Omaha daily bee., 1918-11-10
0STERMANN
URGES STATE
AID HIGHWAY
National Field Secretary Of
Lincoln Highway Says that
State is Behind in Its
Work. \

CluO, members OF the Rotary club,
and other good roads boosters. on
the national Importance of the Lin
coin highway to Omaha.
The Lincoln Highway association
started out with the prime purpose
of securing enough money from
contributions to pave the highway
across the continent" he said 1T
cost the association about $4,000 to
set the publicity wheels in motion,
publish maps, sustaining member
ship cards and other road data, and
the financial responses from the pub
lie amounted to something like $23.-
600. The brains of the association
saw that the fundamental purpose of
securing financial aid in paving the
Lincoln highway would have to be
abandoned, and from then on our eff
forts have been purely that of
molder OF public sentiment, crystal
lizing good roads thoughts toward
securing continuance, connected
and improved route through the sew
eral states from New York to San
Francisco.
Sieberling Aids.
The association is not in the
road constructing business, but of
late years we have seen the ultimate
necessity of bridging the poor
spots on the highway with outside
fnacial aid. Toward this end Mr..
Sieberling, president of the associa-
ton and also president of the Good
year Tire and Rubber company,
contributed 100000 for building a
road across the lower arm of the
Great American desert in Utah.
Construction ''as completed
and a. three st grade thrown up
clear across the formerly impossible
low spot.
"This 20-mile boulevard will be
graveled nine inches deep, giving US
hard road from Salt Lake City for
l85 miles west into the arid dis
trict of Utah and Nevada. Carl G.
Fisher, president of the Prestolite
company, contributed $4,000 to
open Johnson Pass, just this side of
the Sieberling section. Mr.. John
N. WHY'S of WHY'S Overland Auto
company donated $4,000 for the
opening of Overland canyon. Part
of this money will be spent in the
counties of Wyoming, where bad
spots need attention and the taxable
property of not sufficient value to
raise the necessary amount.
Nebraska Backward.
AT the present time l find Ne
braska just about the most back
ward state on the route. and when
we travel through your wonderfully
rich state it is hard to believe that
road progress has not kept pace
with yield and richness of the land.
You in Nebraska have hundreds of
thousands of tons of excellent grav-
Ell in the western part of the state
and it is positively pitiful to drive
car over some sections of the high
way and mire in a foot of muck,
with gravel not over so feet from
the road.
"You have practically an all
weather strip from around Suther-
land west, with few low spots that
brings to mind the old adage that a
chain is no stronger that its weak
est link.
"The Lincoln highway has been
laid out. The route is now where it
always will be, with minor changes
tending to cut out mileage here and
there. The route has been gone
over many times by expert engi-
neers. In Nebraska you have a
water level way from Waterloo
clear to the end of the state. When
Nebraska wakes up and talks hard
roads the Lincoln highway with its
absence of hills and grads will be
possibly one of the longest level
stretches Of highway in the world.
Other Roads Unnecessary. }
IT am not here, gentlemen, to
deny the necessity of building other
roads. The Lincoln highway is only |
one route through the country, but
we are at the same time egotistically |
proud of the fact that the Lincoln
Highway association is the most |
progressive road association the
world has ever known. Our efforts
in the past will bear out our claim.
Through association efforts in the
different states we have secured
over $14000.000 in road work on the
Lincoln highway.
81 am particularly anxious to i'm.
press upon you the importance OF [
the Highway as a future street I
through the states" when It shall .
have been hard surfaced. The ma i
tional importance of the route is
often lost in the feeling OF pessin-
ism which lays hold of the people
of the different communities where
the progress has not kept pace with
the average sections throughout the
route. Because you have poor strips
in Nebraska should be incentive
sufficient to stir you to redoubled
efforts to build real road. In many
sections the highway is the natural
drain of the abutting property on
both sides, and in wet weather we
cannot expect to have anything more
than a sea of mud. Nebraska is
wealthy enough to. bond in each
county for a hard road east and |
west and north and south. Build
your main trunk lines first and then
tie to them with your cross roads.