The Washington herald., 1919-06-08
PROVED ROADS
NATIONAL NEED
Facilities for Population Dis
tribution Imperative, Says
Auto Manufacturer.

Improved highways of a perma-
nent type providing motor express
and passenger transportation facili-
ties spell opportunity today to the
city which intends to lay the foun-
dation for a healthy, permanent fu-
ture growth. For. if we but admit
that hope lies in a more even dis
tribution Of the population over the
acres lying within a city's sphere of
influence then we are committed to
the task of arranging facilities to
permit that adjustment to take
place in a natural way.
Improved highways that make
possible rapid motor Transportation
S65 days out of every year will lust
as certainly permit and stimulate
our people to move out on to the
surrounding country acres as a fast
and free flowing stream will deliver
at its mouth the piece OF bark flung
in at its source"
These remarks. made by W. o.
Rutherford. vice president of the B.
F. Goodrich Rubber Company at a
recent conference. are vital now.
first because in many cities housing
conditions are not conducive to a
home-making and home-loving folk,
and second. now is the time to set
about on those works of public i'm
provement that will permit men and
women to become home owners and
give them added cause to be proud
of their city and land.
County without Railroad.
quite recently our Trade Exten-
sion Division" adds Mr.. Rutherford
completed a survey of large
county in one of our great eastern
states that has not a single mile of
railroad track within its borders
Our object in making such surveys
and conducting such research is to
help provide market that will ex-
tend the field of usefulness of pro-
ducts made by the workers OF Amer
ica that are indispensable to the life
and happiness of mankind-and to
the strengthening of our national
life. This particular county was
isolated, though of great productive
power. and was not harnessed up to
the homes of the great Industrial
cities of the East nor assuming its
part of the burden in our march of
progress.
Such a county, typical of many
sections of our country. offers un-
limited possibilities to greater use
fulness. Adequate provision for i'm
proved roads and highways trans,
portation will provide a system Of
veins facilitating and stimulating
communication that can be linked
up with main arteries of travel. The
new circulation thus provided for
will incorporate such areas as vital
parts of this great living organism
we call home and country.
To meet such situations as ithaca
and because of the evident solu-
ton to be found in the Improvement
of our highways and the stinuIa-
ton of highways Transportation.
representatives of the cities of this
country assembled at ST Louis re-
Gently and put themselves squarely
behind the development of highways
as being of particular and pressing
Importance. And at this meeting of
the United States Chamber of Com
merce resolution was adopted ure-
ing upon Congress that the time had
now arrived to create Federal
Highway Commission to lay out and
build truly national system of
highways and stimulate their efici-
ent utilization.
Bill Was introduced.
This action. signifying the i'm
portance to our national life that
may be attached to the new Federal
Highway Commission. merely re-
echoes the voices of hundredst of
thousands Of citizens who have al
ready expressed themselves. As a
result of this general insistence.
Senator Charles E. Townsend of
Michigan introduced his bill at the
last session providing for'a a Federal
Highway Commission and a Ma
tional System of Highways. The
feellng was unanimous that the time