Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-10-22

might be made in tne various states. or
for the whole United States. At any
rate, the roads of every state and county
should be under competent engineers, eX-
perienced in road construction and main
tenance. These men should have au-
thority to make the plans for the roads,
and to improve them subject 10 the Oh,
rections of the higher authorities, and
they should be paid enough so that they
can devote their entire time to the work
Such engineers are now employed I'm
many of the states. and in those counties
which are bonding themselves to make
better roads"
What kind of roads does your office
make?"
1--WE are making object lesson and ex-
permental roads here and there over the
country, to show the people what good
roads are and how they should improve
those of the present. As ii is now, we
have built in the neighborhood of 300
such roads in thirty -four different sta teS.
These roads are of the various kinds best
suited to the several localities Some are
of macadam, some are of brick, some OF
gravel or sand-clay and burnt-clay. while
others are of shell and others are oiled
and cement roads. In this work the gov
eminent furnishes the engineering SUI
pervision. and prepares the plans. speci-
ficationS and estimates of the work. The
locality pavs the other expenses In adj
dition to this test road materials and
advise the people to what roads are
the best for their special localities. We
make plans for the construction, main
tenance and administration OF roads
adapted to the country which applies for
them.
AT the same time we have lecturers
going over the country to tell the people
how roads should be made, and to show
them the Importance of good roads We
are now equipping a certain number OF
A.. ....tv,
of road material as well as OF bridges,
culvertS and other such things. These
cars will be sent over the country, stop
ping here and there to instruct the peo-
pie as to what good roads are and how
they should be made. They will be
handled somewhat after the method Of
the grain exhibition cars of the corn
belt
I'm addition to these things. the office
of public roads is training school for
highway engineers. Our men are all
civil engineers. the graduates of the best
of the colleges who have passed our eX-
aminations. After working with us a
short time they are in great demand over
the country where road Improvement is
now going on. Many of them are en-
ployed by the states or by cities and
. counties, where the salaries are larger
than those paid by the government.
The conversation here turned to the
work of road improvement now going on
throughout the states. when Mr.. Page
said:
within the past fifteen years nearly
half of the states of the Union have
adopted the principle of giving state aid
to road building. New York has author
lied the issuance of fifty million dollars,
to be spent at the rate of five million
dollars a year, the various counties TO
supply an equal amount. great deal
of such improvement is going on in the
south. Virginia has appropriated quar-
ter of a million dollars a year to be spent
under the state highway department,
and Louisiana will levy tax of one
property a highway fund. Alabama