Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1910-07-22
Editorial Comment.
THE PROBLEM OF THE ROAD.
Wear and Dust Cause Complaint BY
All Users.
(Springfield Republican,

driven vehicles, and each tWeiVe-
month sees a greater demand for |
money, not only for highway con-
struction, but for repairs on the roads
already in place. 1t is problem OF
many facets, one which all are inter-
ested in, as the roads are the arteries
of the country. But the two great
parties most vitality concerned IN the
highways are the farmer ana the
motorist. and they are about as much
at peace as the traditional fox ana
goose. Get either one off into cor
ner and he will talk eloquently ABOUT
the outrages committed by the othef
and of his own rights which have peeh
basely usurped Yet both are In the
wrong in many ways.
The farmer abuses the roads des-
perately in the winter and spring IL
is then that he is doing his heavy
trucking from woodlot and barnyard,
and it is then that his heavy wagon
and his dawn announcing milk cart
drive over the frost-torn highways IN
the same old ruts. wearing them
deeper and deeper each day and slow
ly, but surely eating into the very
heart of the road. When the late
in the highway it finds the course
split by two tracks and the loose
stones ploughed and scattered down
the slopes of the turnpike. The first
thing that the farmers have to do is 10
forget. and what they must forget IS
the advice of the old camp-meeting
hymn about keeping in the middle OF
the road. Ruts are desperate dis
eases in new born highways. and the
driver of either horse or motor should
make it an unvarying rule to keep out
keep out of the beaten path by a few
inches.
Sin of the Chauffeur.
The sin of the chauffeur is the much
sung sin Of speed The whrling motor
car in the summer months does far
more damage to the highways by
sucking the dust from their surface
than does the average farmer in the
sloppy months. There has been evo-
luton in road building. as in every
thing else, the dirt road passed in or
der to allow macadam to meet
traffic demands, and now the macadam
is passing. 1t is slowly turning into
the macadam with Unanimously
trated surface, and that, in time. will
pass in favor of the motor road of the
future, which highway engineers now
think will be a bitumlnouSy-b0und
wearing surface upon cement-cen
crete base. The life of macadam is
the dust made by its surface stones
being pulverized by IRON bound wheels.
and, theoretically. this dust sinks into
the cracks between the lower stones
and binds them in place. But there is
no grind in a pneumatic tire. and it
does the very thing it should not do.
for it sucks up the dust and whirls it
into the air Here comes the strong
est ground for complaint on the part
of the farmer, but a fact of which he
has taken small cognizance. Dust is
one of the most dangerous things in
the world when it is out of place. for
it is the home of the deadly germ of
many a disease. In no small number
of places it has been noticed that
when horses and cattle are pastured
beside highways frequented by speed
ing motors tuberculosis has increased
among them. This. experts say. is
due to the dust in the air-and what
is death to the herd is also death to
the herdsman.
ne LUST FFODIeINs
1t is to meet the dust problem that
various chemical substances have been
brought into use upon the highways
and found temporarily satisfactory.
though expensive. Take the turn
pike between Boston and Springfield
for an example. Its major part is
now coated with mixture of what
the average traveller is pleased to
term tar and oil. 1t makes the road
black. slippery and firm on the sur
face and it is prolonging its life by
keeping the top coating in its place.
1t is a road for the automobilist. say
some, but it is equally road for the
farmer. for it is beig saved for both.
just as it must serve both. and both
are responsible for it's abuse. But the
surface treatment is not going to pro-
long the life of roads indefinitely, and
in many places the stones have been
ripped up and holes left in their place.
In time this road will have to give
place to some sort of pavement. just
as it replaced the old red dirt and
sand. That is of course. taking it
for granted that the aeropane as a
method of transportation is still a
thing of the generation to come.
As btuminous surfacing has been
relief for macadam. so oil has. to
certain extent. alleviated the distress
of the common dirt road. But the dirt
road is much more tender child
than its state brother. for it's absorbs
readily. is victim of rain attrition
and the disrupting effects of frost. to
say nothing about it as victim of the
wind. Here in this city experiment.
ing on a rather large scale is being
done with oil, and several of the
strets have received one or more treat
ments already to the relief of those
who live behind their sidewalks. But
oil. like tar. must be used judiciously |
espe Tally on grades. When it is first
applied it does not absorb quickly, and
it is bad. if not even dangerous, for |
horses. because a splash of oil on
stone is much the same to horse in |
summer as a bit of ice on the side |
walk is for person when the snow |
covers the ground.
The state is doing its full share |
toward the upkeep of it's highways, |
but needs assistance in it's work from
the taxpayers in other ways than from
their nurses The peOple who uce