The Bemidji daily pioneer. [volume] (Bemidji, Minn.) 1904-1971, 1919-09-19
ROAD :.
2
BUILDING
meet DEMANDS OF TRAFFIC
Construction Of Freak Highways
Should Be Stopped-Permaneney
Should Be Sought.

Shouio DC Sou0nt.
J. J. Hill, in a speech in Mime
apolis, January %, 1910, said: IF the
problem of the railroad terminals be
neglected for the next five years as
It has for the last ten, it will blight
every form Of activity by paralyzing
the whole trade"
w. @. Brown, president of the New
York Central lines, said November 5,
1912: IF cars are kept in motion at
the average speed of freight trains at
ut present time. they would make on
the average four times the mileage
they do now. The trouble is the cars,
IS a rule, are held longer to load and
unload than the time involved in the
actual movement Of the cars"-that Is,
the terminal had the railroad by the
throat and was choking three-quarters
Of it's efficiency out of it. The predic-
ton of Hill was absolutely correct.
4 period of acute congestion in rail-
road transportation had already set in
and would have gone to the bitter end
Of paralyzing every form of activity
had not the motor truck, which had
90, terminals, gone to the rescue. Now
ut this time, May 1, 1919, another thing
has got the motor truck by the throat
and is choking three-quarters Of its
efficiency out of it.
This time it is the, dime museum
freak construction of our so-called
good roads, not by tying up the motor
truck as the locomotive was tied up
In the terminal, but by knock
Ing it and its> trailers to pieces, thus
cutting short the life Of the rolling
stock, as we'll as making it move
slower and with not over one-quar-
ter Of load over the imperfect sur
faces, increasing the cost of motor
truck transportation way beyond what
It ought to be for what the motor
truck does, as we'll as limiting the
amount it can do way down below the
normal, writes Frederic J. Nash, in
New York World. Had these roads
been properly constructed they would
have gone to the stock exchanges and
been bought and sold there, like every
other kind Of transportation securl-
ties. As it is, they have gone to pieces
and left the bondholders, the states,
counties and townships, their bonds on
their hands and only scrap heap Of
bad roads to show for them. These
freak roads, had they been offered on
the stock exchanges with only them
selves as security would not have sold
for one cent on the dollar. They are
built on the credit of the states, coun-
ties and townships through which
they passed. This at tko rate Of two
hundred millions of dollars per year.
"A speed of $50 miles an hour on the
beach at Daytona, Fla, was made last
Lincoln's birthday, q rate of speed
which the locomotive has never been
able to reach. Anything beyond a
three-ton truck load is more than a
freak highway can safely carry. while
the ordinary normal load of the freight
car on it's railroad Is 80 tons. II these
few things could be. combined in the
highway-absence Of terminals, a rate
of speed beyond that Of the railroad,
a freight-carrying tonnage equal to
that Of the railroad. cost Of the up
keep less than that Of the railroad,
this would multiply our present means
Of transportation seven or eight times
end give this country a prosperity dur
ing the next dozen years such as We
have never even dreamed of. We
want to change our form Of highway
construction over night and put our
highway securities on the stock .e1-
changes and not our highways on tho
dump heap. Highway stocks and
bonds based on the value Of this prop
.erly-constructed highway will pay Z
higher rate Of interest than the rail-
ways ever have, for 1t will do much
more work