Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1912-05-03
SPEED CRANKS TAKE MORE
LIVES THAN MURDERERS.
Col. Edward S. Cornell, President
of the National Highways Pro-
teetive Society, Talks of the
Necessity for Curbing lr-
responsible Drivers
on the Road.
[From New York Times.]
Continued from last week. I

CONTINUED from last week.
"What should be the wearing life of a
good type of country road, built accord
ing to the best ideas, and of the best
foundations and MATERIAL" asked.
''That no one knows at present. 1t
remains not only an unsolved but an I'M
solvable problem, because of the contin-
ually changing nature of the traffic
which our roads must carry. Each year
the wear and tear on roads increases,
some years more than others. The in
creasing popularity of the automobile,
and especially of the automobile truck,
which knows no limit as to size or
weight-carrying- capacity, means an in
creasing strain on roads This matter
of the life of roads is one which needs
much studying before we pour out
many more of the taxpayers millions.
"Never before have the requirements
of human life and effort been so hard
upon roads. Since the dawn of history
all nations showing civilizations have
been proud of certain roads of their
construction.
1.-THE Appian Way, in Italy, and Eng
lands Roman roads are good examples
of exactly what mean. These roads
have stood for centuries, marvels of con-
struction and material, capable of sus-
tanning any traffic put upon them until
now. Within few years greater in
roads have been made on the condition
of these famous old highways by the re-
uuirements of the traffic of this time
than had been made in centuries preced
ing. They were not built to stand the
traffic of to-day, and beneath it they are
crumbling.
Before we build our roads we must
consider these things and provide for
what the future may bring forth. We
must decide whether the road surface
will be called upon to carry the light
buggy, the destructive high-powered
automobile, or the ten-ton truck, and
we must figure out the probabilities of
resulting strains and friction.
1.-THE automobile is destructive to the
road surface in peculiar way; it multi
plies the friction many times. A grind
stone of fine grit, moving at high speed,
will wear away the implement held on it
for its sharpening much faster than
would coarser stone at slower speed.
And it must also be remembered that a
motors driving wheels destroy the sur
face which they travel on, because
through them the power of traction is
applied. No railroad would consider
running trains of Pullman cars at sixty
miles an hour on thirty -six-pound rails.
Wagon roads which will endure the
maximum of modern traffic, composed
of high-powered motor cars and heavy
trucking, run into high cost figures. A
Westchester County highway of to-
day, now in process of construction, is
costing quite as much per mile as the
first railroads which we built to span
the continent, and even though this
money is now being spent on it, it is by
no means certain that it will prove
competent to bear the traffic which
within five years is certain to be thrust
on it.
mot long ago Gov. Baldwin of Con-
necticut asked me if advised construc-
ton in his State of leo miles of road at
81, 800 a mile, or ten miles of road at
$25, 900 a mile. told him that the ten
miles would be the better investment of
the two for any State providing for a
certain annual expenditure for upkeep.
THAT is the trouble with too many
of the roads-improvement schemes
throughout the country they provide
for building roads of low first cost, in
ignorance of, or disregarding, the I'M
questionable fact that large upkeep ex-
pense will be burden on the future.
another trouble is that contractors
are not held rigidly to specifications in
the execution of their work. In Ohio,
where the Road Commissioner insists on
the meeting of each detail of the law S
requirements in the construction of the
roads, there is difficulty in finding con-