Evening star., 1926-01-24

Imagine the city of New York with.
out a single hard.surfaced highway
leading out Of it.
Imagine Detroit as days away from
Toledo by road. Chicago as cut off
from the rich agricultural areas of
Illinois. and Los Angeles as susCepti-
BILE of approach from San Fra ncisco
only by railroad or steamship.
Thus do members Of the United
American Highways Congress in
Buenos Aires Coniure UP the picture
Of transportation conditions in South
America. where by far the greater
part Of the highway mileage is passa.
bic only in dry weather.
Unlike Europe with it's systems Of
highways laid out far in sdva nee OF
motor or steam transportation. says
n. n. Rice, chairman of the deleSa-
ton. and unlike the United States
with its network Of, highly efficient
railroads, the countries of South
America are inadequately supplied
with transportation means of any
kind.
hatWaNS .NTP
The railroads which exist have
been pushed through AT great expense
nd only after severe hardships. They
are the backbone Of internal Commu-
nication and vet there is not suffi-
cient mileage 10 develop the virgin
areas, nor is there capital availab BILE To
build extensions which would not,
generally speaking, be Immediately
profitable.
The great need" continues Mr..
Rice, lis a system of highways and
highway transport which will serve to
extend the economic zone of the rail
roads, give the rural districts means
OF communicat ton with city markets,
and provide ways of penetration into
the almost ineXhaustible areas of nat
ural resources of every kind and de
scription.
"To the fulfllment of that task
there will he necessary the Nation
Of trained highway orSa nizationS SINH
lar to those we have. the, Era dual
working ont of rational systems Of
highway finance, and, from mate
rial standpoint. enormous supplies Of
all the machinery and materials which
are an integral part Of highway trans
porta ton.
Only One Real System.
In travelling some l3.o"o nlieS
through the more important South
American countries the delegates from
the United States found only one real
highway system. This was in the
comparatively few miles Of good
roads which have been constructed
out through the fertile coffee fields
that surround the city of Sac Paulo
Brazil. The Importance Of this sys
tenn IL shown by the fact that out of
ls. 600 cars assembled last year by one
motor manufacturer for use in al
Brazil more than 10000 found q use
in the Sac Paulo region.
Traffic Of commodities and persons
flows at steady rate over that sys
tenn in and out of Sac Paulo, CONNER
cial and social life has been quick
ened. and the engineer who is In
charge is being pressed from all sides
for further extensions of his ROADS
TIE Brazilian government has shown
its recognition Of the value of re
lated highway system by announcing
a, project for the improvement OF the
100 miles OF highway still unimproved
out Of the 300 miles between Rio and
Sac Paulo.
City Traffic Congestion.
What has been done in Sac Paulo
savs Mr. Rice. remains to be done
in Rio, In Santiago. in Valparaiso, in
Lima. in Buenoa Aires and in Drac
ticaIlv every city, large and small
If South America. That it Will he
done is q statement that is hest un
derstood when it is known that the
problem Of traffic congestion which
the cities there face today is In many
instances as acute as that which ex
lists in the United States. There are
not so many vehicles as here, 1t Is
true, but neither are there the roads
and q, public already motor minded is
pressing the local and national All
thorities for relief
Mr.. Rice points out that South
America has a population of 55 900 O0f
in an area OF 100000 square miles
compa rable to the United States. and
with far more pressing needs fol
transportation than we have. there
are but $50 900 motor vehicles in tha,
area. most Of them in the cities. Mo
tor touring. as it Is known here. II
practically unknown there. for i'm
proved roads are virtually non-exist
ent.
Legislation Is Needed.
At the Buenos Aires meeting it was
found that the primary need in al
the Latin American countries is tt
arouse 2 public sentiment that viii
back aIp officials charged with high
way work and make 1t possible fol
them to secure adequate legal ma
chinery, such as we have in this coun
try in our Federal and State highway
acts. The financial problem, it Is said
Is not so formidable as might be i'm
agined, for in the larger counties es
pecially. the taxable resources are
ample.
Through the Fan-American Confed