Jasper County Democrat, Volume 19, Number 64, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 November 1916 — LOOKING TEN YEARS AHEAD [ARTICLE]

LOOKING TEN YEARS AHEAD

This Decade Will See National Road Systems Everywhere. ‘‘Another ten years will see national road systems covering every section of the country—the greatest practical step in direction of preparedness that could be made,” comments Dr. H. M'. Rowe, the president of the American Automobile association.

“In a decade we will begin to have separate roads for freight traffic and passenger traffic,” predicts Dr. Rowe, “and the horse and mule will have practically disappeared. No other country on the face of the earth can make saich good and profitable use of good roads as the United States of America. We will eventually excel in that as we do in many other things. “But equal justice and fair treatment, for the users of motor vehicles must continue to be sought for some time to come. Everything the motorists ask for, everything the American Automobile association and the clubs affiliated with it have worked for, has been based on these principles. We have worked for good roads for the reason that they are of equal economic benefit in the final analysis to all, and it is only just and right that the people of our country should have the advantages to which they are entitled. We have worked for unrestricted intercourse between the states through the use' of motor cars, because that is a constitutional right that has been denied us. We have asked for equal taxation. That is another constitutional right that has been set aside, partly because we submitted to it willingly, I admit, but it is an injustice and constitutes unfair treatment just the same. “In addition, the owners of motor cars are being subjected to all sorts df petty annoyances; special taxes, licenses, and rules and regulations regarding traffic, use of light, and many restrictions seldom alike in two places, and which subject decent men and women to arrest and conviction, often for the most trivial reasons. There are many who look upon an arrest of any kind as a disgrace, and when one is innocent of any intentional wrong, his arrest becomes a shameful disgrace, not only to him but upon the community which permits it.” _ .