The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1910-03-23
What One States Does for Roads.

Just before his departure for Paris
to attend the International CONFER
ence of Road Builders, Samuel Hill,
of Seattle, Wash, president of the
Washington Good Roads Association,
told an interviewer in New York:
The building of good roads is the
most important question that con-
fronts the American people to-day.
Every man, woman and child must
use the highways at some time
whether afoot, on horseback, IN a
road wagon or in automobiles"
Mr.. Hill, who has spent much OF
his time and money in the work OF
public road improvement, is one OF
three delegates the State Of Washing
ton has sent to this international
roads conference to get Information
and ideas that will prove of value In
the important work which the State
is doing.
Not only has Washington put her
convicts on the roads and had them
there for some years now, but she mas
established a chair of good roads III
her State university, the first instltu-
ton in the country to provide such a
course, and Samuel c. Lancaster, pro-
fessor Of goods roads in the Washing-
ton University, is one of the three
delegates to the Paris conference. me
other is R. II. Thompson, City Engi-
r-er of Seattle. .
With 1875 students last year and
200 at the beginning Of the present
term, the good roads department OF
the Washington University is one Oh
the most popular in the institution.
It not only educates young men ID
this important work, but serves as a
bureau for the dissemination OF valu-
able information relating to construc-
ton and maintenance of public high
ways. =,
Some of the things Mr.. Hill SAID
in his interview, published In the
New York Herald, will be of particu-
lar interest and value in Georgia just
at this time, when the State is about
TO enter upon the era of substantial
which good road building IN
wolves.
Discussing the tremendous agsre-
gate cost of bad roads to the farmers
and. in a general way, the work now
being done in his State, Mr.. Hill said:
when I became interested active
Nv in the subject about four years ago
I made up my mind that would as
certain Just what it cost one or our
farmers to haul along the roads for
one mile garden truck and other ma
terial weighing n ton. For on the
farmer principally falls the burden OF
our bad roads. I learned that pe-
u of the poor roads the United
States lost, with the setting of the
sun every day, nearly S3,OOO,OOO'
which might be saved were the roads
in proper condition. Just think OF
that! And yet not a cent has come
from the federal administration for
the betterment of these roads. Some
States, as Washington and a few
others, have appropriations, but not
in proportion to the calling necessity.
Then we hbegan to get busy in our
State of Washington.
I'VE put the conVicts at work n
we found the process was a great
success. Each convict netted to the
State s4.03 for each day of work,
which amounted to something. And
not n convict turned out to this
task tried to escape. North Carolina
led in This system of convict labor,
and that was fifteen years ago, and
now it has eighteen hundred miles OF
macaiamized roads built by convict
labor, AID only two per cent. of the
men employed in this way tried to
escape. In Washington the majority
of our roads are constructed over
mountains and at q maximum grade
of five per cent. This convict labor
did not interfere with union labor,
either, for with the construction OF
the roads there was more work for
the union men in other branches or
the task.
LET me tell you of our method in
washington. We build our roads
usually about one hundred feet wide.
First, We have in the middle a strip
about sixteen feet wide. On the bot
tom we take from the screen cubes
Iof rock about two and a half inches.
This rock is put down wet, and a ten
ton steam roller goes over it from the
sides, to make it cement and rise
high in the middle. Then comes rock
one-half the size of the other, and
then the rock three-quarter inch
cubes. Over this is poured tar, melt
ed to about $50 to 200 degrees Fab
renheit, and over all this is thrown
the fine pebbles. Then the steam roll
Ter gets to work again. Parallel to
this strip we make a path of light
material, designed for horses and We
hicles; alongside that comes a bride
path, for equestrians only, and then
coEles another strip Of grassy lawn,
with flowers and trees. We maintain
that strip in all strictness."
There are suggestions and informa"
ton here worth considering. They
come from a man who is we'll quail
fled to speak and who has seen and
actively participated in the work in
his own State similar to that which
Georgia O. has to do.-Atlanta Con-
stitution.