Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-05-31
ROAD-AND RAILROADS.

been spent in the last ten
years in building good roads"
During the Same period very lit
tie money has been spent in build
ing new railroads, and not nearly
enough money has been spent in
the upkeep and improvement of
those railroads already built. Many
counties and states have built good
roads with borrowed money, and
that is one reason why taxes have
increased so largely. No one
doubts that such investment in
good roads pays dividends to the
general public, but in some of the
poorer sections of the country
where the population is light and
the area large in proportion to the
wealth. they find the task of pro-
viding good roads beyond their
means. 1t was to aid such COM
munities that the federal govern
ment undertook to furnish one-half
the cost of good road building un-
der certain circumstances. That
law greatly stimulated good roads
building. Incidentally it stimulated
the poorer sections of the country
to 60 in for road building on a
scale beyond their means, and put
them deeply in debt, so that in some
sections while they enjoy the bene-
fits of far better roads they also
find their annual tax bill a heavy
burden. Yet we believe it is strict
ly true that good roads are worth
all that they cost. Railroads are
built with private capital. Once it
was different. States and counties
voted bonds as a bonus to get rail-
roads built, just as they now vote
bonds to get good roads built. In
each case they expected to get the
value of the money the taxpayers
put up back again in cheaper trans
%portation. The day Of railroad
subsidies or bonus contributors is
pretty we'll past. Possibly the day
when good roads r to be built at
the general taxpayers expense is
also drawing near its end. 1t may
be that in the future good roads will
be built on the principle of dis
tributing the cost in accord with
the benefits received as is now
done in the city. That is to say by
assessment on the property bene-
fitted for at least a part Of the cost
in proportion to the benefit to
such property, and the balance con-
tributed by the general taxpayers
of the county and state and United
States, as their several benefits may
appear. If some such division and
distribution of benefits is not fin
ally worked out, some of the poorer
sections of the country will go
without good roads, or go bankrupt
trying to get them.
When we speak of a good road
these days we mean a good auto
mobile road. Nearly everyone trav-
els in a power a these days and
more and more trucks are hauling
crops to market. The truck and
automobile is taking the place of
the railroad track for short dis
lance transportation and in many
sections demonstrating its ability to
compete with the railroad as a
freight and passenger carrier. This
is especially true in states where
good roads are the rule. Califor-
MIA is such a state, and we read that
the truck is competing for freight
in that state with the railroads
where the distance is not too great.
We also read in the illustrated
World that a luxurious auto bus
built very much after the manner
of a Pullman parlor car is going to
be put on soon between Oakland
and Los Angeles. The description
will interest automobile owners,
and others. It says:
THE bus was the Silver Fox
CALIFORNIA; latest contribution to
notorious designing and construc-
ton. The most remarkable feature
about the car Is that it is probably
the first passenger carrying motor
vehicle designed as a complete and
special unit for the express purpose
of passenger service. Practically
all the buses in use today are
merely bodies placed on truck
chassis or are standard touring car
chassis fitted with special elongated
bodies. !
1.-THE motor is specially and
strongly constructed and is of six
D