The Sidney herald., 1957-04-25

EAS~SANAkSA RAO6kaAA "a bA6AAV ~
development. Through congress
sional legislation enacted las
summer, federal participation viii
be greater than ever before. II
may take a year or two before
Montana is fully accelerated.
AS residents Of Individual COM
munities we are apt to look al
this expanded program as an OPP
portunity for getting roads OF
special local interest. Perhaps we
give only incidental thought to
the fact that every road on which
federal funds are expended is
part Of an interlinking national
highway transportation system
designed to be adequate for the
needs Of peace and - il the time
should come - adequate for the
needs Of war.
Transportation and communica-
ton. giving people the means Of
breaking the bonds of isolation,
have had perhaps a greater i'm
pact on the history Of mankind
than any other mundane factor.
In this age, more than every BED
fore, transportation and COM
m~Gnication are opening the world
to itself.
1t is only about $50 years since
transportation in what is now
Montana was as primitive as the
wilderness itself. For Lewis and
Clark the avenues of travel were
rivers and Indian trails, and this
situation improved but little dur
ing the fur trading II and until
gold was discovered in 1862. Then
miners, merchants and others
seeking wealth or adventure
forced their way into the terri
tory over such routes as the
Bridger and Gallatin trails and up
from the nearest rail point in
Utah. Then, too, the river steam-l
er chugging up the treacherous
Missouri had its heyday and Fort
Benton, head of navigation, team
ed with feverish activity for a
few thrilling decades.
Montana territory had resources
of vast promise, and she had har-
dy pioneers eager to develop
these resources. What she did not |
have, and what she urgently
needed, was quicker, more ade-
quate transportation. The big
dream of those days was the rail-
road. This dream was realized in
the sos with the coming of the
Northern Pacific, Great Northern
and Oregon Short Line. The
steamboat whistle was heard no
more at Fort Benton. Except in
areas untapped by the rails, the
stagecoach and the freighting
team as a primary means of pub
lie transportation began to van
ish and soon were as much a relic
of the past as the pony express.
Times change. We call it prog
ress. What satisfied the needs Of
yesterday is insufficient today,
and tomorrow repeats the process.
Thus it was that the motor age-
the automobile appeared on
the economic and social horizon,
and here in Montana, as through
out the nation, people became
highway conscious. l remember
some Of the early good roads
movements in this state. The
slogan was, "Get Montana Out of
the Mud" How archaic that slo- s
gan would be today when moth /
ing less than a paved road will &
appease us and we feel abused 4
if we have to drive a few miles {
gravel. +
1t was inevitable that highway 6
transportation would cut into the
business and revenues of the rail- t
1t was inevitable because, X
in the nature Of progress, people j
avail themselves of what best a
their needs and conven- S
So the passenger car and a
BUS and the truck invaded what d
had been pretty much the sole f
province of the rails. The highway t
and the railway yer COMPETE 6
,ors.
Not long after highway trans
,ortation began to take business L
rom the rails, a third factor ap- L
in the transportation pic
ure. 1t was air traffic, which to- 81
lay is growing rapidly in public n
acceptance for the primary rea- G.
that better than anything else n
t fills a public need and con- al
-enience. l remember, a. some Il
f you do, the first horseless car d.
in which only reputedly
oolhardy folks ventured forth. M
lso l recall some of the early "A
irplane pilots who got off the y
round at the state fair in Hele-
a and managed to get down
gain. One of these was Cromwell
Dixon, who taking off at the
Ielena fairgrounds, was the first
, fly across the main range of
ne Rockies. The next week he
led in a crash at Spokane.
The point 1 am undertaking
, make is that progress brings
hanges and that, in the field OF
'ansportation, there are three in
,rrelated elements in the ma
onal transportation system. In
water, there would be a
,urth, but the system SO far as
directly affects Montana COM
rail, highway transport =
nd air traffic. Each is important. Is
ach is vital for meeting the ma
onal needs.
AS 1 have been writing this, jet
ianes, presumably from the
-