The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-07-12
Gasoline Made Auto
 Truck Highways Possible
By HOLLAND

New York, July 1.-(Special) Cas-
 oline made the internal combustion
 engine commercially practicable so that
 now this apparatus is utilized for air
 craft and also for automobiles. The au-
 tomobile in time entailed the construc- ton of good roads. At first these im- proved highways were so laid as to en- courage pleasure seeking tourists. But with the advent of the war and the rail- road congestion, as well as the wonder fully enlarged use of the auto truck and the delivery wagon for business pur- poses, it became necessary to seek high way construction of kind that would De suitable for the automobile, and es- pecially heavy automobile traffic, for roads of this kind became war and business necessity.
 l Already in some parts of the country ! he auto truck is utilized in constantly increasing amount for the transportation | of merchandise, supplementing railway freight and express service. There are, \ for instance, several auto truck ex- I presses, so 10 call them which in the l afternoon receive merchandise, either in New York or Philadelphia, and then by travelling all night reach their destina-
 
 ton manufactories were established in \ New England and especially in Connec- l ticut, the auto truck has chiefly been ! employed for the transportation of all most all of the ammunition to New York
 A few weeks ago published reports of \ the movement of auto trucks from De- ! troit to New York and to Washington attracted wide attention, and one of the most brilliant of the exploits of the auto truck was that accomplished under the direction of Charles M. Schwab, when l the shipbuildlng plant at Washington or | it's headquarters there was transferred to Philadelphia by auto truck in a very short time. Ultimately there are to be several transcontinental highways con- structed in the best manner and also ether highways paralleling lines of long, titude, reaching from the large cities of the north to the lower Atlantic or to the gulf ports.
 Many activities which have relation to carrying on the war are of such magnl- Jude and importance as to concentrate the attention of the public that compara- lively little attention has been paid to the assistance which Congress has given oy large appropriation of money for the construction of highways suitable for automobiles and auto trucks. Congress enacted a law exactly two years ago pro- viding for the cooperation of the federal government and all the states of the union in highway road building. The responsibility for carrying out this statute SC far as the government is con- cerned was placed upon the Secretary of Agriculture and the various state highway associations.
 As much as $75, ,0000oo was first appro- priated by Congress for this service, al though all the money was not to be drawn upon at Cnce, but instead in year. y installments. Today the Secretary of ilSriculture estimates that by reason of -hs federal aid at least 25OOoN miles of excellent highways will be completed in ! snort time and be well kept up. For was recognized that unless proper maintenance were provided for it would De waste of money to build good high "aEs since heavy trucking in spite of ssle tends to impair these roads. Ihls however. does not differ from rail- road operation. Even the best steel ails must in slime be replaced and road beds as well as ties must be kept in good -ondition
 The appropriation of $75, 600, GOO is to be apporioned among the various states inc amounts to be distributed to each state aeing determined by it's population. area ana the mileage of its rural delivery | routes.
 | dppOFUO0mGnt most exactly S30e,0G0 was allotted to Tex as, In that state there is especial need 1 et good roads, Furthermore, it's area l $ the largest of any of the states of the an1on. The Secretary of Agriculture all l lotted nearly as much to New York i Pennsylvania and Illinois. On the other | land, what seems to be a very small al l otment is made to Delaware, only ssoOo l And Rhode Island is to receive only 1 Sll,W0. Delaware has one excellent i'm l proved highway which represents individ- i nal benefaetlon. Whatever the amount may be of the governments appropriation | of $s3,000,0o0 to any state in the first year of the apporticnment, if this be multi. | piled by two tEen by three and then uI
 to five successive mathematical calcu- | ations, the first being made as of Jan- ] uary l9ll, then every state in the union | may figure accurately upon what it is to
 receive each year during the five years | Of highway building, encouraged and supported in part by the government i It renamed for California to gain the prestige due to recognition by the Sec retary of Agriculture of the fact that California was the first state to accept aid from the appropriation.
 A few weeks ago the secretary an nounced that almost every state had sub fri'ted propositions to him. involving ac- ceptanee of the governments offer, Tex i as being conspicuous because her state | highway commission submitted proposi- tions for road construction with the aid of the government which, when com | pleted, will be about 500,000 miles in length
 and will cost about. $2.000,000.
 ! Illinois proposed to the secretary tc construct q highway 75 miles in length
 to be built in the most improved man
 ner Georgia's proposition, if accepted