The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1913-08-07
GOOD ROADS ABROAD
AND ROADS IN THE j. s.
Commissioner Weller Gives impress.
siOns on His Return From the
Congress.

who recently returned from a short trip
abroad, in company with Commissioner
W. 3. Miller, furnishes to The Republi-
can the following concise statement
about his foreign trip. While abroad,
Commissioners Weller and Miller at
tended the third convention of the Inter-
national Road Congress. held at London,
June 1928, there beng over 5000
delegates present from all parts of the
world. The subject of good roads being
such vital importants to the people
of Maryland, Mr.. Weller's statement is
very timely and will be appreciated. his
impressions of European roads as COM
pared to ours, being expressly of IN
terest.
This is what Mr.. Weller says:
Commissioner Miller and myself spent
about three weeks on the other side
one in London attending the Inter
national Road Congress and the other
two in an automobile examining perhaps
1900 miles of roads in France, England
and Wales. The result of our observa-
ton is not unfavorable to our roads.
The best foreign roads are not better
than the best American roads. There
are simply more of them. That is the
difference. In Great Britain and Con-
tinental Europe, the bad road is the
exception, while in our country, the bad
road is the rule. This is because the
United States is in a comparatively new
and formative period of its develop
ment and with an enormous road mileage
of 2 $50, 900 miles, to the improvement
of which we have been recently devot-
ing our energies.
During the past year, | have attend
ed the American Road Congress at
Atlantic City, the American Road
Builders Association at Cincinnati, the
Federal Aid Road Convention at Wash
ington and the recent International
Road Congress in England. These
gatherings afford an interchange of
ideas and experiences of road builders
and engineers and are very instructive
and beneficial. The problem of modern
road building has not yet been worked
out, but it will be solved in America
and not in Europe. Our country has
taken hold of this job IN earnest, and
we have the money. the brains, the
energy and the courage to work it out
This fact is recognized by the govern
ment of France. which has had NJ de
PulhgnY, the chief engineer of roads
and bridges of that country, in the
United Safes for nearly year with
corps of assistants to secure the best
and latest practice on this important
question.
No intelligent comparison of the
European roads and ours can be made
without taking into consideration the
difference in conditions, which are much
more favorable there than here. The
first point to be considered is that there
is practically no new construction on
the other side. Their roads have been
IN progress of building for hundreds of
years, and their problem is almost
exclusively now one of proper main
tenance. We were much surprised OF
find in France, whose patrol system has
been held up to the world as a model,
that little care is being paid to the
maintenance of their state roads accord
ing to modern standards. The only
oiled roads we saw in France were with
in radius of Is or 20 miles of Paris
where the motor traffic is heavy and
where the macadam roads are full of
holes and rapidly going to pieces. In
the 500 miles of rural French roads we
covered in five DAYS, we did not see a
single road that had been oiled, not one
road roller at work, rarely ever
culvert, very little wheel traffic, not
half dozen motor trucks, perhaps not
more than dozen automobiles a day,
nearly all filled with Americans, and
only four patrolmen at " ork, and these
were shaping up the shoulders and not
repairing the road. The only reason the
roads of France are good is because
they have not been subjected to such
heavy automobile traffic as we have in
Maryland, and even as it is they already
show signs Of deterioration. If they
are not protected by a proper top
dressing within the next year or two,
they will begin to ravel and rut and will
degenerate badly
In England the roads are much better
than in France, but even there as much
care is not given 20 prompt maintenance
as we are endeavoring to use in Mary
land. When a hole appears in an
English macadam road, it Is not filled in
with patch. b.. the holes are permit
ted to increase until it is necessary to
rebuild the road which is then done in
sections of generally from a quarter of
a mile to a mile in length In other
words, they rebuild their roads rather
than maintain them. This means a
great waste of money and is a system
we could not afford in our state. 1t
should be borne in mind that England
and France are practically as rich as the
whole United States and that each of
these countries is smaller than some of