Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-10-30

roads where good roads are avail
able, as they are in the Atlantic
states. There has been mighty
little branch or feeder railroad
building in the west for the last
score of years, but there has been
a lot of good road building and
truck freighting has to ON ex-
tent taken the place OF branch
railroad development. Now they
have discovered in the east that
heavy truck traffic al out a
good road pretty rapidly. At the
coming election the state Of New
Jersey is to vote on a new forty
million dollar bond issue, not to
build new roads, but to repair the
damage done to existing roaos,
largely due to heavy truck traffic.
The Biddeford (Maine) Journal
in-an interesting editorial dis
cusses the motor truck problem as
it has developed in New Jersey and
Connecticut and as it applies to
Maine.
At the November election New
Jersey is to vote upon the question
Of issuing bonds for $40, 1000, 900 to
repair its roads. Opponents Of this
bond issue urge that the state can
not afford to make this great ex-
penditure. Only a few years ago
New Jersey had no debt. The
taxes were low in every city and
town in the state. In 1920 the
state issued S2s, 900 900 of bridge
and tunnel bonds and $12,000,o00 of
soldiers bonus bonds. AS a result
the county and municipal debts
have mounted until they now total
$374,000, 900 and the taxpayers
burden is 10 times heavier than it
was eight years ago. New Jersey
had good roads when the rest of
the states were still struggling to
build them. Today her roads are
worn out and it will cost forty
millions of dollars to put them
into shape.
This deterioration of the New
Jersey roads is said to be largely
due to the trucks. Ordinary ex-
penditures for maintenance would
have kept them up so far as
lighter vehieular traffic is con-
cerned. Connecticut has expert
enced exactly the same things and
Maine, free from as heavy truck
travel as the other states are sub
jected to, is feeling the effects OF
it to a considerable extent.
In Connecticut the remedy sug-
eested is the construction of high
ways especially for trucks and, to
defray the cost of them, it is pro-
posed to make them toll roads, SO
far as trucks are concerned. The
same remedy is being suggested
for New Jersey and it has also
been discussed in Maine.
AS the Biddeford Journal re-
marks, "the heavy motor truck
problem has not yet been solved
A solution for it must be found
in this state, and all the states,
because none of them can afford
to build expensive roads every
wear or two to withstand the ire
mendous wear to which they are
being subjected.
In such states as Connecticut,
where the roads are excellent and
the population very dense, the
motor truck has become an active
and successful competitor Of the
railroads in the matter of carry.
ing local freight. AS the roads
are built and maintained by the
whole public, including the rail.
roads, it really amounts to a sub
sidv to the truck freight business
to which the railroads as well as
all other taxpayers are compelled
TO contribute their share. While
this question is not as yet very
pressing in the western states, ye'
we can see how in the future il
is likely to become SO, as we ge'
more good roads. These, with the
motor trucks, will constitute new
feeder lines for the railroads. In
asnuch as there seems little
chance of any new railroad build.
ing until railroad investments are
better rewarded, we may come te
depend on motor truck freight te
develop our state and give II
transportation facilities. Then the
question of what motor trucks
should contribute toward making
and keeping up a roadbed will be
come a live one.
rrxrN JuInVrv Nv I1rr