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Show NATION AND STATES WANT BETTER ROADS The making of highways of interstate inter-state character and the uniform numbering num-bering of them is to be the work of a committee composed of officials from the federal bureau of public roads and the state highway departments. The committee will also prepare an appropriate appro-priate plan and work to procure its adoption by the various states. The idea is to bring the states together in a closer community by means of good roads. It is believed that the plan, if successful, will add to the comfort of persons living in suburban as well as in urban areas and, by adding to the ease of transit, benefit everybody. Commenting upon the plan Howard M. Gore, commissioner of agriculture said : "The Association of State Highway Officials, has been giving earnest consideration con-sideration to this matter for several years and each state, as a unit, has been frantically passing ordinances, erecting signs, eliminating railroad crossings, and using the common methods meth-ods to teach the public safety methods of highway transportation. "There have been a number of safety council meetings and gatherings of various groups interested not only in highway safety, but in highway convenience, con-venience, which have from time to time published their suggestions, but it has been found that there have been so many divergent views and conflicting conflict-ing ideas that the general public in traveling over the highways through the several states encounter considerable consider-able confusion because of the great variety va-riety of direction signs and danger signals." sig-nals." Mr. Gore said that the move to coordinate co-ordinate (lie work of the various states through a government agency, is just another proof that the federal government is doing a vital work which would not otherwise be accomplished accom-plished if entire dependence were placed upon the states themselves. He also said : "This joint board will not only adopt uniform signs and danger signals sig-nals to be approved by the states, but will also number the main highways throughout the country. The purpose of this is to simplify traveling directions direc-tions for the public so that a person j traveling from New York through Chicago Chi-cago to San Francisco may be able to do so by following a certain number all the way. Then also every danger sign will mean the same in every state. It is believed that these measures will add much to the safety of the traveling travel-ing public as well as to their convenience conven-ience and personal comfort. You would be surprised if you knew the additional expense met by the public in the necessary mileage traveled because be-cause of misdirection or no direction at all. "Thirty-eight state legislatures are now in session, and while a few states have no legislation on their statute hooks to provide for this co-ordinating work, a vast majority already have that authority, and it is expected that the remaining states will gladly fall in line. "This board is being formed at the unanimous request of state highway departments that have been studying the question for several years, and I am only too glad to co-operate with them in bringing about tills much-needed much-needed national consideration of the great traffic demands for uniform traffic traf-fic regulations throughout the country." |