Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-01-25
PROGRAM FOR GOOD
ROADS is ENDORSED
Auto Leader Believes Time Is
Right for Highway
Expansion.

Any postponement of highway i'm
proyement and extension of our ma
tional highway system, and the inability
or disinclination of our National ana
State Governments to direct all auto
mobile taxes toward improvement OF
roadwayS and streets are deplOred py
C. D. Hastings in a statement made dur
in the thirty-first annual National Au-
tomobile Show in New York last week
Mr.. Hastings is chairman OF the board
of the Hupp Motor Car Corporation
and also chairman OF the snow commit
tee of the National Automobile Chamber
of Commerce. He has seen the automo-
bile industry grow from a small and
humble beginning to the largest single
manufacturing enterprise in the world.
OF Paramount Importance.
GOOD roads and a national highway
system are of paramount Importance
to the freedom. health and happiness
and commerce of our country declared
Mr.. Hastings. Perhaps no other sim
gle development of the last number OF
wears has exerted as much influence
on the lives and habits OF the Wcrlo S
people as the automobile. 1t is an IN
strument that lends itself to the COM
mon good. in either personal or business
applications. Therefore, its welfare ana
future ueHeIOphchC Sh~uAu NC
guarded.
1T remember back in the days when
the first high-wheeled buggies with
primitive gasoline engines OF the single
cylinder type attempted TO negoti ,te our
country mud. There was no such thing
as a concrete, brick or paved road. the
city with a good, hard-surfaced street
was indeed an object or pride to It's
citizens Since that time have seen
kaTyk hn hVlndFndC
thousands L have noted the anti
ouated high wheeled vehicles turn TO
more modern lines. And 1 nave watched
the mechanical developments closely.
from the crude one and two cyl1noer
DAYS to these times of multi-cylinder
cars demanded as the public choice.
And through all of these years l nave
seen a transition from crude Lines ana
no style to sleek, powerful motors, trim
design lines and bodies built 70 reouce
wind resistance.
Significant Fact.
All of this development-this tranSl-
ton from the elementll to the suave
and finished elegance of today has un-
folded before me like panorama. Yet
through it all stands out significant
and peculiar fact
The roadways of today were forced
into being by the development OF the
motor car.
That to me is one of the most signifl-
cant things about this industry OF ours.
Twenty-Five years ago scarcely hard
topped road. Nothing but mire and
gumbo. most of which was passable only
in Summers driest days, for the mar
row carriage tires of the early vehicles
cut deep in those days
do not know whether any one has
ever totalei the number of miles OF
roadway of all kinds IN the United
States. If they, have, and to this num-
Der be added the miles of streets in our
cities and towns, the total must be stag
gering. Yet in these entire United
States-richest nation of the world-we
have only about 400, 900 miles OF sur
faced roads. We should have, in pro-
portion to the increase in motor cars
of late years, not less than a million
miles of good surfaced roads.
There is no single development which
has given as much beneflt to the farm
ing class as has the automobile. There
farmers narrow and restricted move
ments and acquaintances have beer
shattered. In its place have come OF
acquaintance. freedom of movement
and an enjoyment as great as is avail
able to any other group OF persons. Oh
all the taxes paid by the agricultural
class, that on good roads is objected
to the least. The building Of good roads
/ believe. is one of the few concrete in
stances in which definite aid and i'm
provements have been made to and fol
the farmer.