Norwich bulletin., 1913-07-11
With 1,1oo, ,ooo automobiles in use an

I Wttn igtuu,UVg aue0mebtieS In use a1C s,svu,0 ,000 miles of road 1t Is to be noted l Is a motor driven vehicle for every | two miles Highway.
 Many public men have not yet realized the change this class of ve- n1cies has wrought in commercial as social conditions," comments Robert P. Hooper, former president of the
 American Automobile association and l recently reelected for the seventh time
 as the head of the Pennsylvania Motor Federation. Their minds do not seem to readily absorb the logical result ants of the fact that the city e4 miles
 away is as accessible for business pur-
 poses with a motor vehicle, as is the
 railroad station 9.4 miles distant, with
 team and wagon. (Nine and four
 tenths miles is the distance of the
 average merfcan farm from it's near
 est shipping point. according to sta-
 tistics gathered by the U. S. Office of
 Public RoadS.)
 1t IS fair proposition that a large
 percentage of automobiles are utilized
 fin part or wholly for commercial pur- poses. There are and can be no coun-
 ty or township lines in traffic over roads. The resident in any agricul- tural community does his selling and
 buying in the city or village most accessible, whether in his own or in another county, or even in an adjoin- ing state; and as accessibility is often a question of roads, he frequently finds fifteen miles over a good road more easily negotiated than five miles over an unimproVed road.
 Certain roads in every community (amounting according to the best au- thorities. to about Is per cent. of the whole road mileage) are the main roads over which pass upwards of 80 per cent. of the local travel When a single county in a given section inn proves its main roads. a vast traffic IS at once diverted to those roads, this multiplied traffic requiring systematic and unusually costly maintenance. The local community is benefited, of course; but so are the adjoining counties and neighboring states.
 Mecklenburg county, in North Car olina, is an excellent illustration of this feature Of the economies of road Improvement. Some years ago this progressive county issued bonds and built an excellent system of macadam roads. The initial advantage was at once apparent. Farmers increased their acreage of crops: production became much greater: marketing cost less; and real estate values were enhanced from 25 to 100 per cent. Then cams new traffic conditions and the through travel of a whole section of the state was diverted over the good roads of Mecklenberg county. The travel be- tween the north and south assumed larger proportions and it went by way of Mecklenberg county because of it's good roads.
 As a matter of fact, the injustice to the taxpayers of Mecklenberg coun- ty must be apparent to every fair minded man. But Mecklenberg coun- ty is not alone in it's position. Nearly every county in the country lying along the route of a main thoroughfare in states where state aid has nos been adopted finds itself in a similar situa- ton; either with improved roads which from outside traffic are wearing out, or else prevented from making inn by the nat unnatural feel ing on the part of the people that they cannot afford to build and main- tain roads upon which would come the greatest use and wear from outside the county, with no corresponding ad- vantaees. The logic brings the ir- evitable conclusion that it is the duty of the state, in justice to the people of the counties, to build and maintain the roads over which passes the through travel Of the people of the state; and the duty of the nation. in