The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-06-09
I TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL 8
Information Bureau
FREDERIC j. HAsKIN, Director,
Washington, d. C.
A PIONEER OF PERSONAL TRANS
FORMATION.


| Washington, D. c.. June Sin the
| life of Amos Grant Batchelder. who
was killed a few days ago with six
others in the fall of a giant govern
| ment airplane, the whole wonderful
romance of modern personal trans
portation was epitomized.
1t is a striking proof of the speed
with which time and space have been
! conquered in this country that one
young man., who played a leading part
| in that CONQUEST, began with the first
crude bicycle, saw the whole develop
! fnent of that machine and of the au-
tomobile, and lost his life in an air.
plane.
AS a ten-year-eld boy, going from
his farm home in New York state be-
fore dawn every morning to meet the
train and get his newspapers to dis
| tribute, he became convinced that
better roads were needed for the bene-
| fit of every community in the United
| States. Stumbling along in the dark
ness over rough and rutted farm
rcsz7s, little better than the poorest
neglected lane of today, the convic-
| ton grew in this lads mind that
money put into roads would help
| every one.
This farmer newsboy tut n d
printers apprentice, but kept this
dream always before him, and the de-
velopment of it and its practical ap-
plication became his life's work.
| Batchelder, the farm boy, who COM
bined selling newspapers with ms
/ other chores to support his widowed
mother, made this good roads dream
a reality as chairman of the executive
committee of the American Auton1o-
bile asscciation-the "a. A. A"
With his almost fanatical belief IN
| the necessity of constructing and
maintaining good roads the, country
over, Mr.. Batchelder became a pioner
! in personal Transportation. In the old
days of the bicycle-the hish-wheeIed
affair which preceded the safety bi-
| cycle he was an enthusiastic wheel
man. This recreation fitted exactly in
with his serious work of forever
preaching and pounding away at good
/ roads.
An Auto Pioneer.
When the automobile became a
practical reality, Mr.. Batchelder
turned to it with enthusiasm. In the
ways when scoffers could see no good
in the novelty of self propelled We
hicle, Mr.. Batchelder was one of those
who had vision of the future develop
ment of the automobile.
| With the rapid and tremendous
growth of the automobile, the neces-
sity of good roads became even more
i of a religion with Mr.. Batchelder.
Even in the days when proponents of
good, roads were springing up every
where, few could see any reason why
the federal government should partici-
pate in the creation OF better high
ways. Mr.. Batchelder was the first to
recognize the part the federal govern
ment should play.
For years he worked and preached
for this, and was rewarded when on
July IL, 1916, President Wilson signed
the federal aid road act, which
brought the federal government into
road building.
For years, right up to the time of
his death, Mr.. Batchelder travelled
Eabout 900 miles each year, preach
ling better roads everywhere turnout
} the United States-for military, eco
nomic and other reasons. Convincing
state legislatures, county commissions,
and the public of the necessity of
building good roads, and keeping them
good, occupied a great deal Of his
time. AS result of his urgent advo-
cacy, he had been in practically every
section of every state in the Union.
Opportunities for more lucrative
; employment were repeatedly ignored
by this man with a big idea to which
he stuck thruout his whole life.
To Mr.. Batcheler more than TO any
other individual, the motorists of the
country owe great debt of gratitude
for the improved, sign-marked, and
charted highways systems of the
United States Experience abroad
convinced Mr.. Batchelder that one
thing in which the United States was
backward was properly made, main
tanned, and charted roads, and to him
as much as to any one man is due
credit for making the present situa-
ton in this respect a trem endous i'm
> provement over that of the not very
remote past.
The Federal Road Plan.
Mr.. Batchelder's most recent ambf.
! 6n 4frra 1Nxr% 60
government of a national roads sys
TEN. This system he wanted to have
under the direction and supervision o.
a federal highway commission. Thi.
5 plan had progressed to the poin
, where Senator Townsend, of Michigan
had introduced a bill embodying Mr.
Batchelder's ideas. This was the frs
official step toward the realization OF
4 this plan
Mr.. Batcheldor had a summer pIac,
on Baltusrol Mountain, near Summit
New Jersey. His friends and asso
clates in the A. A. A. are now formu
lating plan to have the crude roaG
= over the mountain made into a fin,
= road, of the type for which Mr.. Batch
der was always fighting. "Batehelde
: Highway as it will be called if tn,
s plan is carried out, will be the mem
9 ora! to this pioneer of good road
building.
Just as he turned to the automobile
L and saw its possibilities in its early
days, so Mr.. Batche1der saw in tn,
a1rplane another engine for the an
Inhalation Of time and space, for bring
I ing remote portions of the countr!
4 more closely together, and eventually
+ the large use of airplanes for pas
senger and freight transportation. He
had visions of a\system of nationa
n highways. running the length ans
( breadth of the land. making a yer
table gridiron of the United States
This would be not alone for automo
: biles, altho primarily intended fol
= their use.
8 Mr.. Batchelder contended that b,
: having landing fields alongside thes,
: national 6fPhxvave or