Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1913-10-22
WHY NATION NEEDS
PERMANENT ROADS
Movement on Foot to Have Govern
ment Construct Great
Roadway.
GREATER PROJECT THAN
THE PANAMA CAM
With Bringing to Close Work 81
Digging Big Ditch The NatiO,
Highway Association Viii 9
Petition Congress. 81

Modern invention has :, wept
America to the forefront of 81 9TH
er nation on the globe. oroads,
steamships, aeronautics have been
born in the United States, and yet
America is behind any other. civil
lied country in the matter of high
ways. England, Germany, France
and Italy all have so much BETTER
highways that there is no compari-
son. This may be accounted for by
the ages of these nations. The Eur
opean counties had to build roads
long ago, for travelling by horse
drawn vehicles was the only means,
long before America had been dis
covered. These countries set about
to build permanent roadways before
Columbus had thought of sailing
out onto the unknown Atlantic.
While these European counties
had these roads America was going
through the throes of a revolution
airy war Then the hardy pioneer
pushed his way into the wilderness,
following the lines of the least re-
sistance but always pushing west
ward.
These pioneers had not gotten
very far, before Robert Fulton and
James Watt had discovered the
means of completely changing the
methods of travel, and the steam
ships and railroads Immediately be-
gan to follow up these frontiersmen,
and shortly overlook them. Rail-
roads have had a larger and fas-
ter growth in the United States
than in any other country. The
railway systems are greater and bet
ter here than those of the Old
country ever thought of being. All
this growth has been seen within
the past century. America has kept
ahead of the times, but the high
ways have suffered.
Now that the railroads have got
ten on secure foting, and need no
longer the help of the government,
for they did receive help, when
they were young, both in money
and land, the American people are
looking to their highways. Perma-
nent roads are expensive and there
is only one place to look to for help
in building them. States and coun-
ties cannot build them, and so the
people of this country are looking
to the government in Washington to
start the work of covering this
country with several trunk high
ways, running east and west, and
possibly north and sotuh. After
that, the states may join these trunk
roads with branch roads and Amer
lea will be covered with a net work
of highways, permanent, smooth
and unequaled by those Of any
country.
When one stops to consider the
vast amount of work that the Unit
ed States government has done in
improving nature in this vast domain
he wonders why the matter of good
country roads has not been taken up
long ago. Millions OF dollars has
been spent, and will be spent in ir-
rigating arid lands. No one be-
grudges the people living in these
sections of the country, where irri-
CATION is necessary, the amount of
money spent on them. Rivers and
harbors have been dredged. 1t is
great thing to know that naviga-
bic rivers are being made deeper
and harbors are being improved.
Freight rates can be reduced in this
manner. Everyone is glad to see
this done.
When the government at Wash
ington decided to spend $4O0,OOO,-
900 in digging ditch across the
Isthmus of Panama, there was no
one who kicked, for they all recog-
nized the Importance to shippers,
and the saving in time and money
in connecting the Atlantic and Pa
cific oceans, and shortening the
route from New York to San Fran
cisco. But in all of these things
what large benefit has the people In
the interior towns received? What
good has irrigating arid lands done
for Iowa cities?
With these projects nearly finish
ed, an association has been formed
10 get Congress to commence build