Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1917-04-25
FEDERAL GOOD ROADS BILL
OPENS FIELD TO AUTO MAKER
$95,0OO,O00 For Building Highways
Will Unlock Immense Territory


Will Unlock Immense Territory
to Motor Cars.
Perhaps not one motorist in fifty
realizes that the year just closed has
seen the greatest single accomplish
ment in the cause of Good Roads since
the Revolutionary War.
When President Wilson on July II
placed his signature to the Bankhead-
Good Roads bill, $85,OOO,-
600 of federal funds and like amount
to come from the various state treas
uries was dedicated to the cause of
better American highways. This
that for the next five years
$34;OOO,007 will be spent annually in
tie road system of the United
States comparable or superior to the
present fine roads of Europe.
No more splendid tribute to the edu-
cational value of the automobile could
be paid than this action on the part
of Congress. Until the coming of the
motor car, the good roads issue pos
sessed little vitality. For seventy-five
years the government exercised a pas
sive policy toward building perma-
nent highways. Railroads pushed in.
to virgin territory, cities sprang up
along the right Of way, but the rural
arteries of travel remained in the
same hopeless condition as when the
pioneers ploughed thru them afoot OF
on horseback.
With the first motor cars, came the
first feeble impulse to the good roads
movement. The first cars were sold
to city men who very quickly found
out that where city pavements ended
there ended all hopes Of further trav
ell. Pneumatic tires availed nothing
against trackless stretches of gumhc
mud or corduroy roads. With tho me
chanical improvements in motor cars
the owner chafed at his limitations
and demanded better state roads
Many states have been active toward
promoting their own road systems az
result of this agitation and quite {
little has been accomplished in. some
localities. But it has remained fo1
government cooperation to open W
the full possibilities Of the country b,
apprOpriating this huge sum for roa(
improvement.
Just what the federal aid bill will
bring to business in general can onl,
be cOnjectured. That it will vastl,
benefit the farmer in transporting hi
goods to market is we'll known. AM
it should work to reduce the high cos
of living by bringing food stuffs, here
tofore destroyed or wasted because O
lack of communication with market
able points, to city markets where tn,
demand is great. One thing we ar,
certain of and that is a remarkable ex
pansion in the business of America,
automobile manufacturers.
People who have shaken their head.
over the future of the automobile in
dustry, have failed to appreciate tn.
magnitude of American wealth. A.
President Wilson said in his address!
on Good Roads at indianapolis, "Yo,
cannot know what the resources of thu
country are unless the country is GOV
cred over with network Of road.
which will release all the locked III
riches of all countrysides. Those O.
US who have been connected with
sales distribution of motor cars in the
past ten years know that this state
ment is true. We know that vast
stretches of territory practically iso
lated by lack of transportation facil
tiles, will be opened up with new
roads and that the development of the
rich farming or mining territory will
create wealth for a new class of pio
neers.
venture to say that the automo
bile will prove one of the biggest fac
tors toward this development and that
shipments of cars will follow new
highways as fast as they are opened
With Uncle Sam firmly backing up a
national highways program, the auto
mobile manufacturer has less reason
than ever for believing In the exis
tence Of "saturation" point for the
motor car industry. Expansion and
increased sales will be the slogan fol
this giant Of American industries for
years to Gomez. c. Morse.