The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-07-24
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
FREDERIC j. HAsKIN. Director.
Washington, D. G.
WE MUST HAVE GOOD ROADS

WE MUST HAVE GOOD ROADS.
Washington, D. c., July 21.-The
road situation in this country is reach
ing a critical stage. We have billion
dollars to spend on road building this
year. and q comprehensive program
mapped out, but very little work is
going on. In fact it is officially
prophesied that the different states
will accomplish only Is to so per cent
of what they planned for this year.
And while this apathy hangs over
the road building projects, the roads
that We have are going to pieces so
fast that in some places you can fairly
see them raveling. Highways that
were built to carry the old-fashioned
buggy, or even passenger automobiles,
collapse under the weight oil loaded
collapse under the weight of loaded
is one of the things that we as a ma
ton refuse to bother with, some of
these roads have become so choppy
that navigation is attended by actual
danger not to mention seasickness-
Roads are not being built or re-
paired to any extent now for the same
reason that all construction is re-
tarded. Labor is high and scarce.
Materials are expensive. But these
difficulties could be COPIED with. The
main trouble is in transportation. The
railroads are around 100000 freight
cars short. During the war, cars and
locomotives that got out of repair had
to be set off on sidings, no labor for
repairs being available. The bulk OF
freight cars that are running are re-
Questioned for carrying food and coal,
so that where no local materials can
be utilized for road work, building is
both slow and uncertain. Contractors
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
hafnFn
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 trans
portation difficulties. Only the lack of
suitable highways has held them back
from taking over nearly all the short
haul freight hitherto carried by the
railroads.
A motor truck stops at a certain
printers in Baltimore every week and
gets the copies of a magazine pub
lished here in Washington. The truck
delivers the goods from the printing
plant to the EDITORS door for frac-
ton of what the railroad would have
to charge. BY rail the shipment would
have to be sent to the freight yard by
truck, loaded on the train, unIoaded
at the Washington yards. loaded on
truck again and sent to the editor, all
of which requires the use Of expensive
labor.
The efficiency of the truck for hauls
of less than one hundred miles seems
to be pretty well tablished. Further
more, the truck seems to be able to
carry almost anything that a freight
car does. Thus trucks have been out
fitted to carry live stock and produce
of various kinds. Where lines of these
trucks operate out from a city farmers
within their radius are made indie
pendent Of the railroad, and land
farther from the station is cultivated.
The farmer does not have the trouble
and expense of hauling his produce to
the cars. and his produce reaches the
consumer more quickly by truck,
which is a big factor in hauling per-
ishable food. Hoover, you may re-
member. found that not less than so
per cent of the farm produce of the
country rots on the ground for lack of
transportation. The truck cannot en-
tirely do away with this waste, but
when trucks can be used all over the
country the loss will be minimized
The country needs motor transpor-
tation now just as it needed railroad
transportation when it was first de-
veloped- The railroads used heavier
rails as the bigger cars and engines
became possible, but now, when the
decentralization truck is pro-
duced we have almost no suitable
roads to run it over.
The Dinosaur Truck
The big truck is now like one of
the old dinosaurs. 1t rushes about,
not quite fitted to it's surroundings,
and unable to continue existence long
unless some adaptation is made. The
difference between the old monster
and the modern motor truck is that
the dinosaur had to adapt himself to
his environment, whereas the trucks
environment will have to change.
And as man is engineering the trucks
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 rural roads
is built to carry heavy traffic, and the
steady increases of heavy vehicles
have been seriously 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 outgrew those, we used macadam,
which was perfectly satisfactory until
automobiles came along and took all
the dust out of 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, all strong enough,
If properly designed and kept in re-
pair, to hold up any kind of present
day traffic.
The bureau of public roads has for
some time sbeen making tests to show
how various types of road withstand
heavy impact. Slabs of different kinds
of road were built at the Arlington
Experiment station and by use of spe-
cial apparatus the resistance of each
slab is accurately figured.
The bureau also wrote to highway
engineers all over the country asking
for samples of road surface and sub
soil from highways which have raw
e1ed. and other samples showing sat
isfactOry road materials. Slabs sent
in were to be accompanied by informa-
ION TO snow tne klnos q tra a.