The Morgan City daily review. (Morgan City, La.) 1916-1920, 1918-05-28

its crops and supply not only our
own soldiers, but our allies, with the
food and other necessary materials.
Roads connecting camps, places
where troops are concentrated and
, from which they may be moved, or
leading to forts or. other points of
military Importance, are, of course,
of the greatest Importance from the
military point Of view. Also the
roads from the nearest railroads to
such camps or forts.
When we consider today that a
regiment of infantry is $500 men
and that motor truck company has
81 trucks, l wrecking car, and 3 mo-
torcycles; that an infantry company
has 81 trucks and 5 motorcycles, or
else 3S teamsters with 112 draft
mules. 7 riding mules, and y wag-
ons to a company, you will readily
see that division, which consists of
6 regiments, or 8 brigades of regi-
n.ents Of infantry, ] brigade of cav
airy. ! brigade of artillery, l regi-
mant Of engineers, and l battalion Of
signal corps, would make very
heavy amount Of traffic on any high
way
With the heaviest guns used today,
it is probable that all. our bridges
that might be used ought to be built
to stand at least Is to II tons. Some
Of the heavy guns now being made
weigh about II tons and have fully
'.three-quarters of the load on the
rear axle. While these heavy loads
must occasionally be carried, it is
very likely in the future that the
heaviest guns will be moved either on
rails or on caterpillar tractors.
The main thing, therefore, that
our roads must be made to stand is
the continuous pound and wear of
the three to five ton trucks and of
the heavy wagons on inch tires, with
four to six inch wheels, the weight OF
which will not exceed probably three
tons.
l think we should all pay a great
| deal more attention to the founda-
tions of our roads than in the past.
In my own state there is tremen-
dous commercial traffic in motor
trucks. They are constantly on the
increase. Most of our main roads
have to carry 100 to $50 day and
some have much larger number.
This is going to require stronger
roads, thicker macadam, and a
stronger foundation.
The Aver cantonment, which has
more than $4,000 men was built
! about two miles from the railroad
station on a fairly good, gravel road
in a small and poor country town.
The road was destroyed in couple
of months. The Highway Commits
sion and the County of Middlesex CO.
operated with the Government Off
cials in building the road We could
build it as substantially as desired,
but we built sixinch bituminous
macadam road, putting in the foun-
dation where necessary and drainage
The Government officials took
charge of the work under percent
age contract, and the State agreed
to pay one-half the cost not to ex-
ceed $4,000, and the county has in
timated that it viii pay onethird OF
the cost, not exceeding $4,000
These two miles Of road were COM
pleted in about four weeks.
The necessity Of roads, from the
military point Of view, is shown
again in the City Of Quincy, where
the Government is constructing q
large shipyard. The existing high
ways were inadequate, as was the
single line Of street railway. The
authorities in charge of building the
yard for the Government decided te
widen the road and put in two stree
railway tracks, the railway company
to repay the cost of that, and the;
are building from fifteen to seven
teen feet of bituminous macadan