The San Francisco call., 1910-07-31
ROAD CONGRESS
MAY CONE TO u. S.
International Delegates Meet in
Brussels for the 1910
Session

WASHINGTON. July S0.-Automobile
owners. farmers and others who make
daily use of some part OF the 2.000.000
miles of public highways in the United
States will follow closely the proceed
ings of the second international road
congress. which opens in Brussels to-
morrow afternoon and continues untfE
August 10. The reason for the unusual
interest in the affair at the Belgian
capital is the fact that the American
delegates enter the congress hopeful
that it will be possible to bring next
years meeting to this country. and if
they are successful the third cenven-
tion of road experts of all nations will
be held in Washington next fall.
This government viii be represented
at the congress by four delegates=
Colonel Spencer Cosby, corps of en-
gineers. u s. A; Joseph w. Jones. rep
resenting the automobile interests of
America. William Halstead Wiley a
publisher of technical journals, and John
NJ Goode1l. editor of the Engineering
Record. Besides these official repre-
sentativeS of the government there will
be many American delegates represent
ing 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 II
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 practically inaccessible to aut0mO-
bile traffic because of bad roads. and
communities are discovering that there
is no better way of bringing about the
enhancement of property than by per
fecting their system of highways.
Both Director L. W. Page and j. +.
Pennybacker. chief of read manage.
ment in the Office Of public roads in the
department of agriculture. who have
sent papers to the congress to be read.
have hopes that next years fnterna-
tional meeting viii come to America
This country has the most tremendous
system of highways of any. nation Of
the world. the length of all the roads
amounting 10 2.155,000 miles. on which
it is estimated that there is an an
nual expenditure of s9O000,000. This
sounds like a great deal of money, but
England with her little system of 20
600 miles of road spends about $50. .0O0.-
600 a year, or about II times as much
per mile on roads.
FARMERS ARE HOPEFUL.
The agricultural as well as the au-
tomobile interests Will be locked after
by the American delegates who attend
the Brussels congress during the com
States are spending about two and a
half times as much to set 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 cost of
living problem on which Senator Lodge
and his committee 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 proven a great stimulus
to the study and work for better roads
in this country. Further interest wilt
be added if the American delegates
succeed in landing next years congress
and make il possible to bring the
worlds leading experts in road en-
gineering and road administration here
to discuss Uncle Sans problems OF
highway traffic face 10 face with the
best roadmen of the United States.