The Calumet news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 1907-1938, 1912-11-12
IS FRIENDLY TO
GOOD HIGHWAYS


The election Of Woodrow Wilson l.
the presidency of tie United States
carries with il encouragement 10 the
advocates OF federal aid in highway
Improvement. IL insures an a0minis
trstion friendly TO the efforts OF che
American Automobile association and
witli it in the work to re-estsblish the
policy OF road building as one Of the
ixpd and definite policies Il the ma
tional goyernm,rL
President elect Wilson in many
public addresses has voiced his belief
in the wisdom Of National Improve
ment Of means of communication. and
particularly OF roads. TO which hc
specifically referred in his address at
the American Road Congress al At
lantic City. on that occasion saying
among other things:
~ nation is bound together by its
means CT communication: aud it's
means OF communication create it's
thought.
we must mere and more engage
the government in providing the gem
cral facilities OF the common life
There is no breach in that Of any of
cur older understandings of the fuac-
lions Of government. We have never
doubted that the government had the
right 10 supply these facilities which
private endeavcr las never Leel ex.
peeted TO supply. Therefore we are
not upon a new ground o; theory: We
are merely upon new ground of
tactics
The question " highways is one
If the few great instrumentalities oil
cur public AID our communal life with
which the government is Of necessity
connected. ! see that We must do
what we have been backward i'm doing
as compared with other nations.
! tell you frankly my interest in
good roads is not merely an interest
IN the pleasure Of riding in automo-
lilies. IL is not merely an interest In
the much more important matter OF
aTording farmers Of this country and
residents in villages m,ars Ct ready
asoess TO such neighboring markets
rs they need for economic benefit
but it is also the interest I'm weaving
as complicated and elaborate net
II neiehborhood and state and nation
al opinion together as il is possible to
weave. II is Of the most fundamen-
should think in big pieces. should
think together should think ultimate
ly as whole. and I feel in my en-
thusiasm for good roads. something Of
the old opposition that there always
has been in me as any Kind of Sec
tinilal feeling
Il believe that IL is the proper func-
tion Of the government to see to Il
that the extension of all the varied
modern knowledge, about characters
lstics Of different soils, ought to be SO
extended. so carried everyvh here &c
the farmer as TO build up by the aid
Of the government this thing that
feeds us. and ought To continue 10 feed
the world. and whenever You speak Of
that. whenever you increase what the
United States is doing. you must i'm
lnedistely increase the facilities of
the United States for handling what
Il has made after IT has made 1t. You
arnot nationally increase the prosper
ny Of this country, without increos-
ing the road facilities of this coun-
try"
In the view of these expressions, the
feeling among Federal Aid advocates
IS that there should be little delay In
obtaining from congress the adoption
of comprehensive and intelligent
plan for national participation in The
good roads movement on a more en-
tensive scale than has heretofore
been contemplated. The beginning of
President Wilson's administrator will
be signaliZed by the assembling al
on March and Z, 1913
OF the second Federal Aid Good Roads
under the auspices IF the
\. \. \. II is believed that this occa
sion viii mark the beginning of a new
era In national economical progress