Evening star., 1925-04-12

The people of the United states
have always been a closely united
people in spirit, but during the last
so years they have grown closer to-
gether as cities multiplied and eX-
panded towards each other. and as
the automobile and improved high
ways have made us nearer neighbors,
each to the others.
Uncle Sam has a special bureau
which is shortening distances be-
tween country people and their city
cousins, eXpediting the delivery or
fresh farm produce to city con-
sumers and bringing the advantages
of city education, culture and en-
tertainment within the reach of most
rural communities.
For three-quarters of a century be-
fore the invention of the motor car,
the thoughts of the American people
had been centered upon the building
of a railroad system uneXcelled in
completeness and convenience of
service in any country. That was to
span the broad stretches of a
sparsely populated land. 1t was the
ideal solution of our transportation
problem in those days.
The railroads have now been built
to the limit of their practical de-
velopment and they still have an inn
portant service-the long haul-which
shall not be taken from them. But
the condition of the country has
changed. Our population has more
than doubled since 1880. Cities have
multiplied in number and grown
closer together. Instead of being
days of rail travel they are now only
a few minutes or hours apart.
Between the meshes of our rail-
road network there is land which
the railroads will never reach direct
ly; and near the larger cities there
has come to be so great an accumula-
ton of products to be moved short
distances into and out from these
cities that the rail terminals are
blocked by the mass of freight. So
the long-haul rail transportation has
been supplemented with Short-haul
highway transportation. Improve
ment of the highways over which at
some stage of it's journey from pro-
ducer to consumer must move every
ton of freight that the railroads
carry became essential to prompt
service at reduced cost. We pay less
if we have improved roads than If
we do not have them.
There are more than 100000 miles
of roads in the United States, which
if in one stretch would encircle the
earth some 100 times. Not all of this
mileage however, is of equal impor-
tance from the standpoint of trans
portation service. There are roads
of interstate Importance relatively
small in their total length, and in the
main coinciding in each State with
the main trunk lines of the state
system These are the through roads,
the transcontinental trails, which run
between the principal cities of the
Nation.
In accordance with the Federal
highway act, passed by Congress in
November, 1921, the Secretary of Ag-
riculture, acting through the United
States Bureau of Public Roads, and
the officials of the several State high
way departments have recently desig-
mated certaih roads to constitute the
Federal-aid highway system provided
for bv the act These roads, which
form a connected system covering the
entire United States, have at present
a total length of 171,bo1 miles. Inc
greatest mileage which can be in
Guided in the system, under the terms
of the act. is Z per cent of the total
mileage in the United States, or ap-
nroximsteIy 100000 miles. These
roads are officially known as the
Fcderal-aid highway system-whlch
reaches directly nearly every city or
COO population or greater ana is SO
ohosen that If a zone 10 miles wide
,ynro marked off on each side OF the
rocds that compose 1t these zones
would include the homes OF s0 per
cent of all the population.
While the most important WORK OF
the United States Bureau of Public
Roads is the supervision OF the roaus a'i
which are built comparatively by the
federal Government and the States
under the Federal-aid road act ano
tho more recently enacted Federal
highway act it performs other I'M
portant duties of benefit to all the
people The total expenditure ol
Federal funds on roads last year was
nearly SS0,0O0,00 and 1T has run as
high as $100000,000 a year. AS an
interesting commentary upon the
growth of the good roads" movement
we note that the once OF ROAD INJURY
which was the name by which the
bureau was first known, was createo
in 1899 with an annual appropriation
of s10.OO0-nearly enough to build
quarter of a mile of modern highway
No other single organization has con-
tributed more of detailed technica
knowledge bearing upon road build
ing. except possibly the Ecole oe
Points ct Chaussees of France. Mucn
of the testing apparatus "hlch is no"
used the world over to measure the
value of road materials was developed
during the early years of the bureaus
efforts One of the most useful test
ing instruments, the Page impact
machine, bears the name of the
bureaus late director.
| The Federal Bureau studies for US
! the various systems of road manage
| ment, administration and finance
methods of road construction anC
maintenance; tests road materials
! conducts research with it's own force,
fsolely and in cooperation with col.