The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1919-02-13
EVOLUTION OF HIGHWAY
. BUILDING

(By ]. f. Jones. L.. S. Press Association,
Washington, D.. CO
Reconstruction must be applied lit
orally to the highways of the United
States, and the farmer, the business
man. the truck owner and the tourist
are all joining in demands upon Wash.
ington and their state and county po-
litical authorities for better roads.
Government statistics demonstrate
that moving farm products by wagon
costs 33 cents per ton mile as COM
pared with Is cents per ton mile by
the motor truck. The element of time
is equally important, and since motor
traffic has increased 100 per cent in
these last two years there is not only
a need for new highways, but the old
main travelled roads must receive at
tention.
Only thirteen per cent of the high
ways of the United States are of hard
surface, and the "crack" roads of the
east have been cracked to pieces" by
the strain of motor traffic. "Wagon
loads" have an average capacity OF
FIVE tons; the heavy motor trucks
when loaded weigh two or three times
as much, and with eighty per cent Of
this load riding the rear wheels, and
gliding cross country at the rate of
twenty miles an hour, the result has
been ruin to lightly constructed high
ways.
construction, is recognized by the fed
eral government as of immediate i'm
p%ortance, since it offers a means OF
providing work for returning soldiers
and discharged munition workers. 1t
is added that it will take contractors
out of the nothing doing class and
make them the busiest of the busy;
it will give road supervisors some
thing to talk about besides making ex-
cuses for bad highways; it will make
the quarries and stone crushers pros
porous; boom sales for road machin-
cry, cement, asphalt, tar, ETC.; as well
as enable the farmer to get more close
ly in touch with town and city mar
kets, sell more cheaply and deliver
produce more regularly; decrease
transportation costs, reIeve delays
and increase the pleasure of automo.
billing. These are the arguments that
are alive in every community. and
which are stimulating the demand for
more modern methods of highway
building that constitute a complete
revolution and evolution of this phase
of our national progress.
In this revolution of highway con
s~truction it has been found that the
old methods of building highways are
entirely inadequate. Dirt and clay
roads that were made possible by ell
bow grease. simple scrapers and the
pick and shovel are now achieved in
a more modern manner through the
compelling power Of sticks Of dyna-
mite fortified by energizing steam
shovels. road building machinery, and
modern road building products.
1t may be said, with the definite,
ness to oe attached to the highest
sources OF information. that congress
will attempt to create a brand new
set of laws for the purpose of making
the public roads as much a part of
the nations business as are the af-
fairs OF the army and navy. Road
building, 1t Is c~ontended. must be rec
ognized by the United States govern,
ment as a profession and trade.
That the country Is alive to the me-
cessities Of rec~onstructing the high.
ways Is further evidenced by the fact
that Illinois has authorised d bond
issue Of $4,000. 900 while Pennsyk
wanna has voted $50. 100000 OF bords