The Washington times., 1921-02-19
MOTOR|STsALL
BO0STF0RROADS
Auto Has Been Greatest Factor
For Highway Improvement
- In Nation.

Every motor car owner Is a gooc
roads booster. This is now so we'll
understood that repeating Il renders
one liable TO the opprobrious epithet
bromide" says Alexander Johnson
In Motor. In good truth the good
roads movement had its real incep-'
ton In the motor vehicle, although
the bicycle had done excellent pre-
limiAsry work In turning the atten-
ton OF the general public toward the
need of really efficient cross country
communications. Nevertheless the
coming OF the motor vehicle found
only two States. Massachusetts and
New Jersey. with State highway de-
partments and IL found our roads con-
Stating principally or strips of dirt
impossible during a great part OF the
year. .'.
As the motor vehicle increased In
numbers and gradually became an
important link In our national system
Of transportation, the demand for
good roads grew. Today we have
somewhat more than eleven per cent
means nearly 100000 miles OF hard
surfaced road. ravslable during the
greater part OF the year. Analysis
shows that practically every inch OF
this development has been forced by
the demands Of the motor vehicle
owning fraternity.
FARMERS CONVERTED.
In the early years OF the motor era,
the farmers were the great opponents
OF highway betterment. The man In
the rural district had always been
accustomed to bad roads; he had been
a. Is 10 uyhtns his hnraaS 4 n rnnDh the
mud and get to town in, spite OF tho
evil condition OF his natural, means
OF communication and he couldn't see
why he should pay for roads that
seemed to him design ned solely to al
low the motorist to smuse himself
with his car IL was pointed out to
the farmer that with good roads he
would be able to transport his pro-
duce to market or railway with far
less expenditure OF time and horse
flesh. but tho sturdy rurslist was deaf
to all such pleas. Saving time and
horses meant little to the farmer: he
knew he could get his produce to
market and he refused to see much
beneht in cutting down the time con-
sumed or the wear and tear on his
horses. What had been good enough
for his father was good enough for
him.
And then with all the suddenness OF
a revolution the farmers began buying
motor cars themselves. What stu
dent OF transportation development
will forget the historic year when a
despairing cry went up from rural
bankers all over the country: THE
farmers are buying automobiles" II
the bankers had only known II, they
should have Joined in a close harmony
af f.tI The daV n
isolation, of hopeless conservatism, of
resentment, of progress on the part
OF the farmer had departed forever
and Immediately he became a stsunch
advocate of good roads.
From all ofIthis we are justified In
thinking that to make man into
good roads booster 1t is only neces
sary to make him = motorist. In good
truth this is what II amounts to and
yet, oddly enough. the man who
doesn't own q motor car shares In the
principal benefits that the vehicle
brings on precisely the same basis as
his motoring neighbor. The extern
sion OF good roads will bring him
benefits of which he probably neevr
dreams. Good roads actually mean
as much TO hin, as they do 10 his car
owning neighbor and when he under
stands this the last vestige of opposi-
ton to highway Improvement will
disappear
PLEASURE STAGE PASSED.
The great mistake that the man
who does not own a motor vehicle
makes In calculating the benefits OF
good roads. is that he sums them UP
as amusement perauisites OF the car
owning class, He sees his neighbors
start out for an afternoon drive and
figures probably: "I help pay for
their fun" He doesn't realize that the
amusement side is the least important