The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1923-12-28
NEWSPAPER ASSOCIATION
MEMBER NO. 1871.

Will the United States stop build
ing motor cars, close up its factor
les and return to horse-drawn veh-
icles?
Absurd question Yet there is
ony one alternative; if we are not
to lose the economic and social bene-
fits of the motor transportation, we
must supply roads upon which the
power vehicles may run.
1t is impossible to separate the
water from the wave, the gold from
the bracelet, or the track from the
locomotive. 1t is equally impossible
to separate the road from the truck,
or the passenger car from the high
way. They are halves of whole ;
transportation is never vehicle alone,
or highway alone; it is both to-
gether.
Our roads were planned and built
for a means of transportation which
is gone. The earliest highways
were for horse riders, the stage
coach came next, after which we
had the buggy and the wagon. The
narrow road, the steep grade, the
soft surface were all admissible for
these: none of them are economic
for the swift and powerful motor.
We have improved" our high
ways-some of them-and widened
a few, but we still build road with
the idea that it will "last" but few
years, and need constant repairs. +"
We still build in widths predicated
upon slow-moving vehicles, and we
still wind our highways up hill and
down dale and around devious
curves because it is "easiest" and
cheapest" so to do.
That era is gone! The new one
is fairly here. We must either
build our roads for our modern veh-
icles, or scrap motor transportation
AS the latter is unthinkably absurd
it seems logical to believe that the
era of the wide expensive, per,
manent, hard surface road is here
Electrified Farms to Follow High
ways.
The proposed "Giant power sys
tenn" of Pennsylvania and th'
"Superpower system" of the Atlantic
seaboard. have an intimate relation
with highway development, whici
the proponents of such systems ar
now considering as of very grea
Importance.
Hard roads offer solution to thi
problem of the development of rura
power lines which are to be under
ground, since such conduits natur
ally follow the hard roads for man
reasons; theineed of easy access 10
repairs and additions, and the grow
ing necessity to light the highway
being among the greatest. The en-
gineering problem is now in process
of solution in road an electrica
laboratories.
The farmer is demanding electri
power, and with reason, for statistic
show that he can be supplied at
price which is wholly an eeonomi
possibility.
Governor Pinchot, in an articl
on the subject of the giant powe
survey for Pennsylvania, notes tina
SIN Ontario, where the Canadian
have expended more than 100000
900 in utilizing Niagara's waite
power, the Government finds
possible to supply current to farm
at rates which are making its intro
duction quite general throughout tn
province This power is used fo
domestic purposes-cooking, clear
ing, washing and ironing-and fo
purely farm purposes, such as mill
ing, churning, pumping and Thrash
ing.
There was a time not so lon
ago when the farmers ideal was
own a homestead free of mortgage
He is no longer satisfied with tina
He knows that the country came
prosper unless he prospers. h
feels that he and his wife and chile
rem are entitled to as many of til
advantages of modern life as til
folks who live in the city.
wants to have his farm as full
equipped with labor-saving machil
cry as the best modern factor
He wants to share in the benefi
of the electrical age. He and h
wife want an electrically equippe
farm. And nothing is more certai
than that in the end he is going
have it."