Fulton County tribune. (Wauseon, Ohio) 1883-1925, 1922-02-02
OHIO AIMS At
NATIONAL ROAD
LEADERSHIP
No Change in Policy of Permanent
Improvement of Main Routes
Attention Concentrated on States
Road Program

The unsuccessful fight which cer-
tain reactionary interests in Ohio have
waged against Governor H. L. Davis
and State Highway Director Her
rick's highway improvement policy,
has attracted national attention. 1t
must be understood that Ohio and
certain other middle-western and
eastern states, far advanced in their
permanent improvement plans, have
to large extent, moulded the poll
cies of those many other states which
having long Jagged in undertaking
the improvement of their main routes
of travel, have undertaken with
feverish activity to catch up during
the past few years. Organizations
like the Lincoln Highway Association
with National Headquarters here, in
terested in the development of per-
manent, interstate highways, have
long pointed to Ohio and the way in
which she was constructing her main
traffic arteries, as an inspiration to
those states about to undertake COM
prehensive improvement plans and
tempted to seek quick but, in the long
run, ruinous rseults, by the construc-
tiOn of cheap, make-shift highways,
certain to be almost as rapidly des-
troyed under the developing traffic as
they could be laid.
In statement issued to the press
OF Michigan, the Lincoln Highway
Association says:
The insidious attacks of certain
material interests in Ohio, aimed at
the administration of the State High
way Department, and conduced large
ly through propaganda directed at
the farmers of the state, propaganda
which, by the way, was crammed
with mis-statements, untruths and
the most fallacious reasoning result
ed in some agitation which, as re-
f1ected here and in other states
would seem to indicate that Ohio was
finding the permanent construction OF
her main highway routes to be an un-
satisfactory policy. The effect of any
change of policy in Ohio would be
more than statewide. 1t could not
help but affect the policies of other
states which have not had the same
long experience in highway building
Ohio has had.
Fortunately, the propaganda, vici-
ously attacking State Highway Com.
missioner Herrick's strong policy OF
permanent highway construction or
the State Highway System, has had
no effect upon the States plan. Gov.
ernor Davis, in a recent statement tC
the press, said that at the end of 1925
Ohio's road system would definitely
be the peer of that of any state in the
Union and if consistently followed to
the end of 1923, Ohio's roads will
then be by far the finest in America
not simply in improved mileage but
in utility and adoption to accommodate
all the States traffic needs. He added
"a permanent system and a program
of improvement designed to meet
when completed, every traffic require
ment and to yield the utmost bene-
fits to all the people of the common
wealth, has been adopted and is be-
ing strictly adhered to.
The Governor is wisely backing up
the sound judgment of his State
Highway Director and disregarding
the hysterical propaganda with which
cheap road interests have been flood.
ing the state. All national organiza-
tions interested in the development OF
proper, interstate roads, contemplate
with satisfaction the Governors final
word relating to the States highway
policy. Ohio's highway program will
continue to be a model to states not
yet so well organized for highway
construction.
Nearly every nationally important
through route in America touches OF
traverses Ohio and the policy out
lined by the Governor indicates his
intention to see all of these vitality
important roads, including the Lin.
coin Highway, permanently and ade.
quately improved at the earliest pos
sible moment, a program which has
the complete endorsement of the Fed.
eral Government.
PHONE NEWS TO THE TRI-