The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1908-08-07
VOX POPULI
ALLEN ROGERS ON The
GOOD ROADS QUESTION

". Howe, of your city takes issue with
me in regard to the value of so-called
petrOlithic paving which | claim Is
worthless so far as il applies to Flori-
da. / base my claim on my experience
as a practical Florida road builder,
from personal experiments made with
crude petroleum, and from a street
made with oil here by California ex-
pert
Mr.. Howe saws. but the California
system Of road construction has never
been tried in Jacksonville 1t has just
the same and at considerable expense
Some time last summer an expert
oil road builder of San Francisco was
induced to come TO Florida by gentle
men who had faith in oil roads some
Of whom had travelled over hundreds
OF miles of such roads in California,
and when the gentleman from the Pa
cific slope came highly recommended
/ he went to work under 4 guarantee
to build a high class road
J That no mistake may he made as
TO the California system having been
/ tried out here ] am sending Mr.. F. F.
| Bingham circular prepared by James
w Abbott special agent for the office
of Public Road Inquiry, Agricultural
Department Washington, D. c., with
request that Mr. Bingham point out to
you the prominence given by Uncle
Sam to Mr.. De Camp as an expert IL
making oil roads By reference to
pages 444-447-44S and Asa (markedD
| it will be seen that Mr.. Dc Camp has
| invented "A machine for applying oil
to roads; that ne has also invented an
instrument superior to Baume's hydro
meter for determining the amount OF
asphalt contained in the oil. The oil
used in the experiment here was Sc
!ected by Mr.. De Camp and said by
him to contain enough asphalt
| There can be no doubt that the man
who tried the oil road here is an ex-
pert: that his machinery Is first-claSs.
and his oil Just what he said he need
ed. The oil. the machinery. the ma
terial, the road, all are here open TO
| inspection.
The road builder fell down through
his belief that conditions ought to he
| the same on the Atlantic as they
were on the Pacific coast, while those
who sent for him when they found
themselves in the wilderness made the
mistake of sending to far of coun-
| try to get q Moses to show them the
sort of road 20 get out on Had the
IsraeIites waited for California Mos
es they might still be wandering IN
the wilderness signing for the flesh
pots of Egypt
| Mr.. Abbott made his report on oil
roads about 1901 which was published
| in the Yearbook for 1902. Since thea
California has learned more of social
/ ed petroIithIc roads as the enclosed
letter of Mr. Griffith of Fresno shows
| The Governor and many prominent
men met ar Stockton, California on
June 1st of this year and organized
a State Good Roads Association. the
| Governor in his speech said, Il am
satisfied that the State can build 3,oOO
miles of good macadamized roads and
| never miss the money We can con-
struct from Redding to Los Angeles,
another from Tehama to Vallejo, from
tSan Francisco to Los Angeles and on
| to San Diego. Every valley in the
! State can have its highways. With
such a quantity of road construction
| the cost per mile will range from
s.. ZOO to $4,000, costing the entire
State but S1S.000,000 But in the en-
tire proceedings extending over two
days no mention of petroithIc roads
/ is made.
] Los Angeles was one of the first to
use oil roads. About 500 miles of road
are recommended. all of which will be
/ of macadam- with general width OF
/ so feet for the roadway. the central
t16 #. being macadamiZed and the
/ metaIing f1anked on either side by I
/ it. earth shoulders. All of the bridges
will be of either concrete or steel
/ These two California meetings are re-
| ported in full in Good Roads Magazine
! for July. a copy of which | am send
1 ing MIR Bingham for your inspection
Probably the best that can be said
of oil as a road material is LAT 1t Is
! tolerable where nothing else can be
had Nv information is they are Civ
| ing it up in California, tho only place
| where any success was ever claimed
/ for it. Alone or mixed with other
things IL has been found valuable for
over coming dust and holding small
particles to the surface of hard roads
| Nevertheless. it should be plain to
every man who ever built a mile of
road in Florida that il is worthless as
road material, while those familiar
with road work II Florida should
know that good material for road con
stTuctipn can be found almost any
place in the State.
My sole object in writing TO Mr..
/ Bingham was to advise the people OF
! Pensacola and EsCambia against taking
a false step that would put them back
ward instead of forward IL a work
/ that should enlist the best efforts OF
our entire citizenship.
/ ALLEN ROGERS.