Milford chronicle., 1908-12-11

islation planned been put into ex-
ecution.
Now highway experts aided by
the motor car interests and by a
powerful association of London
and its suburbs have turned like
the trodden worm and started an
on the horse.
The claim they advance is that
the polluting of all public thorough
fares is done not by AUTOMOBILE
lists but by horses that if no horses
were allowed to drop organic mat
ter on public thoroughfares, the
dust nuisance would soon be naught
but an unpleasant memory. They
advance the logical statement that
the nuisance created by hundreds
of thousands of horses is detrimen-
tai to public health and a menace
to the pavements, and they charge
that the continual cleansing OF the
streets because of this traffic i'm
poses a vast and an unjust tax
upon the citizens.
1t was a source Of great gratihca-
ton to the American chairman to
be frankly told in both France and
England that this Nation has step
ped ahead of both those Nations in
the testings of materials for build
ing macadam road. Various ex-
periments conducted by the Othce
of Public Roads have developed
the fact that it is possible in road
building to obtain better bonded
surface by mixing rocks, such as
limestone, with silicious rocks,
such as granite or sandstone.
That discovery-embodied in
publications sent out through the
United States Department OF Ag-
riculture-has been adopted by
some of the British highway en-
gineers, and while in England Mr..
Page was driven over a number OF
stretches of splendid highway
built by the blending of such ma
terial, and was commended by
those who built them.
In conjunction with that phase
of highway construction, Mr.. Page
was asked if it would be possible
for his Office to receive about 900
samples of the characteristic road
building rocks of Great Britain and
make laboratory tests of them,
1t was specifically stated in the
official invitation sent from France
many months ago that the Con
gress OF Paris was called for the
purpose of discussing the effect OF
automobile traffic upon public
highways and if deemed detrimen-
tai to devise means of overcoming
the effect. Asked what conclusion
was reached by the Congress, Mr..
Page said that automobile trathc
and its effect was very thoroughly
discussed and that many brilliant
papers were presented, every phase
of the question being treated OF.
AS it was possible to arrive at un-
auimous conclusion, the question
of damage done was left for later
determination. 1t was the consen-
sus of opinion, however, that auto
mobiles driven at ordinary rates Of
speed are not especially harmful to
good highways.
Mr.. Page was especially i'm
pressed by the laws regulating au-
tomobile traffic practically all por-
tions of France and England. I'm
like the laws prevailing in nearly
every section of this country, the
motor car restrictions of those
countries are framed for the pur-
pose of stopping reckless driving
and the officers responsible for their
enforcement are not restricted as
are American officials. No speed
limit provisions are Incorporated IN
the laws of France or England. IT
in the Judgment of an officer, a
motor car driver is reckless even if
proceeding at less than eight miles
an hour, he is subject to arrest. II
on the other hand he is proceeding
at express speed on a broad thor
oughfare, free from other traffic,
and is not endangering the lives or
the property of others, he is well
within his rights and may not be
interfered with.
Ma 81 a Day for Committee Work.