Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1920-07-23
We Must Have Roads
BY Frederic ]. Haskin.

officially prophesied that the different
states will accomplish only 10 to 50 per
cent Of what they planned for this year.
And while this apathy hands over road
building projects, the roads thnt we
have are going to pieces so fast that ~
some places you can fairly see them rayel-
ing Highways that we rebuilt to carry the
>old-fashioned buggy, or even passenger
automobiles, collapse under the weight
OF loaded fivc-ton trucks, and, as repairing
roads is one of the things that we as
nation refuse TO bother with some of
these roads have become so ohoppy that
navigation il attended by actual danger
not TO mention seasiokness.
Roads are not being built or repaired
10 any extent now for the same reasons
that all construction is retarded. Labor
il high and scarce. Materials are expensive.
But these difficulties could be coped with.
The main trouble is in transportation.
The railroads are around 100000 freight
cars short. During the war, cars and loco
motives that got out OF repair had 10 be
set of on sidngs, no labor for repairs being
available. The bulk of freight cars that are
running are requisitloned for carrying
food and coal, so that where no local
materials can be utilized for road work,
building is both slow and uncertain Con-
tractors have for some time held back
from making contracts for fear that they
will not be able TO fulfill them, and also
because they are afraid prices may go up
further before the job can be finished.
ROADS URGENTLY NEEDED.
In the face Of this setback to plans for
great postwar achievements, is the fact
that we need the roads urgently. In the
past three or four years trucks have
helped out remarkably in transportation
difficulties. only the lack Of suitable
highways has held them back from TAX
ing over nearly all the short-haul freight
| hitherto carried by the railroads.
A motor truck stops at certain printers
| in Baltimore every week and gets the copies
| of a magazine published here in Wash
| ington The truck delivers the goods from
! the printing plant To the editor door for
| a fraction OF what the railroad would have
| to charge. BY mil the shipment would
| have TO be sent 10 the freight yard by
| truck, loaded on the train, unloaded at
/ the Washington yards, loaded on truck
| again and sent tn the editor a5l of which
requires the use Of expensive labor.
The efficiency Of the truck for hauls Of
| less than one hundred miles seoms 10 be
pretty well established. Furthermore,
the truck seems 10 be able 10 carry almost
ANYTHING that freight car docs. Thus
trucks have been Quilted to carry live
stock and produce Of various kinds. Where
lines of these trucks operate out from ?
city farmers within their radius are made
| independent Of the railroad and land furth-
| er from the station is cultivated. The
farmer docs not have the trouble and ex-
pense Of hauling his produce 10 the cars,
| and his produce reaches the consumer
| hxF E~yFrLr 4xhInh a hHg
factor in handling perishable food.
| Hoover, YOU may remember. found that
not less than fifty per cent Of the farm pro-
duce Of the country rots on the ground
for lack Of transportation. The truck
cannot entirely do away with this waste,
but when trucks can be used all over the
country the loss will be mInlmizcd.
The country needs motor transporta-
ton now Just as il needed railroad trans
portation when IL was first developed The
railroads used heavier rails as the bigger
cars and engines became possible, but now,
when the seven-and-a-hall-ton truck Is
i produced we have almost no suitable
roads To run it over.
The big truck is now Ike one 81 the
old dinosaurs. II r1shcs about, not quite
f,ttfd 10 its surrounding, and unable 10
continue existence long unless sOne adap-
/ fAIiUn Is ifauG. L iAE 0liltANi4AI bINHtNAA
the old monster and the modern motor
truck is that the iinosaur had 70 adapt
himself 10 his environment, whereas the
trucks environment will have to change.
And as man is engineering the truck :
struggle for existence, the necessary
changes in roadways will OF course come
eventually.
Right now, however, only one mile
out Of two hundred OF our ruIai roads Is
built TO carry heavy traffic, and the steady
increases of heavy vehicles have been seri-
ously destructive TO our light roads.
We started out in this country by
building corduroy roads OF logs and dirt
for horseback riders, and when We out
grew those, we used m2cadaIn, which " as
perfectly satisfactory until automobiles
came along and took all the dust out oil
the macadam leaving the sharp stones
bare Now, over half the roads planned
are concrete and good many Others are
to be asphalt and brick, ali strong enough,
If properly designed and kept in repair
to hold up any kind OF present day traffic
The Bureau Of Public Roads has foI
some time been making tests 10 show how
various types of road with%and heavy
impact. Slabs of different kinds Of road
were built at the Arlington experiment
station and by use of special apparatus the
resistance Of each slab IS accurate " hgur-
ed.
The bureau also wrote to highway en-
gineers all over the country asking fOl
samples of road surface and subsoll from
highways which have raveled, and othel
samples showing satisfactory road materl
ais Slabs sent in were TO be accompanied
by information to show the kinds OF tratb'
hauled over the roads and the extent K
which they were kept in repair.
From their own tests and data tht
bureau will be able more definitely thai
ever to assist highway commissions II
selecting the right kind of roads for then
communities. Engineers of the Bureau
of Public Roads ay that not enough
science has been applied to road build
| ing. Macadam road IN one section of ;
state proves durable. Therefore, when .
road is to be aid in another county, macad
am is decided upon, regardless Of loca
| conditions. An entirely different kind 0
| road structure is needed over a sand,
| subsoil for instance, from that SUITABLY
over gravel bed.
Locality, too, has good deal 20 do Wit
the type of road needed. Around larg
cities where heavy motor trucks maxi
hauls fifty miles or more out, dirt roa'
| | would be torn up in no time whereas on
In the Rocky Mountains, dirt roads ar
in many districts well adapted to tn
I class of traffic.
But almost everywhere heavier road
are coming to be necessary, and whil
| they are two or three times as expensive