The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1939-04-28
New Era For Mary
land Roads
Engineers And Others Com.
mend The New State
Roads Chairman

Annapolis, April 25-That Ezra
B. Whitman, noted engineer who,
by appointment of Governor Her
bert r. O'Conor, will become chair
man of the State Roads Commission
next Monday, will put the Mary
land roads system back where it
used to be, among the leaders of
the nation, is the universal opin-
ion of hundreds of kilograms and
letters received at the State House
within the past few days.
Furthermore, the appointment is
hailed as a definite indication that
politics" is out, and engineering
experience and business ability"
are in, in the matter of roads build
ing in the State of Maryland from
now on, just as Governor O'Conor
promised so often during his cam
paign.
While Mr.. Whitman's associates
on the Roads Commission have not
been announced as yet by Governor
O'Conor, the new set-up providing
for representation iboth from the
Eastern Shore and from Western
Maryland, assures that every section
of the State will receive impartial
consideration in the expenditure of
the greatly increased sums that will
be available for the maintenance,
Improvement and extension of the
States roads during the coming four
years. Particularly will this assur-
ance be welcomed on the Eastern
Shore, which has not had repre-
sentation on the Roads body in rec
ent wears, and where road building
and maintenance is alleged to have
suffered greatly as result.
No Gas Tax Diversion
Chairman Whitman's Commits
sion will have as starter for its
construction and expansion program
approximately $3,800,000 Of gas tax
monies that for some years past,
have been diverted to meet the cost
of other state activities, a practice
bitterly condemned by Governor
O'Conor in his prediction speeches.
With this amount restored to the
roads system of the counties and the
State, Maryland will have more
money to spend on its roads for
1910 and 1941 than ever before in
the history of the State, to quote
from the most recent broadcast OF
Governor O'Conor.
The general feeling in informed
road circles here and in Baltimore
is that Governor O'Conor made a
ten strike in securing the consent
of Mr.. Whitman to head the Road
body. Certainly, as more than one
observer has expressed, there is no
one in Maryland more fitted by
training and experience for the post
no one who stands higher in the
business and industrial life OF the
State-no one whose achievements
and knowledge are respected more
highly by his fellow engineers
throughout the entire East.
Road Planning Most Important
Road building, they pointed out,
has come to be infinitely more than
laying a concrete base and topping
1t off with one or another approved
surfacing. Intelligent road building
today must plan intelligently for
the future, must provide for the
needs of ten and twenty years from
now, and therefore must be planned
with an eye to future traffic and
population trends. The unsatisfac-
tory condition of the present Balti-
more Washington Boulevard is cited
as striking example of failure to
anticipate future needs. Many thous-
ands Of dollars were spent On 1t
within recent years, only to result
in an unsatisfactory situation that
apparently cannot be remedled now.
The only way out, 1t is alleged, Is
for the State to build another dual
lane highway between these two
most important cities.
The Maryland Planning Commits
sion. in it's ten-year road plan Tor
the State, points out clearly the
many angles that must be consider
ed If the roads that must be built
now are not to be rendered obsolete
in a comparatively short time. In
the matter of roadside besutifica-
ton, too, road planning takes on an
entirely different complexion. Wider
right-of-ways must be secured, at
much greater cost, of course. Land
scaping of roads has come to be
most important. The matter OF
drainage, and erosion, already Is
giving roads authorities much con-
Germ along the new dual highways
of the state. All Of which makes It
tremendously important. that Mary
land finally has secured man as
head of it's roads construction and
planning system who is fully abreast
of these changed conditions, and is
thoroughly fitted by experiences ana
recognized engineering ability to
give the State the utmost In perma-
nent value for every dollar OF the
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