The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-04-07
Greatest Year in
 Road Construction

Road Construction THE United States department of J agriculture has been busy in these years past, but never so busy as in 1918; and the year 1918 prom Iises to be a record-breaker in every activity pertaining to the credtion of wealth in the south.
 Of road building Secretary D avid F. Houston has this to say:
 Many important steps have been taken to expedite road construction under the enlarged programme re- |cently authorized by Congress, and the indications are that larg CT vol ume of highway construction will be accomplished this season than in any previous year in the history of the nation.
 The requisite official mac hinery, says the Secretary, for executing this programme through the bureau of public roads on the one hand and the forty eight state highway depart ments on the other, is already in ex- istence.
 A conference was held by the, Secre- tary on March 1 with the state high way commissioners of the eastern and middle western states and all phases of the problem, and especially the in- terpretation of the liberal amendments of the federal aid road act, were con- sidered. The regulations issued under the act have been carefully revised in the light of past experience and of the suggestions offered by the state highway departments, the standards for plans, specifications and esti- mates have been modified to meet spe- cial conditions existing in some of the states, and other changes in practices and procedure have been and are be- ling made all with the definite object of speeding up the work.
 The appointment of ThomsI Is H. Macdonald. ,. chief engineer of the Iowa Istate highway commission, as engi- neer in immediate charge of the work Iof the bureau of public roads under Ethe federal aid road act, has just been announced by the Secretary, and it lis planned that, in the near future, Mr. Macdonald will formally assume the position of director of the bureau of public roads. /
 Stars and Stripes wants the Ameri- can people to make a distinction be- tween soldiers who fought in France and those who merely stayed there  awhile. Pish. lush! The boys who didn't get any closer to the front than Camp Upton are heroes. C..
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 When Alabama's good roads system is perfected it will be possible for a tourist in flivver to travel as far in horizontal direction as he does now in a vertical direction.
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 Tourists are thinking twice before starting out on a trip that will take them through Virginia and expose them to the depredations of llquor sleuths.
 Mrs. Castle denies she is going to be married. She ought to know more about that than anybody else, but stage celebrities are so forgetful.
 # # * l Won Bernstorff says he considers Il his duty to stand by the fatherland Incidentally, he is believed to be in g receptive mood for office.
 * # * With all due respect to Genera Wood, as long as there are saloor keepers in Chicago they will continue , to sell liquor to soldiers
 * * * Occasionally an optimist breaks int print A Pennsylvania politician pre- , diets that the war prohibition orde : will be revoked June l.
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 While Birmingham was havint grand opera there was no decreaJe il l the sales of "Ja, Da," the jazziest O ] jazz songs. :.
 The recent report that Colonel Hous l was jubilant oyer something or 4tae q is believed to have been greatly ex : aggerated.
 < * * Russia's bolshevik army IS said : have strict discipline. An orterl d bolshevik would be worth going mile ], to see.