The Daytona daily news. [volume] (Daytona, Fla.) 1903-1926, 1915-04-13

"The conference In Chaftanoogn.
Tenn. attended by the governors Of
Indiana, Illinois. Kentucky. Georgia.
Ohio and Tennessee. or their specially
chosen representatives, has for its OBJ
ject the building Of highway from
Chicago to Miami, Florida This long
road should be monument to cele-
brate the half century Of peace within
the Union. for it will surpass in po-
tential value and fitness any work
which might be designed for that no.
BILE purpose by sculptor or architect
The Dixie Highway will be vertically
highway of peace unst.ng the north
adm the south as they have never been
united before. Extending from Chi
cago southwark through fertile Indi-
ana and the blue grass regions Of
Kentucky, over Tennessee's noun
tains into Georgia, and thence to Mi
ami, on the ocean coast of southern
Florida, this broad concrete road will
serve as a new bond of sympathy be-
tween the states and a new means of
industrial development. 1t should be
built to endure. like the old Roman
road still travelled in central Europe,
and symbolic of the united strength of
a 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
notional 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 road, builders survey a
thousand miles so fertile, so rich, and
varied in natural resources, so ia
nous for scenic charm and historic
associations? The road will run
through great cities, through forests,
farms, and orchards of incalculable
value, through manufacturing dis
tricts of rapidly growing Importance,
upon which the whole world must de-
pend in the future. In southeastern
Tennessee it will reach Chattanooga
over the Cumberland tablelands, from
the southern extremity of which, at
Signal Point, on Walden's Ridge,
there now exists the first link in the
| highway, perfect road of eight miles
built by an enterprising citizen CT
Chattanooga, C. E. James, the origin
ator and chief promoter of this Dixie
national highway.
AS a memorial this project of a
national highway running north and
south must be first regarded It has
other claims. of course 1t las a
sound practical significance apart
from its sentimental and patriotic as
pect. The self moving vehicle has
enlarged the public comprehension of
the value of good roads, People tray-
ell now who never travelled under the
old conditions. The popular motor
car OF the hour is cheaper than the
horse and carriage of the last gener.
alton and it will carry its owner with
railroad speed wherever he wants to
go. A road from Chicago to southern
Florida will be in use all the wear
Not alone for pleasure, but, with the
rapidly developing utility of the self.
moving wagon, it will serve as DOW
errul influence in the advancement of
interstate commerce. Good roads be-
get good roads. This national enter.
prise Is bound to give an impetus 10
roadmaking in every state through
which the highway runs, and it, will
create an interest in permanent high.
ways in every direction. Alonp the
whole line roads already existing will
be linked with the new highway. slim.
ulating industrial and social deyelon.
ment.
Still, it is a memorial of enduria.
quality, fifty symbolical of the ac.
cord between brethren, bisecting the
country from north to south, that This
Dixie Highway appeals most strongly
to the imagination. In Georgia. for
instance, it will run to Atlanta a,o,,
the very line of Sherman's historic
march to the sea, through Chicaman.
ga and Ringgold. Dalton, Resaca. and
alongside of Kennesaw mountain and
where, fifty years ago, the training
army, with its followers and it's dread
caravan of engines of destruction and
ambulances, laid fair country waste
a new army of sturdy workers bearin.
the implements of peace will be en-.
ployed to make reborn country more
vigorous and prosperous and its bean.
ties more accessible to the world.
In the north the Dixie Highway
the great peaceway, viii cross the
Lincoln highway, which is to extand
across the continent, and we may
nope that in time another southern
highway, running from the eastern
states through Virginia southwest
ward through East Tennessee. one ri