Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 97, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 April 1919 — GOOD ROADS [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

GOOD ROADS

ECONOMY IN GOOD HIGHWAYS Good Demonstration Made by Motortruok Firm In Practical Teat Quite Recently. At its meeting in Chicago the United States Chamber of Commerce adopted a resolution that the government, through the president and the director general of railroads, be petitioned, among other things, to “complete trunk highways for heavy traffic where they can be used In relieving railroad congestion." Note the phrase “heavy traffic” —which calls, not merely for graded highway rights of way, but for hard surface,, cement, asphalt or brick roadbeds capable of sustaining the heaviest trucks and dependable In all sorts of weather. The day is coming—in fact. It is here —when such highways are almost an absolute/'necessity. In some sections of the country, due to railroad Inadequacy to meet the traffic demands, paved cross-country highways are Indispensable to commerce and community prosperity. So, while we are building roads let us build them, not for today, but for the days to come, says Atlanta Constitution. It will be cheaper in the long run, and vastly more satisfactory from the “word ‘go.’” The dollars-and-cents saving, and the time economy, In hard surface roads were clearly demonstrated by a Northern motortruck firm in a practical test completed some time ago when a consignment of heavy merchandise was moved overland from Detroit, Mich., to Toledo, O. “The total pay load carried by a four-ton tractor truck and two trailers was 12 tons," says Automobile Topics in discussing the trip. “The load was distributed as follows: Two tons on the truck, six tons on a fiveton trailer and four tons on a threeton trailer. The trip was made In eight and a half hours over 48 miles of cement and asphalt and 12 miles of dirt road. Almost exactly as much time was required to travel over the dirt road as over the cement, because

there was do foundation to the road and both the trailer and trucks sank. Three fourths of a gallon of oil and 22 gallons of gasoline were used on.the trip.’* The real pith of the “argument lies in the fact that almost as much time —and, of course, more oil and gas—was consumed in traveling 12 miles of dirt road as was required to make the 48 miles over the hard-surface highway. And again: Consider the difference In value of the respective types of road to the abutting property and to the county and the state containing them.

Improved Highway in Ohio.