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Show H "WM"T"M"' ' II I 1 --! MM 11 l..lll.l..l.....lll II II -I ..! I; Large Amount To Be I Expended For Roads M t Combined forces tf the govcrn- r merit, states and counties will upend M for highway Improvement In 1918 H: the amazing total of $263,O0G,G1O. H This Is the announcement contained M t In tho first detailed survey of the K ' nation's road building plan Issued m j by officials of the touring bureau of m the D. F. Goodrich Rubber Company M who have been in contact dally for p two months with highway commls- Isioners of the states. While this sum seems staggering, eclipsing by eighty-two per cent tho expenditures of any previous year h and In money figures that of 1917 H , by $118,797,750, road officials of tho H government and states said It repre- H : aented merely a "drop in the buck- B et" of what should be spent beforn m the war was concluded. They admit H . the railroad situation has made im- V peratlve lavsh road appropriations H. . the total of ,thla year Is little better H ' than half what Secretary McAdoo has M announced as necessary for the up- ' building of (the over taxed American railroad system. Calculations by gov- ! eminent officials are that with good highways, motor trucks and motor j. Tehklea areoapable of carrying ap- ' proximately ,. 100 .per, cent- more Hj . freight than the railroads. In these. H , '. same calculations they estimate tho H''. Talma M oar highway at $6,240.- B' ftt',Mt.e , ijiaiaf. .. h ' "" Daia lupplied the, Goodrich tour- H.l ". lag official! discloses that the pro- jr, dactlve possibilities of communities M;l, were: considered above all else in m ;' ' '"" determining he sums, to be allotted H -' foe road Improvement. Thus, we no- H .' tlce that the south and middle west, H ; appropriations exceed those of other H , .- regions by many millions. Texas, for H . Instance,, .leads all others with con- H ,, , tenplated. highway development, an- H . nounclng the amaslng assignment of B ' t. $25,000,000 for road' Improvement. H $v Last year It spent $5,0d0,000. H ! A remarkable feature of this years H K 'y Satllhal' program Is the eVershadow- M jj ' lag at the automobile Industry by ggggggsV. tho highway building fn.dus,try. It. 13 ndinltted that 1917 was tho banner year In automobllo production. And yet this year's figures on road Improvement Im-provement trnnscond the Increased aufomobllo production of last year by thirty-five per cent. lloughty Goodrich officials estimate estim-ate that the expenditures, for highway high-way Improvement Is. approximately $2.35 per capita; or, to, Italicize, t,hls, each man, woman and child In the nation would contribute this -much for the building and bettering of roads for the movevment ,of supplies were taxation on such a basis. Were the expense apportioned out on an average basis each state would pay $5,400,000. Necessity, for- vast Improvement of road conditions is emphasised In report re-port from the south where unprecedented unpre-cedented truck travel , Is reported. Loads exceeding for size all expectation expecta-tion are rumbling over highways, and the state .highway commission of Maryland points out that the millions mil-lions that have been Invested must be spent In vain unless states undertake under-take to repair as quickly as they build. "It Is a common sight," reports re-ports the Maryland commission, "to see loads rumbling over our highways high-ways now that would ordinarily wreck a city street. Our; whole road fabric mustbe rent through If wi continue to build and not repair." The only fly In the ointment Is, the labor problem. Several highways Commissioners display marked uneasiness un-easiness over the shortage of labor and freight cars for hauling road i building material. They expect government gov-ernment aid. Rdad funds. Include building and Improvement of bridges, etc., but It Is Impossible to get an estimate on how much this phase will" eat Into the total. A tendency Is .manifest everywhere, theugh, Vo do away with the narrow road and construct only broad, firm bodied roads capable of heavy traffic. Keports from state highway commissioners com-missioners to tho Goodrich officials dlscloso some Interesting Individual features. In Oregon, for Instance, the government gov-ernment and state bodies arc spending spend-ing five times what they did last year In 6rdcr to 'build trurflt. roaiU Into largo timber tracts. From those Is being taken tho woods for tlm armadfi oK ships JUnclo Sani Is cbn-ntruptlng.,Ji),inany, cbn-ntruptlng.,Ji),inany, cases, rpads have iJaen planked by nrmy onfflncorfMo ciifiblo the heavy trucks laden with hi ghty timbers to pass,' . ' A. C. McKtybln, of ,,lhf), JUlfsp.url stito highway board writes that In forwardlni; to Washington roportsjjn j traffic ureas In Missouri ho ftavo ! flist consideration id" Hvo '"'stock, I B.r'iln, poultry, 'WtncVaVniid' 'limber producing areas. Into thesa, ho ro-coiniuonilcd, ro-coiniuonilcd, nuxlllary and tributary .rands should rcxtend. . "" "' " (Iowa. Js. entitled to. tho. palm for fr'oiBlHtcnt road construction. This Bt'ato, with moro automobiles lri pro-pbrtlon pro-pbrtlon to Its total population spent $1B,000',000 Irisl yerir and'fs" doing' tho samo ' tliltf year. ' Aiipr'oxlmatclj' 6,000 mllesMf lffghwaysTnf the std'td' are betng Improved and extended: " Recognition of the tremendous importance im-portance gnsolina Is playing In th? wnr and Inthe susteqance, of. our .automobllo .au-tomobllo Industry hero is .reflected, In tho figures frpm, Qklahoma, Til-sa Til-sa county. In tho hcar of the ,,oll, elds.'ls spending $1,750,000 which Is moie than some, states spent during dur-ing the entire twelve nionths. of last year. Another county Okmulgee, Is putting $l00,roo .Into .forty three miles of roAdway. f .Wisconsin Is putting Into effect trunk system of roads, which caps every" community of the state.1 Officials Offi-cials of tho' Goodrich Touring Bureau' consider the plan outlined by the Wisconsin commissioners one, for others to 'pattern after. Much Individual Indi-vidual credit Is due A. It. Hirst, ona of tho "foremost civil engineers, for the Installation of the road system. . Arkansas, which last ,year. spent $4,000,000, Is Investing $12,000,000 In constructing a series of highways between Louisiana and Arkansas, via Hot Springs and Little Rock. Illinois and Indiana rank next to Texas In expenditures for road building. Indiana has Inherited 175, miles of the new market highway .aja. ia also eager ,Jto polish up Its share of the Dixie HlghwarT Texas huge appropriation Is not Inflated by any large- government tender. Federal authorities have given giv-en the lone star state just $875,000 and tho counties and state have gone out and got the rest. In addition, writes a highway correspondent, cor-respondent, there are 230,000 automobiles auto-mobiles to be registered In the state this year at an average registration fee of $8.32. Of this amount fifty per cent will be returned to each countjHt be 'used la highway maintenance. main-tenance. The other fifty per cent is retained by the state and after all operating expense Is paid the balance. bal-ance. If any, will go into the state fund for roads and highways. Ohio, Pennsylvania and Michigan, which play a, large part In any highway high-way program, owing to the fact that all government truck caravans tra-verso tra-verso their confines nro concentrating concentrat-ing on thoso lanes used most by the big Industrie's. Traffic 'betwcop' 'the Jingo rubber and steel cltlcs-of ' Ohio' nnd Pennsylvania and s'jplng points 111 bo uninterrupted In, wlntoj; as -well as Hummer. -Plows nre being purchased to keep open "roads during wlntcrlmonths. ',(4JNd stnrtljUjfjncrj&uie&Mil appropriations appropri-ations are reported from tho east and New England Rtntcs because tho highway commissioners,, there have never, .within i tho. past -decade- allowed al-lowed anything to Intcrfcro with n consistent road building program. |