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Show ROADS REDUCE LIVING COST Make for Prosperity More Than Any Other National Undertaking, Says Alaskan Engineer. "Good roads, more than any other national undertaking, make for the prosperity, happiness and contentment of the people," declared Col. W. P. Richardson, engineer in charge of highways high-ways in Alaska. "This is particularly evident at this time, when in every large city there is protest against the high prices of food. In my judgment, good roads, more than any other agency, will help to solve permanently permanent-ly the high cost of living. Transportation, Transporta-tion, of course, is at the foundation of prices. It is truthfully said that where there is inadequate transportation transporta-tion food prices mount high. We know that in cities prices are greatly in excess ex-cess of those in rural districts and it is all a matter of transportation and distribution. If we have good roads, we can get our products to market. If lAi ; ' JZv4 Good Road Over Rocky Mountains. w-e haven't, we cannot. Products on the farm are worth nothing if they cannot find a market. I am convinced that the most important governmental work is in the improvement of the roads. In this day of motor trucks it is much easier to haul products to the cities or to railroad terminals than it was a few years ago, but we must have good roads to do it. There is not the slightest doubt that good roads many times over pay for themselves. They are a fundamental economic necessity. ne-cessity. "The initial outlay in the building of good roads may seem large, but It is small In comparison with the benefits that accrue. In Alaska we have approximately ap-proximately 900 miles of improved roads, varying from the ordinary country coun-try dirt road to the best kind of macadam. ma-cadam. In Nome there is a stretch of road over which in the summer time thousands of tons of products are hauled." |
