The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1909-07-28

The autos will have to look out
when Uncle Sam gets after them.
They can run the farmers off their
roads and do about as they please sc
far as they are concerned. They can
run at a speed of thirty. forty or
even fifty miles an hour, although
the law restricts them to twenty
miles, and the farmer cannot prove
the violation of law, or If he could,
in most cases, he cannot identify the
owner or driver by the number on
his car, going at such a speed, and
he goes on his way with impunity.
But Uncle Sam can determine the
rate Of speed and read the number
on the car by means of instantaneous
picture machines.
1t is encouraging to learn that off,
cial government tests are being made
In the vicinity of Washington regard
ing the damage done to roads by
heavy machines at high speed. Some
good will grow out Of the testing
work, in other directions as well.
Results thus far obtained show that
at a speed of a mile a minute the
best macadamized roads are cut to
pieces in a very short time. With
speed reduced the damage is much
less. The tests are still in progress.
When the road Is oiled with crude
petroleum, or some other lubricant,
but little destruction is done.
TIE farmers will strenuously resist
any attempt to compel them to pay
for oiling their roads. No legislature
would dare to impose a tax on them
for oiling the highways, so that autos
may sped upon them. The auto
owners will have to oil the roads II
it is ever done.
These tests the Government Is
making will bring out the fact that
the machines. are running not only
occasionally, but it may be said.
regularly beyond the speed limit, and
the effect will be to put a check on
undue speed, we trust, not only about
Washington, but throughout the
country. The test will show some
what like this, we think: that rum
ming autos at ten miles an hour will
make no ~perceptible wear on the
roads, no more than our ordinary
two-horse wagons do, and they will
show that driving at a speed OF
twenty miles an hour will not damage
the roads one-fourth as much as rum
ming at a speed Of forty miles an
hour would do. In other words, we
think the tests will show that the
high rates Of speed from thirty
miles upward are ruinous to our ordi-
nary highways and cannot be per-
mitted.
The auto people will rebel at this;
If they can't go al fast as they please,
they won't go at all, they will say,
but they will go just the same, and
watch their chance to speed up, when
no spy is in sight. But II the au-
thorities get after them some of them
will be caught and heavily fined.
When it comes about that autoists
cannot run their machines as fast as
they please OF our common roads,
as they now are, they will be ready
to listen to a proposition that has
been advanced in these columns a
time or two, namely, to widen out the
highways to the fence on either side,
at the autoists' expense and for their
exclusive use. This is the only solu-
ton Of the problem that we can see
that would be satisfactory to all par
ties. The autoists could scoot along
as fast as they cared to and the team
driver would be out Of danger, and
his part of the road would be unin-
jured.-Indiana Farmer.