Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-10-22
r The PuBLIc ROADS LABoRATonY

has made extensive appropriations. and
Maryland will spend this year a million
and a quarter dollars in the same way.
AT the present time the sixteen suuta
states have available for road expen SOS
about forty million dollars. which H. Just
double the amount devoted to such IJur-
poses in 1904. Indeed. the south has be-
come highly interested i'm improving its
roads,
II understand that many of the south
ern states are working their roads with
convict labor?"
Yes. and | think with great profit. In
Virginia the state convicts are employed
i'm road building, and the supervising en-
gineers say that the convict labor is even
more effective than paid labor. Georgia
has nearly five thousand prisoners at
work on its roads. Louisiana will use its
state convicts i'm the same way. and a
part Of the Alabama appropriation for
the roads comes from the convict labor
fund. see no reason why conNicts
should not be worked on the roads. In
such cases they do not compete with
free labor in the prison factories. and
the open-air work should be healthy"
What does a good road cost" | asked.
That depends much on the locati IN
and the materials at hand. II is cheap
er TO build good roads in the south than
in the north, for the southern wages are
lower and the working period is longer
throughout the year The most u the
southern soil is good for the purpose
There is plenty of gravel and sand-clay.
and can make macadam reads there
cheaper than IN the north. In Louis ana
a macadam road can be made for sl.son a
mile and the average cost i'm nine differ
ent states of the south Is less than
81. COO per mile. In Butler county, ONO.
where they are now making bituminous
macadam roads. the cost is $1,000 a NILE
xx-I,i i'm, arler ha aRrar ma
adam costs 5000 per mile. The aver
age cost Of making state roads in New
York is more than $1,000. and Ohio,
which has made many brick roads. has re-
Gently let ont contract for the con-
struction of five miles of such road near
Ravenna. which will cost altogether more
than $4,000, or over $4,000 per mile.
Good roads cost all the way from few
hundred to ten or fifteen thousand dol
lars per mile. according to their character
and the materials OF which they are con-
structed.
Before leaving the office of public
roads L took walk with Mr.. Page
through his Laboratories. The bureau has
a large force of chemists, engineers and
other scientists, who are planning out and
testing materials for the roads of the
country. They are always experiment
ing as to new roads, and with
many other things have made valuable
discoveries as to the use of oil and &C.
ment on the roads. The ideal road Of
the future will be without dust, and some
model roads now constructed are bound
together with bitumen and other ma
terials which make them practically in
destructible. One Of the most valuable
discoveries Of recent years as to roads
and all sorts of masonry is an invention
of Mr. Page. which has been patented
by him, but which is given to the public
without charge. This is a process of mix
ing a little oil with concrete or cement
which makes il absolutely waterproof
mo t.af4 T.
slobules as il does upon glass, and if the
cement mixture is whitewashed on
bricks they become waterproof.
FRANK G. CARPENTER.