The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-12-14
Every Man in Demobilised
Army Could Find Job
II Only Small Part of Needed
ROad Work Starts.
so SAYS HIGHWAY CHIEF
Read Building Has Practically
Been at q Standstill.
But Now, With Peace, There
Should BeWOrk.

New York. Dec. 14.-Highway i'm
provcment in the United States alone
would furnish employment for every
man of the demobilized American
army. IL even a fair proportion of the
needed highway work were to be I'M
dertaken.
This is the opinion of E. s. Cornell,
secretary, National Highways Protec-
tive society. This society promotes
the building of better highways thru
out the country, without advocating
use of any. patented paving materials.
During the war highway building
practically came to a standstill thru
out the country. Even IL the govern
ment had not placed a ban on the use
of labor and materials for highway
work, except upon roads used in war
work, the rising cost of labor and ma
terials would have stopped the work.
A good, 16-foot, concrete highway
before the war cost from $4,000 to
$4,000 to build. By the time the war
industries board was ready to stop
most highway work the cost had
risen to nearly or quite double these
sums.
Up to Legislatures.
The extent to which needed high
way improvements will be carried out
during the two years following be-
ginning of demObilization Will depend
largely upon what the state legisla-
lures are generous. with highway APP
propriations, many thousands of men
will be employed in improving the ma
TONS roads. Federal aid will supple
ment state appropriations.
The days OF the overland freighter
are returning. 1t was shortly after
the civil war that this overland wagon
freighting became great industry.
There were practically no good arti-
ficiai roads. But most of the freight
ing was done in the boundless West,
where there were no fences t. keep
traffic within a narrow road. The
whole valley was a road.
Railroads were scarce or entirely
lacking in the West. Demobilized
soldiers, lured by the governments
liberality in giving away farms. start
ed for the great plains country in
covered wagons" often taking along
in one or more wagons the bride. the
dog, and all the household possessions.
The prairie was hard and unbroken
in the land where the soldier sought
his new home. There was little dam
ger of even the narrow-tired wagons.
heavily laden as they were, being
mired OF blocked in the road. When
one wagon track became too deeply
rutted the traffic simply moved over a
few yards and followed the same di-
rection. Thus the old Santa Fe trail
and other highways of the prairie pio-
rutted tracks. often covering a quar-
ter of a mile in width. Thru Kansas
and the southwest sunflowers grew in
the abandoned ruts and nodded the
way to the long. weary trains of "mov-
ers' that followed the course of the
day"
town in the newly settled plains coun-
try became a great and picturesque
business. -Always the trains or "cov-
cred wagons" crawled across the prai-
ries, loaded down with buffalo meat
hides, and supplies.
The now covered wagons of the
new reconstruction period also will
travel in trains. and will carry loads
many times heavier than the loads
the horses and mules of the western
WAGNER used to haul. The motor
trucks that are to do so much of the
freighting of this period are going tc
be severe test of road building. Only
roads that can vie with the Appian
Way of ancient Rome can stand ur
under the wear and tear of the big
trucks carrying five or more tons. and
travelling at a speed that would have
made the freighter of the '70s gasI
with wonder.
Early day wagon freighting was
necessary because of absence of rail-
roads, and 1t disappeared as an in
dustry when the railroads were ex-
tended. The revival of wagon freight.
ing is due to inability of the railroads
to keep up with expansion of indus
{ try, and the rapid Improvement Of
+ gasoline-propelled vehicles. The mo
torized wagon has developed sucf
speed and carrying capacity that it i!
overhauling the steam train to a con
! siderable extent.
LaggaPd to Lose.
The community that does not i'm
prove its highways to meet the de-