Baxter Springs news., 1919-03-21
INTERNATIONAL
ROAD BUILDING
Construct an international
Highway from the Atlantic
To the Pacifc-Build
Laterals to II

Of the most noted men in the world
and will advocate q national highway
from the Atlantic to the Pacific and
set in motion in Congress the wheels
Of the machinery to put it into opera
ton, he will become a national and in
ternational figure as great as the
world has produced.
We all talk about and boost for
good roads but the most Of our ener-
gies are spent on the dester air-and
the most of the money contributed to
good roads is wasted because the
manner in which it is spent causes ad-
ditional expenditures yearly in order
to keep the roads up. This same con-
ditiOn applies to street Improvement
The writer maintains that no per-
manent good roads can be built by
using dirt alone. Neither can a street.
Therefore, this system of road or
street builiing is wrong because the
next year the work is to be done over
again.
Chat cannot be used alone in the
building of road or in its repair, any
more than dirt can, and in fact not
30 well, because its looseness will not
pack and the chuck hole is soon to b!
repaired again.
Whenever the government Of the
United States will undertake the
building of an international highway
from the Atlantic to the Pacific and
create a new arm of the government
to handle this stupendous proposition,
the country will find itself bordering
onto the first feasible plan to obtain
good roads that will put an end to the
wasteful system of today.
But one says, why from the Allan
tic to the Pacific? Why not from the
Great Lakes on the north to the Gulf
on the south? Both propositions are
correct.
And this is not all. Lateral roads
could reach out through each state to
meet the two great central thorough
fares and in time when the network OIL
hard surfaced roads were completed,
the United States would be secure
from a foreign war for a hundred
years. How long would it take to as
semble an army under these condi-
tions?
One other fact is very forceful in
the construction of an international
highway system of good roads, ana
that is the automobile in relation to
the railroads as a common carrier.
The automobile has come to stay
while the railroads are on the wane-
a thing of the past when one views
the future from q reconstruction point
Of view.
The auto barn now is the depot for
the auto which takes on its heavy bur-
dens and transports them to market
at a nominal cost. With a network OF
hard surfaced roads throughout ev-
cry county and township in the United
States, there would be but little use
for railroads as common carriers.
We started out by saying that the
good roads question was the greatest
question in the United States today,
and have only partially stated why.
To complete this argument, the
United States as a people are bending
every energy to start the wheels OF
industry, start the construction OF
buildings, start the good roads move
ment. In every mart of trade, otfi-
cials and the different business organ
izations thruout the country are bend
ing every energy to assist the unem-
ployed to get, back to work.
This gigantic international road
theme, entirely practicable, would
solve the problem and put every idle
man in the United States to work and
keep him there for a number Of years.
"But," you say, ian international
highway is feasible, all right, but
but l don't think it can be accomplish
ed because of the great cost"
The writer has brought this ques-
ton out for the purpose Of answering
it, as it is the only question that
could possibly be brought to bear
against the international road plan.
The United States undertook tre-
mendous job once and completed it
(thanks to the late Colonel Roosevele
which stands out today as the great
est of all world accomplishments, the
successful building Of the Panama
Canal. This great inter-Ocean water
way was completed at the staggering
cost of four hundred million dollars.
Does any citizen of the United
States feel and know that he contrib
uted the price Of a One-cent postage
.t,r,r IN this Colossal undertaking!