\ light pavement Will stand heavy
traffic on broad tires and endure. where
as a traffic on narrow tires soon de-
stroys n, Even on a heavy pavement.
every load on narrow tire takes lit
tie OF the life out of the paving. while
the same load on broad tire VIII leave
It unharmed.
At long intervals q feeble voice Is
raised advocating broader tires. The
engineering department of the city has
recommended an ordinance regulating
the width of tires, but they are too con-
serYatiVe In their recommendation
a good standard for the width of tires
would be for wooden aXles with thimble
skeins, the with OF tire TO be one and
one-fourth times the diameter of the
arm at the shoulder For iron or steel
aXles, width Of tire TO be two and one
half times the diameter of the arm at
the shoulder.
II cities, counties and States would
make this the legal standard for all We
hicles using the public roads and exact
i sharp license against all not conform
Ing to the standard. they would do a
good and sensible thing
IL would be a mercy to our faithful
servant, the horse, and besides 1t would
put good money into the pocket of his
owner and save good money 10 the tax
payers in the way OF road repairs. and
besides. again, the good roads" uucs-
ton would, at stroke. be more than
half solved
OF course, nobody will reasonably ey-
pect this TO be full substitute for paw
ing and roadmakiEg Go on and do all
the paving and roadmaklng you can.
the more the better, but having In
CURED the expense. don't let your work
be ripped UP and go for half value
through the use of knife edge. foolish
wagon tires. OLD TIMER