Semi-weekly herald., 1915-04-19

! Ohio, and Tennessee, or their spe
cially chosen representatives, has for
its object the building of highway
from Chicago to Miami, Fla. This
long road should be monument to
celebrate the half century of peace
within the union, for it will surpass
in potential value and fitness any
work which might be designed for
that noble purpose by sculptor or
architect The Dixie highway will be
veritably highway of peace uniting
the north and south as they have
never been united before. Extending
| from Chicago southwark through fer
tile Indiana and the bluegrass region
of Kentucky, over Tennessee's noun
tains into Georgia, and thence to Mi
ami, on the ocean coast of southern
| Flo rida, this broad concrete road will
serve ms new bond of sympathy be-
tween the states and new means
of industrial development. 1t should
be built to endure, like the old Rom
an roads still travelled in central Eu-
rope, and symbolic of the united
strength of great nation.
The road is the first necessity of
industrial civilization and its latest
reliance. This highway, which is to
extend from the extreme north of the
national domain to the far south, ap-
peals powerfully to the imagination.
Its length will exceed thousand
miles. and where else in the whole
world could roadbuilders survey a
thousand miles so fertile, so rich, and
varied in natural resources, so famous
for scenic charm and historic asso-
Citations? The road will run through
great cities. through forests. farms,
and orchards of incalculable value,
through manufacturing districts of
rapidly growing Importance, upon
which the whole world must depend
in the future. In southeastern Ten
nessee it will reach Chattanooga over
the Cumberland tahlelands, from the
southern extremity of which ,at Sig
nal Point on Walden's Ridge, there
now exists the first link in the high
way, perfect road of eight mlesi
built by an enterprising citizen of
Chattanooga. c. E. James, the orig
inator and chief promoter of this
Dixie national highway.
AS memorial this project of a
national highway running north and
south must be first regarded. 1t has
other claims. of course. 1t has Il
sound, practical significance apart
from its sentimental and patriotic
aspect. The self-moving vehicle has
enlarged the public comprehension of
the value of good roads. People
trHvel now who never travelled under
tie o.d conditions. The popular mo-
tor car of the hour is cheaper than
the horse and carriage of the last
generation, and it will carry its own
er with railroad speed wherever he
wants TO go. A road from Chicago
to southern Florida will be in use ali
the year. Not alone for pleasure, but,
with the rapidly developing utility of
the self-moving wagon. it will serve
as a powerful influence in the ad.
vancement of interstate commerce.
Good roads beget roads. This nation
al enterprise is bound to give an inn
petus 10 roadmaking in every state
through which the highway runs, and
it will create an interest in perma-
nent highways in every direction
Along the whole line roads already
existing will be linked with the new
highway, stimulating Industrial and
social development
Still, it is as a memorial of endur-
ing quality, fifty Symboheal Of the
accord between brethren which shau
never again be broken, bisecting the
country from north to south, that this
Dixie highway appeals most strongly
TO the national Imagination. In Goor-
gia. for instance, it will run 10 Allan
ia along the very line Of Shermans
historic march to the sea, through
Chiekamauga and Ringgold, Dalton,
ReSaea, and alongside Of Kennesaw
mountain and where, fifty years ago,
the trAmping army, with its follow
ers and its dread caravan OF engines
OF destruction and ambulanees, laid a
fair country waste, a new army OF
sturd workers bearing the implements
Of peace will be employed to make
s reborn country more vigorous and
prosperous and its beauties more ac-
eeSsiOle 10 the world.
In the north the Dixie highway,
the great Pcaseway, wiH cross the
Lincoln highway, Which Is TO extend
across the continent, and We may