Imperial Valley press., 1924-08-22
Road Building Proves to Be the
Busiest Industry for 1925. More !.
Roads in the Next Is Months

BABsON PARK, Mass, Aug. %.
-" What will be the most active
industry during 1925so
The question was put today to
Roger w. Babson, who promtly an
swercd, "Road Building. The
statistician 3 reason for selecting
this above general building, cleo
trical manufacturing and several
other Industries which have ccnsid-
erable promise for the. new year is
the fact that roads must not only
be built but must be uilt:-they
wear out.
"In spite Of the fact that we ex-
pended 1861 1877 900 in 1923 onenew
road construction and set a record
at about three an done half times
1872, says the statitsician, "pre.
sent Indications point to new
high mark and an even greater
volume of road building during the
next fifteen months. An analysis
of the present situation leads me
to believe that it will be most
active industry during 1925.
Money Available
"Much of this road building
just now is due to the fact that
money il available for this purpose
at low rates and the government
aid can be enlisted to carry & large
part Of the burden. Since 1916 the
government has made available the
total Of over half a, billion dollars
for this type Of construction. An
additional seventy-five million dol
lars has been appropriated to be
apportioned to the various states for
highway construction during the
coming twelve months. Some thir-
ty-two thousand miles Of such road
has been completed with seventeen
thousand miles under construction
at this time. Some twenty-five hun
dred miles has been approved but is
not yet in the process Of building.
The total syste mof roads which
will be completed under the pro-
visions of the federal highway act
Of 1921 will constitute net wsrk
Of approximately 175.OO0 miles. Less
than half of this work has been
completed and the balance still to
be built argues for a tremendous
activity along this line.
cit may seem to some of you,
who live in fairl ypopulous districts,
that road building is nearly com
pleted and that we will soon have
only the work of maintaining our
highways. The statistics, however,
do not bear out this point. We
have in our sum total Of surfaced
and paved roads some 100000 miles
at the present time. The entire
| road mileage of the country, how
ever, is reported at about 2,940.O0O
In our most densely populated states
maximum Of 40 per cent Of the
roads have been surfaced. In ma
nv important states less than per
cent Of the highways have been SO
| treated.
| Get Good Wages
| EThis pending road building pro
gram will not only employ a great
| many men at good wages but will
directly benefit several important
industries. A quarter of the en-
tire cement output, for instance,
goes into road building. The rec
ord made by this industry Of 49,
100000 barrels in 1923 was largely
! due to tremendous volume used for
this purpose. At the present rate
of production it looks as though the
output of cement for 1924 would
total about 15O,O00,000 barrels. Be.
tween 35,0cO,0OO and 100000 of
which will be used in road building.
Road building machinery will, of
course, benefit by this extended ac-
tivity and other industries supply
ing clothes and material for this
work will be busy on generous ord
ers.
"The insistent demand for i'm
proved roads is of course the re-
suit of the 100000 automobile
owners in this country. At the
same time the improvement of our
; highways reacts to help the sale OF
more automobiles.
] Should Be Governor
"Many sound economists have
proposed that road building pro-
grams be used as a sort Of general
governor on business. Such pro-
jects being stopped during periods
0fAgeneral industrial activity so as
| to release labor and capital for in
dustrial purposes. This would tend