The St. Joseph observer. [volume] (St. Joseph, Mo.) 1906-1932, 1917-08-04
Automobile News

Ali road overseers ana county high
way engineers In Missouri are required
by the new road law to have cut and
removed during the month Of August
each year all brush and weeds found
growing along the roadside. Wher-
ever square corners or sharp turns OBJ
struct the view and endanger life and
limb of persons travelling on the pub
lie road. II shall be the duty of county
highway engineers and road overseers
to have the same rounded and all OBJ
structions removed. II the owner of
the land refuses permission to round
corner. highway engineers and road
land condemned.
The general trend OF experience ov-
er the country has been that better
roads and permanent roads are be-
coming a reality In direct proportion
to the rapidity with which the farm
ers are buying motor cars. The farm
er cannot see the logic of road upon
which a town automobile driver can
speed 40 to so miles an hour while he
joys along or 8 miles an hour In his
buggy. Neither can he figure out to
his own satisfaction the annual cost
OF his mud haul" In prices or wear
and tear on horses and wagons. But
when the average farmer gets a motor
car his view changes. He sees doz-
en- spots in the road between his farm
and town that need repairing, and In
order that he may have the great Am
erican farmer right of loud holler,
he fixes up the road past his own
farm and makes his own road that
much better. Ride thru the country
in a motor car, and you will find few
bad stretches OF road past farms where
a garage Is numbered among the farm
buildings. II the road is not a desig-
mated county road, the farmer repairs
1t himself. IL II Is a county road. he
does what he can and then camps in
the county commissioners office until
the commissioners grant the repairs
TO get rid OF him. Better roads are
coming all over the nation. The gos-
pei of mud haul may do it's part.
| but the real influence that will bring
better roods is larger number OF
motor cars on the farms.
Iowa led the United States in 1915
| in the number OF motor cars register
ed in proportion to population. She
had l car for every IL persons. CAL
ifornia was close End, with 1 car to
every ~ Inhabitants. Nebraska and
South Dakota had 1 for every 10. Ar
kansas could show but l for every
116. The average for the United States
is car for every 29 persons accord
ing to figures presented by the office
OF public roads, United States depart
ment of agriculture, in Circular 73,
| Automobile Registrations. Licenses
| and Revenues in the United States,
| 1915" The New England states were
more uniformly supplied with motor
| cars than any other section. They
| averaged ! car to about every 27 per-
| sons. The prosperous corn-belt states
also showed fairly uniform distribu-
ton of cars. The South, which does
| D0qSQgq a M Inn
proved public roads as other sections
Of the country. had relatively fewer
cars in proportion to population.
The cost of motoring is steadily de-
creasing. Tires are higher, gasoline
is higher, oil is higher, the cars them
selves are being advanced somewhat
in price, and yet the motorist of 1917
is riding at lower cost per mile than
he did in 1910. There isn't any mys-
terry or sleight Of hand about 1t. The
present economy of motor car trav-
cling comes as the direct result of ad-
vances in automobile engineering, and
big quantity production. In 1910 an
automobile purchaser paid around
$500 for q big heavy car that ate up
a gallon of gasoline every or Z miles,
that wore out tires every 5000 or 1000
miles, and that-like most automobiles
built in those days-was in the repair
ohop u BOou uedl Ol the tl11e. IN lSl
the purchaser obtains an 8-cylinder
for $1,000 or a for s1,250, that he
wouldn't trade for several of the 1910
models of many motor car manufact-
urers. He gets double and treble the
mileage out of gallon of gasoline or
a set of tires. His 1917 car runs days,
nights, and Sundays, winter and sum-
mer. with only an occasional tuning
up and adjustment. When you add
In the time a 1917 motorist saves in a
100 ways over the motorist of 1910,
when you add in the vastly increased
comfort and pleasure of the 1917 mo-
torist over the motorist of 1910, and
when you take into consideration the
added travelling radius, the added
cleanliness. and added luxury-well
your present day motorist has a de-
cided edge on his predecessor Of