Evening capital news. (Boise, Idaho) 1901-1927, 1919-02-16
RECONSTRUCT|ONOF
ROADS NECESSARY
Farmers, Business Men and
Tourists Must Join Hands in
Demanding of Washington
and State Better Highways.

In referring to the world wide an
tagonism to all forms of splrituous
beverages, an Englishman recently
said: IT'S nothing more. dontch you
know, than beastly public clamor,
and so il is that public clamor" here
in the United States promises to ac-
complish another big thing for all
Americans. Public clamor will eventu-
ally bring about a comprehensive fed
oral and state highway building pro-
gram which, with the unlimited means
of the communities and the nation,
should eventually place this country
far in the van of any OF the "old
dominions" of Europe or any other
continent, even though these same
dominions have been building roads
for several centuries, according to an
cient and modern historians.
Reconstruction must be applied lit
orally to the highways of the United
States, and the farmer, the business
man, the truck owner and the tourist
are all joining hands in demand upon
Washington and their state and coun-
ty political authorities for better
roads
WAGON HAULING COSTLY.
Government statistics demonstrate
that moving farm products by wagon
costs 33 cents per ton mile S COM
pared with Is cents per ton mile by
the motor track. The element of time
Is equally important, and since motor
traffic has increased 100 per cent in
these last two years, there is not only
need for new highways, but the old
main travelled roads must receive at
tention.
Only 10 per cent of the highways of
the United States are of hard surface,
and the crack roads" of the east
have been Cracked to pieces" by the
strain of motor traffic. Wagon loads
have an average capacity of five TONS
the heavy motor trucks, when loaded,
weigh two or three times as much,
and, with so Ter cent of this load rid
ing the rear wheels, and gliding cross
country at the rate of twenty miles an
hour, the result has been ruin to light
| ly constructed highways.
GREAT HIGHWAY NEED.
Road building, in it's relation to re-
construction, is recognized by the fed
eral government as of Immediate i'm
portance, since 1t offers a means of
providing work for returning soldiers
and discharged munition workers. 1t
| is added that 1t will take contractors
out of the nothing doing" class and
make them the busiest of the busy: IT
will give road supervisors something
to talk about besides making excuses
for bad highways; it will make the
quarries and stone crushers prosper
| Gus; boom sales for road machinery,
cement, asphalt tar, ETC.; as well az
enable the farmer to get more closely
in touch with town and city markets,
sell more cheaply and deliver produce
more regularly; decrease transports
tion costs, relieve delays and increase
| the pleasure Of automobiling. These
are the arguments that are alive In
every community. and which are stim-
ulating the demand for modern meth
DDS of highway building that consti-
tute q complete revolution of this
phase of our national progress.
OLD METHODS OBSOLETE.
/, In this revolution of highway con-
! struction it has been found that the
old methods Of building highways are
entirely inadequate. Dirt and clay
roads that were made possible by ell
bow grease, simple scrapefs and the