Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1921-08-20
HIGHWAY BUILDING A BIG
BUSINESS

America is rich, but not rich
enough, now that hundreds of mil
lions must be spent on our highways.
to indulge in slip-shod, politically
managed or visionary methods. Ar
guing that highway building is a
business enterprise, A. r. Hirst, the
State highway engineer of Wisconsin,
contributes a valuable article to The
Lincoln Highway Forum.
There must be created he urges.
in the minds of the American peo
pie a proper spirit of understanding
of the magnitude and Importance of
this work so that they will build up
adequate highway organizations to
spend the millions they have made
available for highway construction"
Continuing, he says:
1.-The bare engineering work in the
construction of a few hundred roads
and bridges is more or less routine
A state with a proper organization
can turn out a hundred miles of con-
crete road or a thousand, given the
money, just about as prolifcally as
rabbits are turned out and cast just
about in the same mould the one
with the other. But the thing which
must be guarded is the continuity Of
this performance. AS long as every
politician who happens to be elected
to any place sets himself up instantly
as a highway arbiter to whom every
i and must be submitted that he
may see that they are dotted and
crossed, and who won't play at all
unless the game is played just as he
imagines it should be played, mon
key wrenches will continue to be
thrown into the machinery, which
does not make for consistent prog
ress in our American highway pro-
gram"
The fact must be pressed in upon
the American people that, if they are
going to get anywhere near the
shadow of a dollar for every dollar
they are so willing to spend in high
way work, they must divorce that
work from the average run of state
and county business and put it on an
absolutely sane and efficient basis.
The men who work in the state high
way departments are neither politi-
clans nor grafters. Nine out of ten
of them are graduates of high class
colleges and universities-most Of
them civil engineers. A right high
way department. be it state Or coun-
ty. has a personnel Of clean cut
we'll educated Americans who are
neither crooked nor inefficient and
who do not intend to become so. If
You are going to get and retain that
kind of men in highway work. you
must establish conditions in the
business that are just as clean cut
and just as attractive as they are in
any other kind of business Those
conditions are almost nowhere prev
alent in the American states"
Recognition Of these self-evident
facts would mean the saving of mil
lions of money in highway construc-
ton. There must be a system, there
must be continuity, there must be
preservation of what we get all the
while we are getting more. if we are
to get our moneys worth. There
should be better acquaintance with
and more common use of the facili-
ties we already have; recognition Of
the fund of information obtainable in
our highway departments; a spirit of
cooperation with in place of antag
onism to the authorities. They
should not have come to their au-
thority except by training and ac-
quaintance with facts. Why sup
pose that some town highway super
visor knows more than they? 1t may
be possible that he does have infor-
nation they do not possess but the
assumption is that he does not. and
no business man would go ahead in
his own affairs without securing the
best accredited information obtain
able.
Illustrating this mention may be
made of the application of Oil to our
highways by those inexperienced in
the use of it. This occasionally hap
pens and the oil is applied before the
road is in condition to receive it.
The result is the development of pot
holes until the road is almost worse
than 1t was when it was a trail