The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-05-14
TELLS OF ROAD BUILDING

The following article is sent to The
State Journal by V. C. Bryson of Over
brook, Kan:
For 10 these many years, California
has been held up to the grain belt as
model in highway progress. 1t has
been the brightest pupil in the paving
claSS-the good little boy, pointed out
as an example to naughty people.
Reams of paper have been spent on
editorials. telling how short sighted We
are, how reactionary. how stuck in
the mud" while California was get
ting all our population, just because
she had paved roads. If we would
only do as she has, we were told, all
our highway troubles would vanish;
farm lands would increase greatly in
value; farmers would be prosperous
because they could get to town; and
tourists would bring millions of dol
lars into the state annually oh, it
was perfectly lovely dream and at
times made us almost feel ashamed
of ourselves. But in most pleasant
dreams there usually comes a rude
awakening.
Now comes sudden establishment
from a most unexpected source, con-
| tanned in a copy of the Long Beach
California; Telegram, which another
friend sends me. 1t asks, What is
the matter with California state high-
ways, that they are not withdrawing
the traffic that modern commercial
and pleasure automobile traffic i'm
poses on them?" Then it proceeds to
answer the question. by quoting from
a voluminous report issued by the
Automobile Club of Southern California
and the California State Automobile
association, after five months of study
by the best highway experts in Cali
| fornia had been brought to bear upon
the subject.
Among other things it states the
| following:
only so per cent of the state roads
| in Southern California are pronounced
good by the official report of the
| road engineers. The remainder are
| cha racterized as fair or poor. This
| is only four short years after the road
| building started there! The Califor-
| mia state highways, as they have been
| built will not last more than eleven
years. However, the life of the bonds
| extends over a period OF twenty-five
years. In some instances 1t was found
| that the upkeep on a certain stretch
| of roads, after four years, has equaled
| the original cost.
The report goes on to say that pres
| emit indications are that it will cost
| s142,S9S,000 to complete the paving
| of the 1878 miles in the state system,
| and that but $39,000,000 is available
for this purpose, after immense state
bond issues have been exhausted. In
other words, California figures an
expense OF between $4,000 and s40,-
900 a mile for its concrete paving, al
tho it is not necessary to build the
! roads SO thick there, where there are
no extremes of climate to crack and
| break them, as in Iowa.
| wish someone would inform me
what reason there is to think other
than California-"the model state in
paving progress Yet when The
Farmer and Stockman, from time to
time, has suggested that perhaps we
had better proceed cautiously, study
ing the experience of other states and
profiting by them, and also intimated
that distance had lent enchantment
to the California view, our detractors
have assailed it with every possible
epithet. They charge that The Farmer
| and Stockman is reactionary, that ii
is brake on the wheels of progress
, that it is opposed to good roads and
wants Missouri to remain stuck in
, the mud" Yet here is evidence thai
, they cannot dismiss in such a way
! report by experts, made after
months of investigation and sponsored
by the California automobile organi-
, cations.
1t begins to look to me as tho we
have gotten off mighty fortunately by
refushing to be rushed into any ex-
travagant program, such as has been
all but forced upon us. There is a
lot of satisfaction to me in reading
this authoritative statement of the
true conditions regarding California S
II paved roads, and in learning that the
| good little boy is not really quite a
4 saint, nor naughty Missouri as black
as it's detractors have painted. Pub
licity ought to be given to the Cali
fornia report by all Missouri papers
that have a lot of backing up and
apologizing to do for their part in mis-
leading their readers and in seeking
to plunge the state into a program
from which there would have been an
| inevitable reaction that would have
set the better roads movement in this
| state back a observation-disclosures and