Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1914-09-25
W. j. HENSEL URGES
S20O,O0O,OOO GOOD
ROAD LOAN FOR PA.
All Parties Should Unite For Bet
ter Highways; Commissioner
Bigelow's Address
Special to The TELEGRAPH

Honey Brook. Pa, Sept 25-De-
clarins that the cause of good roads
should not be considered as political
but that all parties should unite in
furthering 1t, w. Y. Hensel, eX-At-
torney General, speaking at the an
nual banquet of the Automobile Club
of Chester county here last night,
brought the members of the club to
their feet with the following ringing
declaration
IF there he any one thing which
might tempt me from my political re-
tirement it would be that | might
stump the State in the advocacy, not
of S50.000,0O0 bond issue, but of
$500. 100000 bond issue for the cause
of good roads in this State"
Prior to Mr.. HensePs speech the
banqueters listened to a few remarks
from Mayor Frank B. McClain, Lam
caster, candidate for lieutenant-gov-
ernor, on the subject of good roads.
Mr.. Bigelow Speaks
But the real feature of the evening
was the address made by State High
way Commissioner +. NJ. Bigelow, in
which he gave some straight-from-
the-shoulder truths about Pennsylva-
Was roads and their improvement.
Commissioner Bigelow was the guest
of the club and arrived here from
Coatesville where he had been enter
tanned during the afternoon by w. w.
Long, secretary of the automobile
club. He was called on for the first
speech and for nearly an hour he held
the club members attention while he
outlined the conditions which have
confronted his department ever since
he assumed Office. Commissioner Bige-
low made an earnest plea to the men,
bers of the club to unite in efforts to
induce the next Legislature to make
adequate appropriations for good
roads.
He told the members of the changes
that have taken place in the last de-
cade in the methods of modern road
building and pointed out that the
water-bound macadam road, once con-
sidered the ideal improved highway,
has outlived its usefulness in commu-
mites where the vehicular traffic is
such that the heavy auto truck and
the traction engine have access to the
highways and cause rapid disintegra-
ton of the road. In New York, where
auto trucks carrying fourteen tons
are permitted to use the highways, he
said, the peril to the highways was
even greater than in Pennsylvania
where the limit was placed at twelve
tons, but he asserted that even here
the roads could not stand up under the
StTdln put upon lnem Dy Sucn traftlc.
Pennsylvania's Scenery
Commissioner Bigelow described the
beauties of Pennsylvania's scenery and
told how the auto tourist could travel
1900 miles on State highways where
the beauties of nature were such as to
rival the finest in the world He dwelt
upon the defeat of the $50,00O,O00
bond issue and asserted that he be-
lieved that many who had been mis-
led into voting against il now regret
ted their action. Then he asked the
members of the club to use their best
efforts to get the next Legislature to
sufficient funds to carry
on the work of making Pennsylvania
roads the equal of any in the United
States.
That good roads could he built at
moderate cost, he explained in de-
tail, emphasizing the fallacy of main
tanning that a good road could be built
to be lasting at any such nonsensical
sum as $4,000 a mile. The commits
sioner said that good road must be
a road with sufficient permanency to
last without eating up maintenance
costs. Unless the road was we'll built
in the first place, he declared, it could
not last, Build your roads not for
to day or tomorrow, but for all time"
he advocated.
T. Larry Eyre was toastmaster at
the banquet which was served by the
members of the Ladies' Auxiliary of
the Honey Brook Fire Company in
their handsome new hall.