Los Angeles herald., 1910-07-31
GOOD ROAD PLANS
To BE DISCUSSED.
international Congress Gathers
in Brussels to Discuss the
Highway Problems
ALL CLASSES INTERESTED
American Delegates viii Try to
Secure Next Session for
This Country
ALL CLASSES INTERESTED

WASHINGTON, July 30-Automobile
owners, farmers and others who make
daily use of some part of the two mil
lion miles of public highways in the
United States will follow closely the
proceedings of the second International
road congress which opens in Brussels
tomorrow afternoon and continues un-
til August 10. The reason for the un-
usual interest in the affair at the Bel
gium capital is the fact that the Amer
lean delegates enter the congress hope
full that it will be possible to bring
next years meeting to this county, and
if they are successful, the third con-
Vention of road experts of all nations
will be held in Washington next fall.
This government will be represented
at the congress by four delegates, Col
onl Spencer Cosby, corps of engineers,
United States army; Joseph w. Jones.
representing the automobile interests
of America; William Halstead Wiley,
publisher of technical journals, and
John NJ Goodell, editor of the Engi-
neering Record. Besides these official
representatives of the govrnmnt, there
will be many American delegates rep
resenting various cities and states The
first International road congress, which
was called by the president of France
last year, and held in Paris, was at
tended by the representatives of forty
one governments, and it is expected
that the attendance at this years
meeting will be even more satisfactory.
MOTORISTS INTERESTED
Motorists in every country of the
world are interested in the meeting
because the congress is the outgrowth
of individual work of the leading gov
ernments to improve the public high
ways and meet the conditions brought
about by increased automobile traffic.
The principles of road construction to
meet the swish and wear of rubber
tires are different from those in build
ing the road designed to stand the i'm
pact of horses shod hoofs and steel
tires. Up to this time, very limited
study has been given to this new road
problem. Many parts Of the country
are partially inaccessible to automobile
traffic because of bad roads and COM
munities are discovering that there is
no better way of bringing about the
enhancement of property than by per-
fecting their system of highways.
Both L. w. Page, director, and ]. p.
Pennybacker, chief of road manage
ment in the office of public roads in
the department of agriculture, who
have sent papers to the congress to
be readS have hopes that next years
international meeting will come to Am
erica. 1 MS country mas IIle illOSl liC-
mendous system of highways of any
nation of the world, the length of
all the roads amounting to 2,155, 900
miles, on which 1t is estimated that
there is an annual expenditure of S90-
000, 900. This sounds like a great deal
of money, but England with her lit
tie system of 10000 miles of road
spends about $80,000,000 a year, or
about fourteen times as much per mile
on roads.
The agricultural as we'll as the au-
tomobile interests will be looked after
by the American delegates who attend
the Brussels congress during the COM
ing ten days. The farmers of the
United States are spending about two
and a half times as much to get their
products to the market as are the
farmers of Europe, and this important
difference in cost of hauling over bad
and good roads is playing its part in
the pesty cost-of-living problem on
which Senator Lodge and his commit
tee threw so little light. Conservation
of farm resources will mean little if
the problems of cheap transportation of
products to market are not solved.
The remarkable growth of the auto
mobile industry and the increased use
of motor cars both for business and
pleasure. have proved a great stimu-
lus to the study and work for better
roads in this country. Further interest
will be added if the American delegates
succeed in landing next years congress
and make 1t possible to bring the
worlds leading experts in road engi-
neering and road administration here
to discuss Uncle Sans problem of
highway traffic face to face with the
best road men of the United States.