Evening star., 1921-12-04
REFORM IN BUILDING OF ROADS
HOLDS VITAL INTEREST IN u. S.
Biz Problem to Be Tackled by Association
at Chicago Meeting Earnest Con-
sideration Is Urged.
BY SAMUEL HILL.

BY SAMUEL HILL.
fHonorary president. Washington State Good
Roads Association; honorary life president,
Canadian Good Roads Association. and ex-
president, American Road Builders Associa-
toni
ing and highway transportation. a
subject that will receive extended
discussion at the good roads congress.
to be held under the auspices of the
American Road Builders Association
at the Coliseum in Chicago January
Il to 20 next. is one of vital interest
to the people of the United States at
this time. 1t is subject that should
receive the earnest consideration OF
every good roads advocate. every
statesman and every public official
at heart and who wants to see the
United States lead the world in cheap
transportation facilities. ..
For forty years / have been inter-
ested in highway improvement in the
United States. and, to my mind. the
most important thing which the
United States needs to do is to cor
relate it's transportation system.
Abroad. in many countries. there is a
cabinet minister who has the title of
minister of ways and means of COM
munication. Water transportation,
rail transportation and highway
transportation should be fitted to-
gether in such a way as to best serve
the public needs. There are mate
rials, but few people can think OF
them, that do not move over high
ways before they reach the water or
the railroad. Destructive competition
is unwise and unnecessary. America
fire Of oil hX- ipp rb
The capital of every state in the
Union except Flo-laa at one time
was located on water course. The
development of steam power caused
the abandonment Of the policy of
highway improvement inaugurated
with the old Cumberland pike. Putting
Billy, on the Baltimore and Ohio rail-
road. superseded the wagon train.
Today Putting Billy sees coming over
the hard surface road. provided at
public expense, what he regards as a
competitor.
Measure of Civilization.
Transportation is the measure of
civilization. Every nation has in
creased in wealth and it's workers
have received high wages. Just IN
proportion as it's transportation sys-
TENS have been multiplied. The low
est wage rate today in the world is
in China. There is not one single
mile of highway in China. The aver
age highway in China is fifteen
inches wide. There is not one single
mile of paved road in Japan; nor one
single mile of paved street in Japan
Americas danger is that We will
duplicate unnecessary means of trans
portation. Every one of the three is
essential, but all should be correlated
and welded into one machine to get
the best results. If we fail to do this
we will pay bitterly for it. You
cannot get along without railways
or waterways, and latterly we have
have come to understand what high
ways mean.
Today England is laying an 1s-inch
concrete base for all the roads Of
England On top of that they are
putting Tarmac. Over those roads
they haul what they call steam lor-
pulling perhaps three cars holding
five tons each. The railways have
complained to parliament and parlia-
ment is taxing those motor buses. SO
as to more equitably distribute the
burden.
The United States has had the
cheapest transportation in the world.
Outside of the great lakes. it has
Jagged behind in water transporta-
tion, and only within recent years.
since the American Road Builders
Association was formed. has the mat
been taken up.
Food Problem Acute.
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 haphaz-
ard, without definite plan. There
should be undertaken at once by the
planned system of national highways,
and these should be so laid out and
constructed as to give the largest
possible use of existing railways.
highways and waterways. There are
approximately in. the United States
There are 250,000 miles. substantially.
of railways. The cheapest cost of
moving ton a mile on the great
lakes was nine-tenths of one mill.
as demonstrated in the movement of
ore by the, Albert B. Wolvin The
known was on the Chesapeake & Ohio
railway, where coal tonnage was
moved to tidewater for one mill and
a tenth per ton per mile. The cost
Of moving ton per mile on the diff
ferent classes of railways in the
United States has not yet been ac-
curately determined We must elab-
crate some system of determining the
cost of making transportation. 1t Is
commodity like boots and shoes.
dry goods or -four. When this cost is
determined 1t must be ascertained
just what proportion of the tonnage
required can most efficiently be
moved over the highways. over the
waterways and over the railways;