New-York tribune., 1921-12-25
Correlation of
u. ). Transport
Lanes Is Urged
Ex-President of American
RoadBuiIders' Association
Foresees Economic Losses
Under Prevailing System

+ohisiAtioIi VI CHB OnlLed States
transportation facilities to the end that
all kinds of transportation will be
cheaper and at the same time more eff
cient, is advocated By Samuel Hill, for
mer president of the American Road
Builders Association, in a statement
/ stressing the Importance Of the good
| roads congress to be held in Chicago
January 1920. The subject should
receive the earnest attention Of every
good roads advocate, statesman and
public official who wants to- see the
United States lead the world in trans
portation, he says, adding:
americas danger is that we will
duplicate unnecessary means of trans
portation. Every one of the three
highway, railroad and water-is essen
tial, but all should be correlated and
welded into one machine to get the best
pay bitterly for it. You cannot get
along without railways or waterways,
and atterly we have come to under
stand what highways mean.
To-day England is laying an 1s-inch
concrete base for all the roads OF that
country. On top of that they are put
ting Tarmac Over those roads they
haul what they call steam lorres or
traction engines, each engine pulling
three cars holding five tons each The
railways have complained to Parlia-
ment, and Parliament is taxing motor
busses, so as more equitably to distrib-
ute the burden
"Thc United States has had the
cheapest transportation in the world.
| Outside of the Great Lakes it has
Jagged behind in water transportation,
and only within recent years, since the
American Road Builders Association
was formed. has the matter of proper
highway transportation been taken up"
Then with regard to the farm to- TIE
city movement of the population in this
country, as it affects our transportation
lanes, he says:
with our increasing population the
problem of the production of food will
become acute unless proper study OF
soils be made. This is now being
undertaken by our government, but
heretofore the matter Of road and
highway legislation has been hap
hazard. without definite plan. There
should be undertaken at cnce by the
national government a. thoroughly
planned system of national highways,
and these should be so laid out and
constructed as to give the largest pos
sible use of existing railways, high
ways and waterways. There are ap-
proximately in the United States $780,
/ 600 miles of alleged highways. There
are 100000 miles, substantially of rail-
ways The cheapest cost Of moving a
ton a mile on the Great Lakes was
ninetenths Of one mill, as demon
strated in the movement of ore. The
cheapest form OF transportation known
was en- the Chesapeake & Ohio Rail
way. where coal tonnage was moved
to tidewater for one mill and a tenth
per ton per mile.
"The cost Of moving a ton per mile
on the different classes of highways
in the United States has not yet been
accurately determined. We must
/ elaborate some system Of dete terminine
the cost OF making transportation. 1t
is commodity like boots and shoes
dry goods on flour. When this cost is
determined it must be ascertained just
what proportion of the tonnage re-
quired can most efficiently be moved
over the highways, over the waterways
and over the railways; and this tom