Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1913-07-31
Statement Of 0. E. Weller,

Chairman OF the State Roads
Commission Regarding His
Foreign Trip.
Commissioner Miller and myself spent
about three weeks on the other side, one
in London attending the Internationa
Road Congress and the other two in an
automobile examining perhaps 1900 miles
of roads in France, England and Wales.
The result of our observation is not I'M
favorable to our roads. The best foreign
roads are not better than the best Amer
lean roads. There are simply more of
them. That is the difference. In Great
Britain and Continental Europe, the bad
road is the exception, while in our coun.
try, the bad road is the rule. This is be-
cause the United States is in compare
lively new and formative period of its
development and with an enormous rOa d
mileage of 2,250,000 miles, to the i'm
provement of which we have only been
recently devoting our energies.
During the past year, | have attended
the American Road Congress at Atlantic
City, the American Road Builders Asso-
citation at Cincinnati, the Federal Aid
Road Convention at Washington and the
recent International Road Congress in
England. These gatherings afford an in
terchange 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 Amer
lea 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.
No intelligent comparison of the Euro
pean roads and ours can be made with
out taking into consideration the differ
ence 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
process of building for hundred of years,
and their problem is almost exclusively
now one of proper maintenance. We
we're much surprised to find in France,
whose patrol system has been held up to
the world as model, that little care is
being paid to the maintenance of their
State Roads according to modern stand
ards. The only oiled roads we saw in
France were within a 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 5 days, we did not see
single road that had been oiled, not one
road roller at work, rarely ever a cul-
vert very little wheel traffic, not half
dozen motor trucks, perhaps not more
than dozen automobiles day, nearly
all filled with Americans, and only four
patrolmen at work, and these were shap-
ing up the shoulders and not repairing
the road. The only reason the roads in
France are good is because they have not
been subjected to such heavy automobile
traffic as we have in Maryland.
In England the roads are much better
than in France, but even there as much
care is not given to prompt maintenance
as we are endeavoring to use in Mary
land. When a hole appears in an English
do roal - &c Sllal in,
with patch, but the holes are permitted
to increase until tits necessary to rebuild
the road, which is then done in sections
of generally from one quarter of mile
to mile in length. In other words, they
rebuild their roads rather than maintain
them. This means agreat 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 our States. This means
that they can afford to spend and do
spend many times more than we do on
the maintenance of their roads, while
their cost of construction has already
been paid for.
Among the many advantages they have
over US are: An equable climate, with
out extremes of heat or cold, and with
out much frost or hot weather; rainfall
which is just about sufficient to keep
macadam road in good shape; no violent
storms or heavy rainfalls; simple drain
ing problems; level and uniform coun-
try; a good soil foundation for roads;
cheap labor; more money; lower freight
rates on road material; cheaper stone;
light motor and wheel traffic; road beds
many of which have been in process of
up-building since the days of the Romans;
proper traffic regulations; better OBJ
servance of the laws relating to roads; a
small territory and road mileage, etc.
A Remedy Needed.
Enr CANA tipa no OF an upuSpa1 pupnhar