Los Angeles herald., 1909-10-26

| IRlrsyAA gress, now in session in CO.
! l4 AEA lumbus, Ohio. is a meeting OF
! III % the American Road Makers
IBA VII association, of which James
us4Alsz H. Mcdonald, state highway
commissioner of Connecticut, is presi-
dent, in conjunction with the Ohio
| Good Roads federation and the Asso-
citation of Ohio Road Commissioners.
| The congress more nearly approaches
national representative organization
than any other good roads meeting,
and it Is believed that the present ses-
sion at Columbus will, result in the
| formation of a national society of rep
| resentatiVe constituency. An effort
will be made at this meeting to
broaden the scope of the organization
so as to include with the delegates
from states and counties the repre-
sentatives of railroads. farmers or
! ganizations, automobile manufactur-
ers, womens clubs and others interest
ed in the work.
1t is believed that the permanent es-
tabllshment of such an organization
would be productive of many practical
benefits. For one thing, 1t would
permit the maintenance of a central
office, which would receive reports
from all sections of the country. From
! these reports comparisons could be
made which would show the relative
advancement of the good roads move
ment in the several states. With this
information it will be comparatively
easy to fix the time and place of con-
vention meetings so as to exert a pow
erful influence upon backward or in
different state legislatures.
1t requires no argument to convince
the thinking man that good roads are
necessary to the development of the
agricultural resources of the nation.
Money expended in the construction
of good roads is looked upon by the
progressive man as an Investment
which is absolutely certain to produce
greater returns than any other form
of public works affecting agricultural
sections.
Comparisons are often made, to the
disadvantage of the United States, be-
tween the roads of America and those
of European nations. The old coun-
tries unquestionably have developed
road systems much superior to that in
this country, but, on the other hand,
| their problems have not been so diff
cult and they have had much more
time In which to solve them. The road
system of the United states, measured
in miles, is the most tremendous pos
| sessed by any country in the history
of the world. According to a careful
road census, the length of all Ameri-
can roads amounts to 2,155,000 miles.
The most liberal estimate of the an
nual expenditure on these roads, both
in money and in labor, is $50, 900 900, or
about 81 per capita. England, with
only 10000 miles of road, spends
$50 100000 year, or about fourteen
times as much per mile as does the
United States. If we were to spend as
much upon our roads as the English
the annual cost of maintenance alone
would be more than $1,000,000. 000 1t
is manifestly impossible, therefore, to
bring the entre American road system
to the high standard of England with
In short period of time.
The United States has less than
10000 miles of stone surfaced road,
about per cent of the total road mile
| age; in addition to 100000 miles Of
gravel road, about per cent of the to-
tai mileage. The other SO per cent
comes under the general classification
of dirt roads. Small as the annual
expenditure for roads has been when
compared to that of the European
countries. it has aggregated in thirty
| years a total of more than $500, 000, 900.
| Unfortunately, practically all of this
vast sum has been expended under a
| system so ineffective that it has pro-
| diced no permanent results, and as
| a matter of fact the United States,
considering the increased population
and wealth, stands at the same point
in relation to road building at which
it stood thirty years ago.
More than half of the states now
operate under the same road laws that
prevailed in England during the rule
of James 1. This system provides for
the payment of road taxes partly In
labor, and localizes the work to an ex-
treme degree by placing in authority
district or township road overseers or
| supervisors, no effort being made to
insure skill or knowledge of the science
of road building on the part of these
petty officials. With few exceptions,
no system of accounting is In force,
so that 1t Is impossible to find out with
any degree of accuracy how the road
| funds have been expended. There is
| no provision for central supervision or
| inspection. Any one possessing an ac-
quaintance with rural affairs Is famil-
lar with the continual petty scandals
| concerning road overseers who have
spent all the funds of the district upon
roads running by their own property,
or who have been guilty of petty
grating with relation to contracts or
| the purchase of materials.
This system prevailed in all the states
until less than twenty years ago. In
view of that fact it Is easy to under
stand why the concrete results in the
matter of road building are confined to
, those states which have broken away
from the inadequate and ineffective
system inherited from colonial days
Road administration has been reformed
Or steps have been taken in that df-
rection-in about half the states of the
Union, comprising the New England
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