Evening star., 1924-06-08

and care more for accomplish
ments than the most fiowery of prom
ises are impressions Of the Pan-Ameri-
can highway commission, which ended
two frantic days Of official calls of cour-
tesy last week in Washington and at
last has headed for the great open space
to carry out the object Of its visit to
this country. Invited here as the
guests of the highway education
board. forty engineers, representing
fall but one of the Central and South
American republics, are now begin
ming a three-week intensive study Of
roads and road building and the prob
lens Of the automobile industry of
the United States. The delegates at
the conclusion Of their tour will de-
eide upon a program for a Pan
American highway conference, to be
called in Rio de Janeiro some time
next year as a result of plans formed
at the fifth Pan-American conference
in Chile.
Trip Of ImpO rtance.
The visit to this country of the
Latin American delegates means
much more than a polite exchange OF
courtesies and most interesting au-
tomobile tour through a beautiful
section of the United States. There is
significance in the fact that their
coming here is the first real step tax
en- toward meeting one of South
Americas gravest problems, the prob
lem of transportation in the scheme
of her future development. That this
step is taken as a result of the sym
pathy and interest on the part of the
United States government and a
group of private citizens is a good
sign and augurs well for the future.
Plans for bringing the Latin Amer
lean delegates to the United States
were Matched last fall when the whole
question of what this country might
do to aid the southern republics in
ways was discussed at conference
of highway experts, automobile men
and represen tatives of the govern
ment at the Department If Gem
merce. Out of the conference the sug-
gestion came that the most practical
America now was to show what
Am merican engineers have done and
what they have discovered not to do
in building roads to stand under the
heaviest automobile traffic. The high
ways education board. an organiza-
ton composed of representatives of
the War Department, the United
States bureau of public roads. the bu-
reau of education and the automobile
and tire industries, sent invita- tions
to each of the Latin American coun-
tries to select delegates whose ex-
penses would be paid to the United
States and who would be conduct led
portunitieS for intensive study of the
highway and automobile industry's
problems.
Where Visitors Will Go.
The delegates are engineers, and
the majority of them are now en-
gagged in road building or highway
engineering in South America. They
were rushed about from one govern
ment department to another, from
the White House to the Press Club
here last week and with their
tongues lolling out from pure exhaus-
tion were tucked away in lower
oerths on a southern bound train a few
| nights ago. Now they are somewhere
! in the state of North Carolina, study
ing at first hand and from the cush-
ioned tonneaus of fast automobiles
one Of the finest examples of state
| road construction in the country.
| From North Carolina the delegates
will be taken through Kentucky, Ohio,
| igan and back to Ohio during the
next three weeks. They will see the
good roads with the bad. They will