Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1921-08-25
NEW ROADS ARE A GREAT AID
TO ALL CIVILIZED PROGRESS
The West Chester Pike and a View Of
the Future Suggested by lts
Reopening Yesterday

Reopening Yesterday
nNE by one magnificent new concrete
" roads of an almost indestructible type
are beginning to run out from Philadelphia
over long distances like the spokes of n wheel.
The new West Chester highway, opened
formally yesterday. represents another step
forward In n road building program which,
in the course Of time, will affect the eco
nomic and social life of the State and the
Nation as profoundly as the first great rail-
way lines did.
Look at a road engineers map of the
country and you will see, jutting out like
extending tentacles from every great center
of population, the newly completed motor
highways of the modern type. These newer
traffic arteries are projected over lines de-
vised to link the great central roadways Of
one State with those of all the others in a
vast network of smooth and durable roads.
In this State the road building and main
tcnance system, to which motor owners now
are directly contributing $40 600, 900 year,
has been magnificently administered. Broadly
speaking, it is unaffected by politics or COM
munity favoritsm. The engineers have
plotted out their work with a view solely
to the greatest good for the greatest number.
What might be called express motor routes
are being established year after year be-
tween the more important cities and in ac-
cordance with scientific plans devised to
extend the benefits of good roads to the
farms. Year after year, as the number of
motorCars in use increases, money for such
work becomes more plentiful.
Current reports from the State Highway
Department show that the 600,000th mark
has just been passed by the bureau which
issues licenses to passenger cars. This
means that Pennsylvania has more passen-
ger automobiles than any other State ex-
cept New York, and that ow"ers of such
vehicles pay at least $4,000 600 n year in
special fees. That money, with the fees paid
by truck owners, must be used for road
construction and repair There is, besides,
the 500, ,OOO. 900 State bond issue made avail
able by recent legislation for the improve
ment and extension of the general highway
system.
Within the last few years motor roads
of the most modern type have been completed
or soon will be completed between this city
and Doylestown, Bethlehem, Reading and
West Chester. The magnificent concrete
highway to Atlantic City and the other
South Jersey resorts has been virtually com
pleted
In New Jersey the work OF road building
has been carried on with very large State
appropriations. and it is being pushed con-
sistpntly. Within a few years it will be
possible to travel over solid concrete road
ways from any central point in Pennsyl-
vania to any point on the Jersey coast.
Meanwhile the nPighbOrng States are
hardly less energetic and lavish than Penn
sylvania and New Jersey in opening and
imDroying avenues for the new sort of
transport 1t is predicted that within ten
years concrete roads will extend from coast
to coast.
The need for this gradual reconstruction
of the Couu.rys main highways becomes
apparent afttr glance at the statistics OF
the State Highway Department at Harris
burg. On July |. 1914, there were approx
matply rs 600 motorCars of all types in use
in this State In 1918 there were approx
mately 325 900
The use Of the motOrcar has so increased
in PENNSYLVANIA that the total number of
passenger cars now on the State roads is
twice ns great as the number of machines
of all types operated in the State two and
a half years ago And like all things in
America the automobile has many new tri-
umphs ahead Of it,
In recent years farmers have come fully
to appreciate the utility of good roads
They have ceased to object to the expcndi-
turc Of large sums Of public money for the
Improvement of old highways and the build
ing of new ones.
Inc m0torcar mas slFen 'Hr laEu''l
new sort Of life. Farms are no longer
isolated Good roads and automobiles may
vet solve the momontous problem created by
an earlier drift of the younger generation
from the agricultural areas TO the cities.
The farm on which there is n mOtorcar
is no longer cut off from the advantages and
diversions Of the cities. 1t offers rather,
the combined advantages Of city and country
life that people are accustomed to seek in
the suburbs.