Perth Amboy evening news., 1922-02-18

WASHINGTON, Feb. 15.---Road
building N the United States is one
of the nations largest industries,
a million men being employed last
year throughout the construction
season at building and repairing the
country's highways. The roads COM
! pleted of all classes totalled nearly
"a, 900 miles, almost enough to cir
die the earth at the Equator. 1t
was the banner year in road build
ing in the United States.
1--WE are accustomed to thinking
If manufacturing of steel, iron and
the making of automobiles as t.e-
mendous productive enterprises"
says Thomas II. Mcdonald, director
of the Federal Bureau of Public
Roads, but these industries, great
as they are, are still not as large as
the business of highway building
This years program of the Bu-
reau of Public Roads calls for con-
struction of at least 10000 miles OF
Federal aid highways during the
1922 road building season. Programs
of Is, states so far submitted to the
Bureau call for as much or more
new or, improved highways.
According to the Government hg-
ures. there are 800, 900 miles of i'm
proved highways or roadways IN the
| United States, and about 100000
miles of mere roadways.
The construction of q national
system of highways, which is now
in full swing. was provided by an
act of Congress of 1916, and an am
endatory act of 1921. Both acts call
for a national system of connected
roads. each road a link in the nation
al chain, bearing its due proportion
of interstate traffic, serving WIN
we'll placed lateral roads to distrl-
butte and collect the traffic of the
rural section.
Machine-M Made Roads Now
The baek-breaking drudgery with
the pick and shovel, and crude man
nropelled or horse drawn contrlV-
ances which made this kind or con.
struction work difficult, are things OF
the past. Power propelled road
making machinery has been devel-
.open, The Bureau takes men, trans
them and pays them while they are
engaged in becoming skilled IN the
handling and management or the
now road construction machinery ana
equipment.
one of the principal machines
evolved is called the mechanical mn
Usher. The hnisher does away WIN
all of the old slow and laborlous
processes. Ii drags, constructs, amps
and dresses the roadway. me
preparation of s~ubgrades Is zone
with a machine called a homer OF
razer. This is equipped witR pro,
iecting blades which pillow up anu
collect the dirt or gravel Anothe.
machine is known as a corlhs roau
crater. equipped with scoops. rms
machine will tear up the hardest sur
faces and separate the stone from
tbe dirt by a screening process.
Specially designed mixers and roll
ers are also used.
Feoeral aid highways completed
and under construction at the close
of last wear will require in all o.
600. 900 IONS of gravel and stone.
This means a million carloads. ana
II is equal to the total annual pro,
auction of all commercial sand anu
ora vel plants in % states In the
eastern half of our country. RED
oral aid roads which were uhuer
construction or completed decent
her an last, called for 1~7,O00,ooo
harrels of cement, or about one-siAth
of The largest annual production on
lyecord.
Federal Aid for States
The national highway act was
passed by Congress in 1916. IL re-
nuired the creation of a highway
department in all states as a conoi-
zion of the allotment of Federal ald.
Seventeen states created highway
departments as the result oil that
act. and man others were. SIREN
irthened and given larger funds.
The 1922 program OF the bureau
nj public Roads calls for construc-
lion work in all of the AZ sla.as,
Under t'.e system, where n stats
l~arrees on n project and to the 'yps
lot highway 10 be built. the Eederal
government spends dollar for toiiar
with the state. some of the states
Isu,h as New York. MassachuseIs'
PENNSYLVANIA and Illinois, whiie tax
ling Federal aio. on some proJeets'
I,ndependantIy construct large
stretches of highway.
This rapitiv growing industry no.
only will furnish stable employment
lfor hundl eds of thousands of men
each year. but in addition is creat-
ling a demand for young men OF teSh-
ascal train,a-.
I'VE need about 1000 trained younG
iengineers a year in the state high