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Show HEAVY TOLL Ml BY POME'S Millions Are Wasted Each Year Between Farm and Market. Great Necessity of the Nation's Na-tion's Recruiting Good Roads Army. By G. A. KISSEL. It Ik oetimatcd by a juint committee or federal did in t he construction of post roiuH that, through our neglect of high-wayn, high-wayn, we are paying a cash penalty of 1 more than $304,000,000 per year in exces sive rost for transporting food products from farm to market; and, mind you. tills estimate is ha sod not on the conditions as they exist today, but on facts and figures fig-ures gathered before it was necessary to produce the abnormal supply of food which we arc called upon to feed, not only our own population as well an those of our allies, but the millions of starving peoples in Germany, Poland, liulgaria and Turkey, as well as those of other ruuntr les that have Buffered Indirectly through the war. If wo were wasting such huye amounts during the years that it wasn't necessary neces-sary to conserve the way we arc doing today, what must wo be wasting at this lime, when, no doubt, thousands of motor trucks are being employed over roads that havo been neglected through lack of lai.or for the lust iwu or three years? Linking Farm to Port. The necessity fur more good roads to hftln move the country's Increased food production, as well ns to insure an unln-1 unln-1 tmrupted flow of food to Europe, is shown I by I he statement of Kdward K. Hurley, chair ma n of the T'nited Status shipping v hoard, in which he asks the highways transport comrnllt.ee lo aid in linking farm to port. Perhaps there Is no better posted man In t lie country on the question ques-tion of transportation of food overseas and the necessity for a continuous stream of food to shipping points than Mr. Hurley. Hur-ley. U Is Ids idea that with "millions of hungry, suffering people facing westward from every purl, with mouths open for t Mo products of America, that highways ! transport facilities from the fa rmer's gate i To the consumer's gate must be the solu- ! Uon of overseas transportation of food. With the highways transport service aw 4 I he, first step In tho great system of transportation to the sea. and then onto ' merchant vessels to the foreign ports of tho world, food must begin to move soon j from every hill, through every valley to j the great country beyond, and so on down I to the shipping points before we can s'art our ships from the porta and ful-I ful-I liil our duty." i Chairman Hurley's experience brings to mind that, without the proper hitrhwavs system, the motor truck is helpless in transporting food from the farmer's barn to i.he nearest raino.'-d. wluh holds up 'he r;iiho;ol from transporting it lo the ship:-, delaying the shins from sailing with a lull cur..;o, and iinaliy makes the millions mil-lions "owr there" wonder whether Atner-b-it js imii? to keep its promise. Stran-.-'p as it may seem, of all the im-pro im-pro vip.-iits ncef-ary during the lime wo weie putting the country's resources on a 100 p'-r cent eff.eien.-y basis, the building build-ing of good roads received the l-ast attention. at-tention. Tnis is even true of the maintenance mainte-nance f those good roads that had een built before it became neavssary to divert our activities to other more important improvements. Indications point that the armies that have played a leading pa rt in the four years' war will soon be disbanded. Indications Indi-cations a Iso point in the industrial and commercial world that factories and labor la-bor that had been on government work will soon be turned back to commercial production; In fact, stops have already been taken in this direction. But there Is one army hero in America That will not be disbanded, but, quite the contrary, con-trary, will have to put forth greater efforts. ef-forts. What they have been oal'ed upon to perform in the past will look like child's play compared with what is before be-fore them. I have reference to the American Amer-ican farmer and cattle raiser. Backing Up Farmers. The American 'farmer will make good If it is possible, but are the city and state governments giving him a square deal in letting hiin face this food problem prob-lem alone? Isn't it up to us as a nation to aid as much as possible? Tiie farmer will have his hands lull in producing. The question of delivering the results of his work to the point of consumption or shipment' ship-ment' is one that he 'has no time to solvo. Tho farmer is not producing record crops for his own consumption, but for us. The price of his goods are set by the government. govern-ment. No matter how hard he works, he cannot boost the price. Therefore. It Hcms to me that fn improving the highways high-ways over which his produce must be hauled to market It Is more for our own irood and tiie good of our allies and tho humanity of tiie world in general that we take up this question of good roads and highways and carry It out like we can carry any tiling out if we put our minds, our resources, our factories and our ability behind it. |