The Morgan City daily review. (Morgan City, La.) 1916-1920, 1918-11-01
"SSuperroads for Super
traffic" Is A Fine Slo-
gan Fer Any Com
munlty
To get the Character of Roads
America Needs, 1t Pays to
Build Them Right Re-
CARELESS Of Expense

I Our national highways and hun
, dreds of thousands of miles Of rura
roads are in a dangerous predica
ment. And upon these arteries O
traffic there is being loaded an eaor
mously increased burden Of wa
transport. From every state in tn
Union the appeal goes to Washing
ton to define and adopt a fedora
highway policy. 1t is further urget
on the President that he appoint &
big boss for roads.
We are improving and expanding
every sinew of u national strength
but our roads. If we don't do some
thing for them pretty soon We'll find
ourselves in the unpleasant plight of
wallowing through. {,
A year ago we had begun to take
pride in our progress in road build
ing. We put up a line of multicolored
s%ignposts, painted emblems on the
bridges and holes along the way and
said that we were developing a ma
tional road system. We spread gravel
here, oil there, smoothed up the top
of the trail and called it a highway.
In a few places we laid down thin
shells of concrete or layers of bricks
or sand and rolled merrily along
thinking that we knew how to build
a road.
Then came the jolt. A war that is
a war Of transports came Oh. The
flood of traffic overswept the rail-
roads and streamed down the high
ways on motor trucks. These trucks
came to the rescue in a wonderful
way, but u roads began to crumble.
From the beautiful, smooth boule-
yards they became trails of chuck
holes, quagmires Of mud and broken
surface shells. Highway officials
awoke to the alarming fact that our
roads were going to pieces. Over
whelming proof convinced them that
temporary repair was no longer suf-
icient. We must begin at the bot
tom and build roads strong enough
to carry the load.
Here and there we have highw avs
that are standing up. Concrete laid
down deep enough and brick properly
set on a good base are supporting the
traffic. But even these must be
watched constantly and every small
breack must be mended before it
spreads.
Era Of SupertrafGc. u
Why have we failed so miserably
as highway builders when we were
best railroad builders in the
The second explains the first.
We have been passing through an era
railroad building. It has ended
before the era of permanent highway
building has quite arrived. The war
lrove in between these periods and
us u~nprepared. Right in tho
midst of our unpreparedness comes
he development Of the motor truck. !
five years the annual production
# motor trucks jumped from $4,000
90 100000. Over 100000 are now
n active service. Within a year our
ruck transport has been called upon
o take tens of thousands of tons of
reight, which the railroads couldn't
landle, and carry it over the high
rays. Hundreds of heavy trucks are
lying between Philadelphia and New
'ork. Endless trains Of them are
rossing Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, New
'ork, Pennsylvania and Maryland,
18th three to five ton loads. Our
Dads were not built to carry this SUI
ertraffc.
Consider what the war is doing to
ur transportation problem: We build
lirty new cities, called cantonments,
nd populate them. They must all
fed and supplied as an extra task. ,
Ie r moving great forces of men ;
ON these thirty cities to the Front L
lree thousand miles away. All Of il
leir food and supplies must be .
auled to the seaboard. We must ;.
populate these thirty cities again u
again, continually multiplying il
If transport problem for who knows q
wv long? II
Was it not the height of folly to
t down on road building or road e
pair? Yet a "war" order was is b
ed declaring highway building a
after of minor Importance.
"You can't use freight cars to haul
ad-building materials" said the Ii
'iorities Board. n
"You must not sell road bonds" =
id the Capital Issues Committee. q
Dad building was stopped dead in
tracks.