Evening star., 1934-09-09

a clean shirt or toothbrush to some
useless souvenir. Restaurants of vari-
Gus kinds, from those of palatial
hotels to hot dog stands by the side
of the road. manage TO garner 21 cents
Of the travel dollar. Eight cents is
spent on various amusementS and
recreations encountered on the way
and the last cents goes for candy
and miscellaneous refreshments.
These figures are arbitrary and, OBJ
viously, two travellers will divide their
expenditures very differently.
There have always been travellers.
Herodotus got around amazingly. con-
sidering his time, and there was
Marco Polo. Indeed, the peregrina-
tions of early adventures are astound-
ing. There were Chinese ambaSsa-
dors at the Triumph of Aurelian in
Rome and the NorSemen got as far
as Minnesota long before Columbus.
Prince Henry the Navigator and Ma
gellan were among the great travellers.
Yet 1t seems that the English-speak-
ing people have been the greatest and
most consistent travellers Of all. The
81 dllO OOuL uSCQ W DC ICkdIQCQ as
an essential part of the education of
every young Englishman of position.
In Colonial days in America, the
extent of travel was phenomenal con-
sidering the facilities. In the first
days of the Republic the urge per-
sisted. George Washington was a
tremendous traveller, as his diary
shows. Martin Van Burean drove
from Northern New England to the
deep South. Gen. Zebulon, Pike and
Lewis and Clark were ever afoot or
without a sail or a paddle.
Stimulus Of Automobile.
The War Department has compiled
some fascinating figures on American
travellers by water, including all the
inland waters as well as the imping-
ing seas. In 1902, for instance. pas
sengers numbered 286, SO, 600. In 1920,
this number had increased to sac, ,573,-
900. In other words, not far short of
five times the entire population Of
the Nation travelled by water in a
single year.
The peak Of railroad passenger
travel occurred in 1920. In that year
the American railroads carried L.
269, $4,000, or considerably mere
than half the population of the en-
tire world. Since that time railroad
passenger travel has declined to less
than half that figure. But this does
not mean that travel has diminished
in like proportion. In fact travel has
increased
The automobile has probably in
creased travel more than any other
factor. The American, ever an in
dividualist. rugged or otherwise, has
liked to control his own transporta-
ton. He may enjoy riding on a
railroad train but his eyes stray OF
to the turns he cannot take because
the train does not go there. With
his own car he can and does. The
$4,000 miles of improved highways
which existed in 1904 have been in
creased to 868, 1000 miles. There are
more than 100000 passenger cars
in use.
1t is customary to measure this
sort of travel in passenger miles. A
passenger mile is / mile travelled by one
passenger. The latest figure gives
annual automobile travel in figures
of astronomical proportions-332 ,000.~
100000 passenger miles. This COM
pares with $1,000, 100000 railroad pas
senger miles, SO it can readily be
seen that the falling of in railroad
passenger traffic has not meant q
decline of travel.
The gasoline industry, the rubber
industry, the automobile industry it
self-all among the Nations greatest
must be considered, therefore, as
representing a part of this vast travel
industry.
While the national motto Of the
American people is In God We
Trust" the national slogan obviously
is Where Do We Go From Here?"