Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-12-09
Enrntug Ot1at

State Highway Commissioner j,
Denny ONeil is authority for the
statement that there has been more
moving done in trucks over the
highways of Pennsylvania this year
than ever known before and that as
long as railroad conditions are con-
geSted people will use the truck.
The commissioner said that for the
last year he had been impressed
during his rides over state highways
in every section of the state with
the number of FITTINGS" being
handled in motor trucks. The Lin
coin and William Penn highways
had many motor truck trains for
the Army, but the moving vans
were second. A number of lines of
motor truck transportation compan-
les are operating in the state, said
the commissioner, and some manu-
featuring plants have their own
trucks to move their products to
Philadelphia or other cities, while
coal and other supply companies are
operating trucks to handle their dis
tribution within twenty miles of
their headquarters. But the NOV
ings are the interesting thing and
the facility with which articles can
be moved clear across the state
without danger of delays is evi-
IDENTIFY having its weight with the
people, remarked the commissioner.
w iiC uiu ilOl say oOt lllGI6 udN0
been numerous instances known
where trucks have also delivered
household articles where they were
billed and not to some other place
as has happened on some railroads
in Pennsylvania. Movings have been
handled every month that weather
has been fit and some have been
seen within the last week, a rather
unusual record for 'cross-country
work in December.
Progress on the filling in of the
street lines in Capitol Park Exten-
sion is being followed with Hthe
greatest interest by many visitors to
Harrisburg statesmen and others
who make periodical trips to this
city, and from what some some of
them say they are more familiar
with what is being done in that Sec
ton than many residents of the
town itself. The line of the pro-
posed changes in the park can he
seen by the height of the fill for
the line of the new intersecting
street about on the line of Aber-
deem which looks more like a rail-
road embankment than anything
else. Superintendent George A.
Shreiner, who has been buying up
immense quantities of filling for the
street lines, says that he hopes to
| nave DOlh VI lIl6 highways IHlSnGu
by spring and then to start on what
may be needed as preliminary to
the approach TO the Memorial
bridge.
Speaking of the Memorial bridge,
which has elected such favorable
comment from many sections of the
state, it is interesting to note that
Governor Brumbaugh has an idea
for 1t which is somewhat out of the
ordinary. The Governors scheme is
to have semicircular spaces about
where the piers would be located
and to have them filled in with
earth and small evergreen trees
planted on them as we'll as flowers.
There will be numerous spots on the
third of mile bridge where trees
could be placed under such an ar
rangement and 1t would make it an
exceedingly attractive structure es-
pecially If one of the Brunner ideas
of having flowers in some of the
recesses was also carried through.
Local draft boards have sent
| Major William G. Murdoch, the
states chief draft officer, assurance
of their hearty acceptance of his
proposal that the history of each
local draft board be written by the
men who did the work. The letter
and kilograms received at the state
draft headquarters from board
members have informed the draft
chief of the intention to start at
once in the collection of data and
to include in the story of the draft
accounts of the work done by the
various auxiliary boards, the conf
mittees in charge of the welfare of
soldiers and similar activities. The
plan of Major Murdock is to have
erfNF 70 fia fGtn
of the draft, which sent over 225,-
900 men into the armed service and
had charge of the registration of
over 100000 Pennsylvanians. The
draft boards were arranged accord
ing to localities and the members
were in close touch with men in
every walk of life and the activl-
ties, routine and extraordinary on
account of the war, so that he con-
siders them best fitted to handle the
compilation of the histories. In
number of instances the boards met
fconditions of unusual interest which
will be valuable to readers of state
history, and almost every district
will be able to tell of the tremen-
dous efforts made in behalf of the
welfare of the drafted men. In the
proposed histories will not only be
included the names Of the men draft
ed and sent to camps, but facts re-
garding registration, the names OF
the people who helped, contempo-
raneous newspaper accounts of the
departure of men together with
statements of the work of the Red
Cross, Liberty Loan and other COM
mittees whose activities in some
form or other touched the draft.
80
1t does not take long after some
one has, revived the project of inn
proving the character of the Sus-
quehanna as a navigable stream for
it to be taken up along the course
of the wide branching river. The
address of Major William b. Gray
here last month and the plan for
committee of men from various
counties to be formed to urge leg
islation have started chain of
comment reaching clear up into
New York state. The newspapers
in towns along the roadway known
as the Susquehanna Trail. which
follows the river to certain extent,
are very much in favor of applying
some of the new explosives to the
rocks of the river bottom, believing
that it can be as profitable to CIV