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Show INTEREST IN ROADS GROWS More Attention Now Given to Improvement Im-provement in Highways Than Ever Before in History. The good roads movement is seeing a big revival now that business is becoming normal. The most impor-. taut program that lias recently com to our attention is that of the state of Michigan, which lias just voted in favor of a $50,000,0(10 program that, when carried out, will place Michigan on the map big so far ns good roads are concerned, writes Birkett L. Williams, Wil-liams, truck sales manager for a large motorcar corporation. Everywhere else yon see also more interest in good roads than in any period In our history. It is true to say that the war and its needs taught us the value of good roads. Perhaps It did. Perhaps it brought home to those dull ears of higher ups the supreme importance of an Intelligent system of navigable highways. But more and more it comes home to the man who studies the situation that hack of the good roads movement must be the ordinary or-dinary man, the average man who pays taxes and votes and thinks as he votes. The farmer or mrnl dweller In certain cer-tain sections for a long time stood in the way he wanted the roads, but he didn't want to pay for them. He did not realize that in the long run good roads pay for themselves out of savings sav-ings made to the community in haulage haul-age of people and merchandise. But the farmer todayts reckoning in units of time. Yes, he realizes the value of minutes min-utes throughout the season and he Is just as keen in conserving time as the city-bred man who operates a big factory; fac-tory; if anything, he is a bit keener, for seasons do not wait and crops must be sowed and cultivated, reaped and marketed at the right time. He has convinced himself that time is money. And he knows that good roads save time and that they save time largely, because they make it possible to get satisfactory services from motorcars and motortrucks. And he is not one bit blind to the fact that operating cost Is largely influenced by road conditions condi-tions that good roads make gasoline more elastic, rubber and steel more durable and bring markets nearer, and that good roads increase property values val-ues out of all proportion to the cost i Good Roads Are Necessary to Efficient Operation of Automobiles. of good roads to any one individual. Therefore, the farmer is now back of road improvement. Does the city man feel any interest In good roads? Ask your neighbor. If he doesn't own an automobile he expects ex-pects t,o own one, and he knows all about where the good roads are and what they mean. But when his influence influ-ence counts big, the greatest Impetus has naturally sprung from the numerous numer-ous army of motorcar owners to whom motorcar ownership has made the territory ter-ritory for miles around his neighborhood. neighbor-hood. Counties and states where good roads have become a steady part of a jrogresslve program of legislation have seen values shoot up In the most surprising sur-prising fashion, and this, again, has .night home the fact that good roads .iay for themselves. Thus it Is natu-rul natu-rul that the years 1919 and 1920 will see the most stupendous good roads programs pro-grams inaugurated In America that the world has ever known. This will result in the wider utility of motorcars motor-cars and motortrucks and, of course, prove a big aid to the solution of the freight traffic problem. |