The news scimitar. (Memphis, Tenn.) 1907-1926, 1919-09-20
Highway Is
Urged For Defense
Road Would Also SerUe to Connect East and
= West and Aid in Development
of Country.

Our Mexican border has a total length
o. nearly 1900 miles, No matter how
Stu!aI may De u relations with the
Always be guarded. A railway will not
opvlate the need Of a highway, since
4 railway is too easily put out Of COM
HliSslon. A durable highway, planned
q 70 location by the general staff OF
Ihe United States army, would enable
the border to be manned BY a COM
pAraLveIy small mobile force, which
conld De concentrated by motor vehicles
quickly at any given point. In May,
lsle, an American army Of 220,0 900 men
was moved in a day to the fighting
'front.' in France by using 10000 motor
trucks, each carrying % men, With
20 impressive an example of a CO.
ordination of trucks and highway, is il
not the part Of common.sense pre-
paredness to protect our borders by
highways? Incidentally, such a high
way would serve to connect the East
ana the West for general travel and
touring, and in conjunction with irri-
gstlon projects would be a great de-
velopmsnt influence in the Southwest
ern country.
The Pacific coast, with a length Of
shore line Of SOME 1900 miles, should
have a defense highway every foot Of
the way. Taking over as q part of
the national system such of California,
oregon ana Washinston's completed
trunk line highways as are already
strategically located. and filling in the
gaps would give the army superb COM
naand of the Pacific coast against at
tempted landings. Back from these
coast defense trunk lines feeders would
lead through the principal mountain
posses TO the interior and thus sup.
Element the rail system as supply
routes, for it must be remembered that
the railways west of the Mississippi
are mostly single track lines, and de-
pendence upon them is somewhat pre-
carious.
A highway along the Canadian border
would be about 1900 miles in length,
nnent of the vast wheat crops to ele-
vAtors and serving the need, happily
remote, of military ~precaution.
An Atlantic defense highway would
call for some 1000 miles and would util-
i1e hundreds Of miles Of good highway
Of military need OF coast highway was
shown during the great war, when, II
spite Of the terrific congestion at New
York and New England ports II wat
utterly impossible 10 send truck trains
by highway to Newport News for over
seas shipment These truck. trains were
ssle Mo to MOVE TOys al ths wax froW a RssrSi,
W .lNVW 4 ~ \ HiAHdNtBAAANb ~NAfAftfSAh
and Washington on their own power
but south Of Washington impossible
roads barred their further progress
Gulf Coast, Too.
The gulf sqsst defense highway gO %oG ":
tai Of the national defense system grid
ling the entire United States would b
roughly 10, 900 to 1900 miles, or forty'
fouT-one hundredths Of | per cent OF TN
nations highways; less than 8 per cen
Of the proposed national system:
Suppose this military system q ' OU,
per mile: II .would. then run up q tota
Of $3.50, 000, 900. Since we spent tina
mqetNin five days Of war, why balk a
il In five years OF peace?
Over the highways of America pas
from farms to markets and shipplnl
points 8 volume and value OF food PROD
ucts so tremendous as to Stage. u,
crops, the dairy products, poultry an
eggs, the wool and the domestic anime
production, reached in 1918 an aggre
gate Of over $21, 000, 900, 900. In ayoluin'
the leading cereals totaled S,ess,0o0, 90
bushels, cotton 1lisls,ooo palss; e ge IA \ &c,
a SU: lSS; eos sur Sqs belts & s Bgs $50 tSns, pS ~
head, eggs i,s2l, 900 900 dozens and mill
,S,42s, 000, 900 gallons,
Just what proportion Of these vas
quantities OF food products are haule'
over the public highway is largely
matter of conjecture. The difficulty Q
endeayoring to set up exact statistic
is Illustrated by the corn output.
n Is estimated thai about 20 per cen
Of the corr leaves the farm while
very large proportion is fed to stoc
and poultry. These are to some extenI
slaughtered on the farm and snipped '
market and to some extent s~laughtere'
al hacking houses. There is, however
a marked development in the nractic
of hauling hogs, calves, sheep and eve
cattle 10 the slaughter houses by motto
truck to save loss by shrinkage !
weight and to insure prompt delivery.
Milk Ia partly consumed on the tarn
partly made into butter and cheese an
partiy shipped to creameries, thus max
ing Il difficult to fix a tonnage NOV
Again 1t must be borne in mind tina
some proportion Of the crop Is hel
for seed and that some OF the crop arts
gathering Is lost from various cause
The farmer and re asp cg 81 ~ fon
for use on the farm and this again re
Al eontrasted with these factors
which tend to limit the volume OF Out
going products, there must be take
into account the millions OF tons OF fer
tilizer hauled to the farms as well a
the food, clothing, furniture and eruiI
ment required by the Individual tarm'
ana to this haulage must beaded IN
hauling, always large, In the transae
tlon Of purely local business.
with a gross weight or al proouc'
of the farm running well above boO,OVV
600 tons annually and with the incon
ing hauiage added to the great volum
Of outgoing traffic we are certainly we
within the bounds 81. conservatism !
saw mat the farm traffic represents a
annual weight Of easily 4oo,ooO'OoO ton
Increase Cited.
Some years ago the department
agriculture announced the average hal
from farm to market to be ~ mile
There has been very little railroad ca
tension In the past few years and 1T
not likely that there has been any ms
terial change, II the average haul
now put at nine miles this would giN
a total ton mileage Of farm traffic
$500, 000, 900 ton miles, The same al
thority has held that the average COT
Of hauling was % cents per ton mile;
The Increase in labor and matert
costs during recent years has certain