Coulee City dispatch. [volume] (Coulee City, Wash.) 19??-19??, 1930-01-10
ROAD BUILDING TO
Get new IMPETUS
Highway Officials Make
Plans in Line With Pres
ident's Program.

By James W. Brooks-Director, Ameri-
can Highway Educational Bureau)
Impelled by forces now getting be-
hind public work Of every character,
and especially under the leadership of
President Hoover, plans are in the
making for increased activity in road
building as one of the most farreach-
ing and constructive agencies in ma
tional progress.
and for the consideration of other mat
tiers concerning highway improvement,
members of the American Association
of State Highway Officials have just
held their regular annual meeting at
San Antonio, Texas. This body is
cials who represent every state in the
Union, and who also cooperate closely
with the federal government in the ad-
ministratiop of federal aid. At this
meeting, legislative and financial needs
in highway work for the immediate fu-
ture were discussed and a resolution
was passed recommending to congress
that the federal aid appropriation be
Increased to $125, 100000.
Federal Aid Project.
In carrying on their part of the ma
TONS work, highway officials are
stressing the Importance Of complet-
ing the main federal. aid project as
originally planned. This plan, 1t will
be recalled, was to complete state and
interstate routes first in order to save
motor vehicle revenues from the drain
of excessive repair costs where roads
are not built sufficiently strong in the
first instance to sustain heavy traffic.
AS to the wisdom of proceeding with
Increased activity on the original pro-
gram, those in highway leadership as
sert that they are in line with Presi-
dent Hoover's engineering views on
such matters. These views were ex-
pressed in one of his prediction
speeches at st. Louis and again on his
recent visit to Cincinnati and Louis
Vile in connection with waterway Inn
provement. Tersely stated, it was the
Presidents expressed judgment that
trunk line waterways should be I'M
proved first. and highway officials in
their recent conferences at San Antonio
have again attested to the soundness
of that principle as means of con-
serving and making the safest possible
use of highway construction capital.
Use Of Highways.
Taking the country as a whole, the
use Of public highways is increasing
at an amazing rate, likewise motor We
hicle operating waste Is increasing
where highways have not yet been
brought up to modern standards in
construction. This situation may be
taken as lesson that not only should
there be no let up in road building, es-
pecially on routes that are heavily
Travelled, but that public work Of this
character should be intensified. 1t may
be taken also as reminder that there
should be no evasion Of the obligation
due to motorists who have acquiesced
in gasoline tax levies in the various
states upon the assurance that the
main traffic channels Of the country
would be pressed to completion as
early as possible and thus take care
of between IS and IS per cent Of the
country's traffic before attempting to
stretch the federal aid principle be-
yond It's present scope.
With the initiative which President
Hoover Is taking in all internal Inn
provement matters, 1t is expected that
highway building soon will be greatly
increased and thereafter maintained at
a speed, that will insure not only sus-
tanned employment in that particular
field, but great profit to the country.