The Daily Missoulian. [volume] (Missoula, Mont.) 1904-1961, 1913-04-20

horses on hard roads Of easy grade,
one-third to one-quarter of that
amount is often difficult to negotiate
over a road which abounds with mud
holes and sharp pitches; with long
heavy hills it is often less.
When good roads are built much To-
cal heavy traffic, which has previously
gone by other routes, is diverted to
them, probably doubling the amount
OF load travel originating in the vicin-
lily which passed owe the road before
its Improvement.
The good road easily doubles the
distance that a horse or team and bug
gy can travel in a day. The fact brings
into existence a larger amount of this
class of travel, estimated at so per
cent more, and by reason Of the great
er distance which may be covered,
n the overlapping travel from other
localities, this class of traffic may
easily be multiplied by three.
The development of the automobile
multiplies by 10. according to the most
reliable estimates, the radius Of a
days travel. With an automobile a
business or professional man at the
county seat or other point can visit
practically every. part Of the county in
a day, and be home before supper
time. People from other localities, on
business or pleasure, enter, leave or
cross a territory in a short time which
formerly took hours; local merchants
deliver goods % miles away instead of
within village or city limits. Automo-
bile trucks establish freight lines to
villages and smaller points which were
previously unprovided for. With all
these facilities, which improved roads
maxi possible, it is estimated that the
motor car travel of all kinds is null
tiplied approximately by 10.
Doubling the heavy traffic, trebling
the light horse traffic, and multiply
ing the motor traffic by 10, places Is
vehicles on the road where there was
but one before the improvement was
made. And this is an underestimate
rather than otherwise. A close OBJ
%servation of the travel over thousands
of miles of improved roads will show
increases of 20 or 80 times that which
existed before. the good road was con- i,
structed. This enormous increase in
travel is n of the wonders of the
a6e III WHICH we lVe. Ana this en-
HANGED travel is an important factor
IN the development Of local markets.
State control of road construction is
made necessary by a number of diff
ferent reasons each important in itself,
as has been demonstrated by the ex-
perience of states where state aid has
long been the rule. Among these are,
that the roads in various counties
when built shall form continuous
routes; that the construction shall be
as nearly uniform as the natur of
available materials will permit; that
the location, drainage, material and
every other factor involved in the con-
struction shall be under the charge of
competent and experienced engineers;
that the contracts be let to competent
and responsible contractors, who can
be held to a strict accountability: and
that the road funds, state, county and
township, be properly expended and
accounted for, so that every dollar
shall produce a dollars worth of first
class road. 4
In no other way than by state con-
troll can these things be. achieved. It
mas been demonstrated repeatedly that
the exercise of authority by the state
lis necessary in the interests of econ
tomy n excellence in construction.