The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-07-23
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
INFORM A TON
Blu REAU
FREDERIC J. HASKIN, Director.
Washington. D. @.
AMERICAN ROADS AT HOME AMI
ABROAD.
Washington. D. c.

engineers in France has been to build
good roads. Ribbons of concrete now
stretch from all the important base
cities up to the very front, while in
some places there is a direct line of
transportation from the ports of dis
embarkation to the firing line. Within
range of the enemy howitZers and the
deadly mustard gas, American engi-
neers have dragged American road
making machinery all the way to the
first line of defense and have calmly
laid the foundation of macadam nee
essary to the constant movement of
supplies and troops.
The first company Of American
road-builderS arrived in France last
winter. 1t was made up of men who
had held important engineering posi-
tons in civil life-men who had been
trained in our best technical schools
and were fitted for supervisory jobs.
Naturally, they had expected jobs of
that kind awaiting them in Europe.
Nevertheless, when it became evident
that If everybody became a supervisor
there would be nothing to supervise,
most of them seized shovels and pick
axes and started to work. One young
engineer, who had been in charge of
the subway in an American metropolis
found that he still had a great deal to
learn about breaking rock.
Those were difficult days. These
men had to prepare the way for the
movement of the American troops
that were to arrive in France in the
spring. But they were handicapped by
lack of labor and machinery. to which
they were accustomed in the United
States. A story is told of one engineer
who, made desperate at the slowness
with which the work was going for
ward, bought 5000 worth of scrap
metal from French store and made
his own stone-crusher.
At last, however. both machinery
and engineers started to arrive in
large numbers. 1t is estimated that
over two thousand American engi-
neers are now building roads in
France, and they are working with
the finest equipment that the United
States can send them@eQuipmen
which has been the cause of much
astonished interest among French en-
gineers, who have been used to lay
ing roads b, hand. It is the first
time, for instance, that the French
nave seen an up-to-date American
stone crusher, with it's elevator SCOOP
or wagon with a collapsible floor
thru which the rock may be dumped.
The problem confronting American
engineers is not so much the building
of new roads as the reconstruction and
widening of roads already there
France has plenty of national high
ways that are sufficiently wide and
of smooth macadam. Many of these
have bee literally pulverized by ar
tillery and the heavy wheels of hordes
of motor trucks, and must be re-
paired. Offshoots from these national
highways, necessary for military pu =
poses are also abundant, but cannot
be used without being widened. Their
width, which averages between and
IL feet. must be increased to from IS
to 25 feet. to make room for the pas
sage of artillery and motor-truck
traffic.
American road builders are divided
into divisions under a division super
intendent, who is responsible to the
chief of roa- engineers at the head
quarters of the American expedition
airy forces in Paris. The men work in
gangs, and are housed close to their
according to the character of the
work. About the quarries, where the
work is of a more permanent char
acter, for example, wooden barracks
are erected, while along the road the
men often live in tents or at some
nearby French town. An American
engineer who recently returned from
one of these road divisions says that
the food served by the camp quarter
master is excellent, that the clothes
provided py the army are very COM
Portable and that the nomad existence
except when interrupted by a sud-
den bomba rdment from the enemy.
The Importance of securing and
maintaining a free and unbroken line
| of transportation communications
| they call it in the army is obvious.
| Cut off from its base of supplies or re-
| Inducements, an army might just as
well lay down it's ermS. This is what
i the British army was compelled to do
I fvz ~ %11 II II
materials and facilities with which to
| reconstruct roads of wet clay and rock
| that had once been the pride of the
| French government.
| Good roads in this country are as
! essential to the prosecution of the
| war, as good roads in France. The
| United States, never having been an
! aggressively military nation, has not
/ built its roads for military use. Unlike
France and Germany, it had no
| trategic system of communications al
the beginning of the war But, in 1916
when the prophecies of a German inva-
sion aroused the nation to its general
state Of military unpreparedness, con-
gress passed a federal road aid act APP
propriating $S5.000.0OO to be distrib-
uted on a cooperative basis among the
states for the purposes of road con-
struction. The distribution of the
money was placed in the hands of the
secretary of agriculture
This measure has greatly stimulated
ad-building thruout the country. The
state of Texas. for example, now has 81
lroadbuilding projects under way; Ala
bama plans to carry out % road i'm
,provement projects. while the state OF
Illinois is working on a single project
for the construction of 1856 miles OF
concrete and bituminous macadam
road, extending thru six counties. This
last is to cost $1.146.673.50. and Illi-
nois has requested federal aid for SO
per cent of this sum.
But, while the states have been wor
over to the idea of good roads by tbs
| federal road aid act, their enthusiasm
has been somewha: dampened by nu.
merous difficulties. It has been i'm
possible in many cases to secure ma
terials for macadam roads. The fue
administration, DESTROYS of conserving
the oil supply for the American fleet
| has become very strict about the uss
of road oils, asphalts and tars in stree
and highway work. These material: