Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1909-06-15
ROM TWO STATES
GOOD ROADS MEN
MEET AT DALTON
Continued From Page One

that her delegation would leave that city
for Dalton at o'clock. The first word
came from the Chattanooga cars while
they were still struggling through the
mud roads north of Dalton, and large
delegation of Dalton citizens in several
automobiles went out to meet them.
Tough roads were encountered, now
ever, by the Chattanooga caravan, and
the first car of the procession did not
arrive until half an hour after noon. 1t
was met two miles north of Dalton by the
White steamer carrying The Journal and
Herald party, and was escorted into Dali
ton by that car, the banners of Atlanta
and those of Chattanooga flourishing to-
gether down the road to the waiting
throngs in the park and court house
grove. Thus was the union of Atlanta
and Chattanooga over the great military
road of the future between those two
places, symbolized before the eyes of the
Dalton congress by The Atlanta Journal
and the Chattanooga News in the two
White steamers under their standards
that drew UP at the court house amid
the cheers of the multitude-the first to
mark the completion of the congress for
which the North Georgia Citizen, of Dali
ton in 1903, sounded the first assembly.
From mat moment through the succeed
ing hour arrived the cars from Chattanoo-
ga, singly and in pairs and groups. When
the last of them rolled in. their number
was sixteen and they had brought to the
congress almost a hundred delegates.
MAYOR MADDOX SPEAKS.
While the Chattanoogans were still
coming, the congress was formally called
to order and began its proceedings. The
first speaker after the Introductory re-
marks of welcome and response. was
Mayor Robert F. Maddox, of Atlanta.
Boundary lines, especially those sepa-
rating counties, are never more than
imaginary, said Mayor Maddox, but the
movement for good roads has wiped out
even the Imagination of them in Georgia.
II should be so, he said. Boundaries
should be eliminated. and in the move
ment for good roads all citizens should be
united for action in behalf of their own
interests. The good roads agitation, he
said, is one tngt concerns everybody. 1t
is the most important movement, perhaps,
in the history of the state.
Mayor Maddox told of his visitit during
the morning. as a guest in the White
steamer of The Atlanta Journal and the
New York Herald to some Notifications
Of civil war days, on a hilltop near Dali
ton.
He had noticed, he said, that the soil
of the hill is practically that from which
ebert roads are built. 1t had occurred to
him, he said, that it would be in accord
WITH the eleTHdl ulu6SS VI lAAluSS IL lllOoO
very slopes where brother once fought
brother and down which flowed their min
gled blood over scenes of carnage, could
be converted into highways offering ready
communication between north and south
and encouraging fraternal intercourse
among the sons and descendants of the
men who fought there.
HR. GRAY SPEAKS.
James r. Gray editor and general man
ager of The Journal, again emphasized
his arraignment of the mistaken opinion
still here and there prevailing, that the
projected highway between New York
and Atlanta and its offspring, the short
er highways that are to be improved
from present bad roads all over the state
| and south, are connected with any move
| ment fostering automobiles or touring.
| The automobile, he said, is being en-
! ployed merely as an agent in the cam
paign for no other reason than that 1t
| is the greatest road-builder.
Politics, said Mr.. Gray have no part
| in this movement. 1t is a campaign for
| good roads, and it disregards party and
J partisan lines. Politics, he said, cannot
be brought into II; cannot be mixed
! with 1t. Any politicians whose aim is
/ selfish would do we'll to keep hands off.
Mr. Gray told of the union of The
| Journal with the New York Herald in
|
Of the great movement that has swept the
! south. He extolled the Herald and paid
| tribute to il as a powerful ally with which
| The Journal is proud to be associated.
| He told of the tours already made by the
scout cars of the two papers, and of the
one on which they start forth for the
north Monday morning.
| DALTON HAS GOOD CHANCE.
/ IT wish to tell you, gentlemen, of Dali
ton, that your city stands an eminent
chance for a position on the historic high
way which those scouts are working to
| lay out" said Mr.. Gray. Before the
route of the highway is finally decided,
your roads through here will be thor
oughly looked over by them. would ad-
wise you, therefore, to show them the
best you have, and to right now set
about improving your roads"
J Roby Robinson, business manager of the
Atlanta Constitution, read a letter ad-
dressed to the people Of Dalton and dele
J gates to the good roads congress by Jo-
! seph NJ. Brown, governor-elect of Geor-
| gia, regretting his inability to be present
and pledging his efforts and administra-
ton to the movement for highway better
ment Mr.. Robinson, on his own behalf,
advanced impromptu argument for the
same cause.
| G. F. Milton, general manager of the
| Chattanooga News and the Knoxville
Sentinel, praised Georgia for having taken
| the lead In the good roads campaign that
| is now stirring the south. Tennessee is
glad to follow the good example, he said,
/ and is about to spend four million dol
| lars upon her roads. The scheme Of the
| highway between Atlanta and Chatta-
nooga over the line of Sherman and John
sons fighting said Mr.. Milton, contem-
plates ultimately the marking of all in
| teresting war points along its course. The
! campaign for that highway. he said, will
| probably extend to the reservation of the
on road between Chattanooga and Bris-
toll
c. T. Alexander, of the new Hotel Pat
ten, of Chattanooga, said 1--WE southern
ers have a habit Of exchanging compli-
ments whenever we get together, but the
time has come so far at least as good
roads are concerned, for plain talk" And
he did some plain talking himself, not
hesitating to pretty severely characterize
the roads which he and the rest Of the
Chattanooga party had come over that
morning to Dalton.
GLORY ENOUGH FOR ALL.
Hamilton Peltz, of the New York Her
aid. said that he felt confident that he
lvoiced the opinion of both the New York
Herald and The Atlanta Journal as the
pioneers in this great undertaking, when
he welcomed the cooperation OF the At
llanta Constitution, Chattanooga News,
Il