The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1911-11-23
IMPORTANCE OF THROUGH ROAD

nuAh lines Vi TOdQ III the various
states is becoming more apparent
every year as the traffic between the
large centers of population increases
says a New York dispatch. The es-
sential justice of the plan of construct
ing and maintaining such extended
highways at the expense of the state,
in whole or in part, is being better
understood. Massachusetts recog-
nized the situation several years ago,
and in recent years most OF its APP
preparations for state road construc-
ton have been expended in building
such sections of road as would fill
gaps and connect state roads with
each other. Other New England states
have followed a similar plan. New
York has established a system of
state roads which will serve as a
model for other states. Pennsylvania
has this year enacted a new law,
which will result in a system OF state
roads between principal cities and
county seats, Maryland has estab-
lished a system of state roads in adj
dition to the state-aid roads which
the counties and state have been
building for a number of years. Cal
fornia a year ago voted $1S,000,000
to create a great system of roads, to
be built and maintained at the SIX
pense of the state.
In the great majority of the states
of the union, however, even those in
which state aid is given to counties
and towns for the building of roads,
the control of the location of the
roads to be improved is left in the
hands of local authorities, who act,
naturally, from a standpoint of local
interest. Even in New Jersey, where
a larger proposition of the highways
are better improved than in any other
state, the state authorities are pow
erless to create through or connecting
lines of road, without the initiative of
the county board of freeholders. The
entire logic Of modern transit points
cOnclusively to the property and the
fairness involved in the construction
and maintenance of main roads by the
state. The main roads are much used
by the people OF the cities. On ac-
count of the heavy traffic, the con
struction must be of better class, and
the maintenance more expensive than
if the roads were used for purely local
purposes. While the people along the
route are accommodated by a good
road, their requirements would not de-
mand the high grade of construction
which is necessary for the through
route.
AS the people of the cities are large
users of these through highways, so
are the large payers Of state taxes.
1t naturally follows that, if the state
pays for building and maintaining
these roads, the people of the cities
pay their share of the cost. There is
no apparent reason why the people of
a county, or of a number of townships
in a county, should install and main
tain a road Of high-priced construction
for the benefit Of through travellers
when one costing half the amount
would answer all local requirements.
New legislation will be required in
most of the states of the union to pro-
vide for this special feature Of the
1t is only within very recent years
that the automobile has become a
leading factor in highway economics,
but so rapidly has the use Of motor
cars grown, and so diversified have
become the purposes which they serve,
that their traffic is a factor which
must be reckoned with in the con-
struction and care Of roads.
AS a general rule, the people who
and use automobiles are men OF
means who pay their fair proportion
of the money raised by the state
through taxation. Whether the mo-
tor-car owner be a resident Of city or
country, whether he uses his a for
business or pleasure, whether as a
farmer he uses it to take his produce
to market or his family to town shop
ping, or a merchant extending his
trade, or as a lawyer, or a physician,
or a broker, or a preacher keeping the
appointments made necessary by their
occupations, the fact is that their
horizon is widened. They can go
further and do more in n given day
or week than under previous condi
tons. AS the motor traffic requires
better construction and greater care