The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1919-09-30

over the passage of the bill. 'aThe &C
ton Of the legislature means that the
battle in Alabama is partly won, he
said. But at the same time it has only
begun. Practically all the prominent men
with whom 1 have talked agree with
me that the people must vote this bond
issue, but all admit too, that a vote
today would probably be defeated. We
can't sit by and allow this. Everybody
in the state must do his part to insure
its favorable reception at the hands OF
the people; the subject must be given
great publicity in the papers, so that
every one will understand the question
thoroughly and realize what failure to
issue these bonds and appropriate the
money will mean.
"If this state fails to appropriate the
money it will not only not have as good
system of roads as Its surrounding
states, but it will have given itself a
black eye that it will not recover from
in 10 years. 1t will get the name of the
state that has no good roads, tourists
and travelling people generally will go
out of their way to avoid it; it will lose
millions of dollars annually and its de-
velopment will be retarded for years"
NEED NEW BLOOD AND CAPITAL
1--WE need new blood and new CAPT
tai in this part of the country he con-
tnued. THE state that has good roads
is the state that is going to get both
No one Will settle here and put his
money to work here if the state system
of highways is 50 poor that he cannot
distribute what he produces. Before
the war this country was sending $4,000
people annually to Canada to cultivate
the land. They were leaving as good
land as there is in the world, land that
will produce anything at a small ex-
pense. Why? Largely because they hao
no roads making this land available for
cultivation. There is no incentive to
develop land and make it produce II
you have no opportunity to get youf
goods to market after you have them.
I cannot urge upon the people of Ala
bama too strongly the necessity for
approving this bond issue, and l have
no hesitancy in saying that if they fail
to vote in favor of it that they will
regret it all their lives and that the
state will have lost an opportunity
which it will never again have"
NEED SOUTHERN HIGHWAY
The Southern National highway
stretches from Washington to San Die
go, Cal. Alabama is not on the di-
rect route, which turns west in North
Carolina. 1t is, however, part of the
Gulf Atlantic division, and the failure
of the bond issue will mean that in ad-
dition to the loss suffered by the state
plete. Such 81 system of roads as that
planned for this country will be sue
cessful and worth while only if every
state does its share, with the result
that the entire country will be linked
together in all directions by a system
that is everywhere uniform.
Alabama is not the only state in
which the people seem slow in realiz-
ing that they have the opportunity of
lifetime. 81 have just come from
Texas" Mr.. Potter said, where I have
been exerting what influence L could
to impress upon the voters of that state
the necessity for voting a similar bond
issue for 100000. 1 now feel conf
dent that it will be approved by the
people. Every prominent person with
whom 1 talked in Houston. San An
tonic and elsewhere agrees with me
that no state can afford to fail to take
advantage of the opportunity offered
by the government. and they are all
working their hardest to see that it is
not lost"