Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1915-09-04
GOOD ROADS ARE IN
DEMAND EVERYWHERE
Congress Will Be Asked to CO.
operate in Nationwide I'M
provement Work


question to answer at its forthcoming
session, and the accommodating demand
from all sections of the country makes
clear that the issue must be met" as
serts President John A. Wilson of the
American Automobile Association, who
Is enroute to the Pacific Coast to pre-
side on motor car day at the American
Road Congress.
with over two million automobiles
in use, the motorists now make up an
army of road users entitled to equal
consideration with all other citizens,
says Mr.. Wilson, though some of US
can remember an earlier period when
we were considered a special class,
subject to all kinds of hampering
legislation and considered chiefly from
revenue producing standpoint
But we have finally obtained near
ly all those rights which belong to the
average citizen, and there is one thing
in which we take a great deal of
pride and satisfaction. In encouraging
people to travel from town to town
and from State to State, we have ac-
CELEBRATED astoundingly the national
viewpoint. Nevertheless, l must con-
fess to a belief that comprehensive
highways improvement has only be-
gun, for it is now receiving deserved
attention from a growing number of
men who have most to do with the
affairs of the nation"
Speaker Champ Clark of the House
of Representatives in a recent home
State" speech gave a characteristic
talk in which he said: First and last
tens of thousands of dollars worth of
wagons and buggies have been broken
up and destroyed by reason of the bad
roads in Missouri, and hundreds of
thousands of dollars worth of horses,
mules, and oxen have been wasted in
the same manner - perhaps the
amount would run into the millions
II know this is not so lofty a theme
as to discuss international questions
of great pith and moment, but the
problem of improving our roads Is
practical and can be solved. What's
more, it ought to be solved. 1t is OF
immediate and pressing Importance.
Good roads mean increase of popula-
tion-increase of wealth-increase IN
church and school attendance - in
crease in social affairs-in short, tn
crease in the joy of living.
Former Secretary of State William
Jennings Bryan, in an argument
against any extensive military defense
expenditure set forth that $4,000, ,000,-
the United States with hard roads
twelve miles apart, so that no citizen
would live more than six miles from
a good road which would enable him
to go everywhere"
Mr.. Bryan also said in an interview
at Omaha recently that it Is only a
question of time when the Federal
Government will lend its assistance in
the building of Interstate roads.
The significant feature of Mr..
Bryans words is his reference to
interstate roads," comments Chair
man George c. Diehl of the A. A. A.
Good Roads Board. This can be no
other than the conception of a ma
tional system which will corelate and
coordinate the systems of State high
ways. just as the State systems form
township systems of highways. The
A. A. A. believes this an ultimate de-
velopment, but hardly possible in the
beginning. An interstate system
would be tangible and impressive and
would tend to unity in our present
somewhat haphazard systems of high
ways. Mr.. Bryan's utterance is an en-
couraging indication of the trend OF
thought among the men who shape
our legislative policies.
Not long ago the chairman OF the
State Highway Commission of Maine, |
referring to Federal cooperation In
good roads, asserted that the first |
expenditure in a State like Maine |
should be for connected seacoast roads |
which would permit of quick mobil- |
izing of troops at any threatened point |
of attack. A similar argument had |
been previously put forth in regard
to the Pacific Coast and the Mexican
border. The great value of highways
and automobiles in the European con-
flict has been completely demonstrated
and these two factors are certain to
figure in national legislation relating
to military preparedness"