Milford chronicle., 1927-07-22
ROADS-THE NATIONS ROLLING
PANORAMA

There are, says the United States
Department of Commerce, no fewer
than 27,650,267 motor vehicles in the
world, and some twenty-odd mil
lions of them are in these United
States. 1t is not hard to believe
this on Saturday afternoon on the
broad highways. Few of all mans
inventions ever had so profound an
effect upon the ways and manners
of mankind as the gasoline motor.
In itself motordom is an amazing
and expanding industry, and be hind
it has dragged out and unrolled still
another great industry. How many
men are now busted in the building
of roads is uncertain. How much
money will be expended in pavement
laving, highway grading, bridge
building and curve Strengthening in
this year of 1927 remains to be tab
ulated
Certainly no fewer than 100000
Americans are more or less regular
ly engaged in highway work. Un-
questionably they are using more
than $1,500, 100000 yearly in laying
down pavements and betering high
way transportation.
Road-making has become one of
the greatest American industries.
Because Of the motorcar, the old
time paved highways of horsedrawn
traffic have been transformed and
extended in gigantic web of road
ways over the breadth and the
length of the continent. Any good
road map of the United States will
tell an amazing story of highway
development and improvement that
has come within the last twenty-five
years.
We are spending on public roads
not less than one-sixth of the en-
tire public budget. Where we had
200 miles of public roads in 1900 we
now have 300 miles. Mere mileage,
however, does not tell the story. In
1900 we had more than 100000
miles of highways, but no more than
Z per cent of them were graded or
owned an improved surface.
1t is the hard road" that counts
in the story of our national high
ways. At the present time we have
about 100000 miles of highways,
and more than II per cent of their
mileage has been graded, paved or
surfaced for modern traffic.
Road improvement, which has
proceeded at striking pace during
the last decade, shows no signs of
slowing down. Of it's total expend-
itures, about rs per cent goes into
rural roadways and approximately
rs per cent to roads and streets for
urban centers having population
of more than $500. Old roads in the
East are rebuilt. Dirt roads in the
West, he South and the Pacific West
are giving way to modern traffic
lanes. State after State votes pro-
ional routes multiply across the
digious bond issues, and year by
year the transcontinental and reg
map.
Ask the tourist. The motor tourist
knows. He and his brethren have
followed the markers from Coast to
Coast, from Gulf to Lakes, from
Portland to Portland, from Medi-
cine Hat to Marked Tree and from
Moose Factory to Bad Axe and back
cSoAls hS OoA fAh51 AoS3Ah5g AAQ
ping, far-reaching pavements are
the modern gypsy trails. In summer
they are rolling panorama of Am
erica as it is and as it lives.
1t has a life all its own Thous-
ands of police guard it. Tens of
thousands of inspectors and clerks,
of workers and maintenance men,
of engineers, of experts, work with
it, for it, on it and watch over 1t.
There has been nothing quite like
it in the long history of the worlds
transportation. Its magnitude is so
great that it is hard o visualize. To-
day it is the biggest piece of human
engineering, and may remain so as
long as transportation stays on the
ground.
SlowlyTvery slowly-road i'm
provement is catching up with the
need for highways. 1t is moving far