Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-08-05
Capital Sidelights

erstwhile student of the municipal gov
eminent of the District of Columbia
to see what 1t needs in the way of
more appropriations for efficient ad-
ministration and how also appropria-
tions may be curtailed without the loss
of efficiency, Is devoting considerable
time this Summer to campaigning for
his bill providing for transcontinentai
ard-surfaced highways.
He points out that for more than
1000 years before the coming of motor
cars people travelled the hard-surfaced
Appian Way and gave it an .honored
place among the great projects Of the
world.
Centuries later Napoleon urged
France to build a great hard-road
system. While these French highways
had been in daily use for a hundred
years. their inestimable value was not
fully realized until motor trucks and
transports roaring back and forth over
their hard surfaces brought up men
and guns so rapidly and in such num-
bers that the invading German legions
were stopped just outside the lines OF
Paris.
without these hard roads Paris
would have fallen. No one can realize
what such catastrophe would have
meant TO the world at large, let alone
to France. Billions of dollars could not
have replaced the beautiful works OF
art, the splendid buildings and the &C
cumulated treasures of the centuries"
In discussing his bill with the high
way engineers, Representative Holiday
explained that 1t calls for direct trunk
line hard-Surfaced roads running from
the National Capital to each State cap
ital and from each State capital to
every other State capital. There will
also be many similar direct routes be-
tween the large cities.
The bill also calls for great, unbroken
and direct transcontinentaI hard-sur-
faced highways Similar direct hard
surfaced highways will lead from all
the large inland cities to the great
waterways
In general. the bill describes seven
main east and west trunkline high
ways. Five of these are real trans
continental highways. Two of the
seven, however, run only from the Pa
ciflc Ocean to the Great Lakes.
One route follows closely the Atlantic
coast line from Eastport, Me, to the
southern tip of Florida. Another route
follows closely the Pacific coast line
from the Canadian border to San Diego.
Twelve other north and south lines run
practically from our Northern to our
Southern border
There are also two great diagonal
routes, one running from Montana to
the seaboard at Jacksonville, Fla, the
other from Ell Paso Tex, to Lake
Ontario Then there are more than
so shorter but direct routes connecting
the larger cities of the country.
II y
Herbert Hoover thinks it is too long
between bites" ApHopos of his recent
fishing bout with the President and his
back to nature" jaunt, we are re-
minded of his address before the IZaak
Walton League of America on "A
Remedy for Disappearing Game Fish. -
in which he said:
Il am for fish. Fishing Is not so
much getting fish as it Is state of
mind and lure to the human soul
into refreshment. But it is too long
between bites. We must have more
fish In proportion to the water"
Hoover comes quite naturally into the
role of leader of the dry campaign, hav-
ing been stepped In an atmosphere of
warfare upon the demon Rum from
infancy His mother was am austere
religionist, lay missionary, in whose
home, as Hoover recalls, no story books
we're allowed. II YOU except fictional
tracts In which 'the hero ovcrcomes
the demon Rum" When his mother
was off on her mission trips the Hoover
youngsters stopped with their uncle
Benajah Hoover. who was also a strict
V<r<x S4tk4SfAx,fnA xhn ssa Il
home was only such as depicted Total
Abstinence as hero and Rum as the
villain.
Also Hoover in his youthful days
was in good training for the present
anti-wet and nti-Democratic cam
paign. As he told the Iowa Society. the
only drinking man In the village hap
pened to be also the one Democrat,
and therefore, according to conven-
tionai boyhood ethics, fair game for
batting Incidentally. however. 1t was
this same Democrat who furnished the
funds for them to celebrate with fire.
crackers on the Fourth Of July, by buy
ing from them old bits Of iron.
x
1t is not generally known that Hoover
was taught the fine art of fishing by
the aborigineS, the real Americans. AS
a small boy he visited his Uncle Laban
in what was then the Indian Territory,
where he had little Usage Indian boys
as playmates. and fished beside them
with a bent pin--as well as learning
from them many tricks of nature crafts
manship. Not long ago Mr.. Hoover
spoke before the Iowa Society here in
Washington when. In discussing some
of his recollections of boyhood delights,
he included fishing for Sunflsh. suck
ers and catfish In the creek with a
willow pole, line of butchers string,
cork salvaged from rubbish heap.
an angle worm and one-cent hook"
x II
Three scars on Hoover's body are
souvenirs of childhood escapadeS. One
of them was referred to briefly in this
column--a burn on his foot from run
ming barefooted into his fathers black
smith shop and stepping on red-hot
chip of iron.
Playing with Ratchet, he nearly cut
off his index finger.
He has also on his scalp the marks of
where a mother screen owl stuck her
claws into him when he had shinnied
up tree to capture one Of her young.