The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1915-06-09
4unifyins" Ola Vermont.

Fast automobile bus lines for com
mercial purposes over the Green
mountains are expected to provide
long sought communication between
the communities of the two sides OF
the main dividing range.
The application of the jitney prin-
ciple to overland" transportation in
Vermont promises to remove state
sectionalism. The main typographical
social, commercial and political divi-
sions of the state have been east
side and west side" of the noun
tains Cross country railroads are few
and have heavy gradients; good high
ways have been the same. Where
there were plums of the political sort
to be picked the east and west sides
divided them. If there was but one
plum east and west found for it and
sometimes compromised with a mid
mountain choice. Hence the present
location, determined years ago, Of the
state capital; but hence, too, the oc-
casion dissension about the point to
which the capital may be removed
When a choice is required to be
made periodically then east and west
alternate, as. for example. IN the gov
ernorship. For this reason the re-
election Of a governor is unknown
No governor in Vermont is so good
that if he is from the east side OF the
mountains the west side does not de- |
sire to turn. him out; and vice versa
There is belief now. however, that
the commercial automobile, the car
rier of passengers and freight will |
unite the state on cross-country lines.
The per capita ownership of automo-
biles in Vermont is said to be larger
than in any other state Of the Union
This statement will surprise all who
have not had occasion to keep track |
of the rapid conquest of the Green
mountains by King Gasoline
Comparing it with other states in
New England, Vermont is the most |
sparsely settled, barring Maine; also |
the most exclusively given to agricul-
ture, and the most mountainous; and |
these are all conditions that would |
seem to operate against the utility |
and popularity of the automobile.
Ii everybody" owns an automobile |
nowadays in Vermont then it must |
follow that on the east as on the |
west side the farmers are using the |
new conveyances. In the Mississippi |
Valley and further west the farmers
are the croesuses; not so in Vermont !
according to general report. But
even before the national ero Of good
road building Vermont possessed
country roads as rule better than
the average in mountain states. The
grades were necessarily steep, and
the great precipitation, taking in win
ter the form of heavy SHOWS, left the
roads for months impossible by rea-
son of snow or mud. Seven months
of good roads year is probably
fair record of Vermont. In the earl
Ter years Of the horseless carriage
automobiling was merely summer
sport in northern New England. Pos
sibly the modern cars win perform
wonders now on northern mountain
roads.
Thanks to the road development of
the past few years, the people of Rut-
land expect that new cross-state
automobile line, traversing formerly
mpenetrable regions, will reduce the
time between that city and Bethel
ma papIolnb Inv fou,. hourc ond tbo
fares by two dollars or more as com
pared with the roundabout rail
routes. There is one sort of compe-
tition deadlier for a railroad than the
deadly parallel" by the way, and
that is the deadly short cut But the
mountain jitneys are expected to be
feeders to rather than competitors
of the established lines.-Montpelier
Argus.