Perth Amboy evening news., 1920-09-23

FORBID CLOSED SPECIFICATION.

date for the Republican nomination
for state senator in Essex county
this fall. has been doing some In.
vestigating regarding patent pave.
5 ment materials. Mr.. Parry is max.
ing patent pavements n Of hi.
main issues in his campaign. He 1,
one Of those who believe the tax
payers are being victimized In the
matter Of paving and as a remedy
he proposes a law forbidding the use
1 of closed specifications on paving
E3obs
What has aroused Mr.. Parry par
ticularly (and it has aroused many
OF the taxpayers in Essex county.
Itco) Is the fact that the Board of
xFrseholders in Essex has recently
awarded nearly 100000 worth of
road contracts TO patented pave
ment companies. The petty excuses
offered by the freeholders of Essex
FOR 50 doing fail to satisfy the think
Ing people Of that section. Neither
do the excuses offered by the free
holders OF other counties or by the
state Highway Commission for
sfavoring patented pavement material
satisfy the people.
Mr.. Parry finds that although the
officials who are so fond of awarding
contracts to patent pavement con-
Germs like to give the impression
that the patented material is the
most popular throughout the
try for improving roads only a small
percentage Of the improved high
ways are paved with It. "As a mat
Ter of fact" Mr.. Parry says, "the
streets constructed with patented
material constitute only a very slight
proportion Of the paved streets of
The United States. Asphalt which is
an unpatented material, "a former
~ far in the lead, but concrete, an
other unpatented material, is grow
ing in popularity by leaps and
bounds"
Mr.. Parry goes on to point out
Sat a compilation of ifty-one Of the
larger cities of the United States
shows that asphalt was used in SOL
Z per cent, of the pavements OF those
stone blocks in 1873 per cent,
prick in 1877 per cent. concrete Al
5per cent. and wood blocks in 4 per
gent. This leaves but SO per cent.
of the total paving Of the city streets
1sef the United States for all other
materials. including the patented
variety.
Showing the growth Of concrete as
q paving material. it is pointed out
that at the end of 1908 less than
100000 square yards of concrete had
been used in road construction In
the United States. At the end Of
1919 the square yards OF concrete
laid in the United States had jump
ed to 1877 million square yards. Some
of the reasons given for the popular
fy Of concrete as against the patent
I'd materials are its low first cost. its
low maintenance charge, the fact
that it may be used without the m
ployment of peculiarly skilled labor
srs, that it has an even surface, that
It minimizes the chance of skidding
and that it may be found in many
places.
THE rest of the country" says Mr..
Parry, seems to be getting along
with its road construction work with
put the patented paving companies.
A law such as I have proposed, for
bidding closed Specifications, hat is,
limiting the bidding to n certain
kind of material on which a patent
exists. would in no sense impede or
impair our road construction pro-
gram. The State Highway Commits
sion has about 400 miles of roads TO
build for which contracts have not as
get been awarded. If It costs $4,000
more per mile for a Warrenite con-
struction. which is favored by the
state engineer, than for roads built
OF unpatented materials. my bill pro-
viding for open specifications would
save the state some six million doll
lars"
Mr.. Parry is certainly giving the
people of ESSEX something to think
about. He is also discussing an issue
hat Is Of vital Importance through
put the state. His plan to enact
legislation ~forbidding closed specin-
sations ought TO meet with popular
approval It would be popular here
in Middlesex where the patented
paving interests seem to have con-
siderable influence. AS we have
frequently remarked during this
eampaign. roads are the big Issue in
county and stats.