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Show ;on j Engineer Would Have Plenty of Work Building Great Highway System I ne Ready for Each Soldier Upon His Return from Victory on Battlefields, I Believing that United States in Time of War Should Prepare for Peace I ' i Horace G. Cupples, St. Louis Man, Proposes Through Road 800 Miles Long, from Lakes to Gulf, to Interest Returning J ; Heroes in" Scientific Agriculture, Declaring Men Will Not I Be Satisfied to Return to Study Antebellum Tasks. I By HORACE G. CUPPLES. T,,at meant n dend loss of fOO.OOO.OOO HB United States has drafted 3,000,000 fighting men to mako a day to tho nation. Thir la almost : 1 wnr nncl probably 15,000,000 men into war industries. At tw,c" afl much 8avln eatruciion cf J i R . i i i i ' i- , , i Ut& and Property, as tho groat war is' present our solo duty is to win the war. But wc must begin . ,. ' cusMng tho world every day. o prepare for the peace that will follow our victory. In time of Th0 great producing groups, farmers - v ' H.,j. prepare for peace. Depression always follows war. "Wc had and manufacturers, overproduced do- . . . . i- fciTd thn war. Thnv liml tin nnn tn 'i 'fOOO.OOO unempioyeu mun in wiu United States In I012-l0l!l. It wo do if1 not make proper provision for their employment wo will have 10,000,000 I jncmployed mon after tho war. ' f ) ; " Tho railroads and tho Now West, ; the free lands and tho mines, gavo ' !?' ' ' miploymont to tho men thrown out I of work by tho pcaco of 1805. Tho V i greatest period of construction tho j1 '. n-orld has even soon followed tho 1 civil war, Wc built the railroads and opened tho West. 4 Tho railroads arc pretty well built, IS . Ihe West Is reasonably well settled. ' When tho porlod of depression comes Iiftcr wo win tho crent war, what Will b-c do with our unemployed? Build great highways. Open tho back countries, five, ten, fifteen, twenty, thirty miles from the railroads, an wo opened the West with tho railroads I fifty years ago. America Is only one-fourth sottlcd. j The United States have something Uko I 5,000.000 farmers. They should havo 20,000,000 farmers. Tho land Is thoro In even' slate "'0Bt ot the Alleghanlcs and In many states cast of the AJleghanles. Let us understand that bad roads mako land ten miles from the railroad worth only from one-fourth to one-half ot land within a mile or two of the railroads. rail-roads. Fanners dislike to efcttlo far from the railroad. Tho haul over bad roads han- ! dlcaps them so much that they cannot "Sj j compete with tho farmer on tho Tallin Tall-in ' , "jf road. l '. Wo "opened" tho West alter the civil I xar. Wo ran wild over tho country, I picking up tho choice spots on tho rall-v rall-v roads. ' After tho great war let us build first i great system of main trunk highways o lo bo followed by branches to open up a Ihe back lands remoto from tho main Irafllc ways. 0 Wc must havo more rarmers, mora scientific farmers. Farming is tho greatest occupation open to man. It has not beon scientifically developed In the United States. Hence, boys and C girls leave the wealth of tho farm to llvo from hand to moith In the cities. Farmer Has Best of It. 'J'HE fnrmor who makes $1000 a year ; Is Infinitely bettor off than the me chanic or professional man who makes $2000 a year. For tho farmer owns something besides tho labor of his hands. His farm doubles Its value every ten years. If a worklngman makos 51500 a yoar until he 13 60 and lives up to all he makes, ho Is broke when he has to quit. ; The farmer who makes $1000 a year until he Is 60 can count upon owning a farm worth four times as much as It was worth when ho started farming It forty years before. The farm Increases In valuo while one sleeps. It works for one whllo ho fishes and hunts. Whon tho mechanlo or the lawyer or doctor sleeps, his Jncomo ceases. Farming Is tho life. But wo must mako farming attractive. I We must mako communications easy and cheap for tho fanner. The free delivery of mall, tho motor car, tho telephone have dono much to make life pleasant- Now, glvo tho farmer ; good roads and his life will bo happy Indeed. Wo mUBt havo work for the boys hen they como back from Europe. Wo must have new work that wUl attract 1 : them, Interest them and benefit tho country they havo saved. Many of the soldiers will not go back to tho old stodgy Jobs they had before the war. They have boon broadoncd, Inspired In-spired by tho JourncyB they havo mado, the things they have seen. Thoy havo becomo world conquerors, not shop boys, messenger boys and dreary ploddora. When tho boys como back they will , run tho country, or mako a strong stab at IL If we do not havo good, interesting interest-ing Jobs for them they will bocomo , , Politicians and llvo off tho country. , Nothing so discourages n country saver sav-er as to return homo after saving It. and find that ho cannot cat regular. One way or another the soldier vote will run around 10,000,000 at tho next general election. That will bo about hnlr tho electors of the United States. If wo havo no good JobB for theso boys they will mako themselves political Jobs as many civil war soldiers did and set-tlo set-tlo down and dry-rot to death. So we must have rousing, good, big, man-sized Jobs for tho soldiers when they roturn loot they Join tho always stagnant "Courthouse crowd." If wo can show these young chaps that they can got land cheap and learn farming, a great occupation, bo scientific scien-tific farmers, becomo well off, bo road engineers,' canal engineers, mine workers work-ers and mine owners, country builders, give them big, opcn-alred he-man's Jobs they will bo satisfied and go to work with a will. Preparing for Heroes. fE must ahow tho soldiers that poll-tics poll-tics is tho worst business they can go Into. Wo muBt have real Jobs for thorn that will mako political Jobs look cheap nnd measley by comparison, as pblitical Jobs always arc cheap and measly for a ie.il man. Wo must prepare to recolvo tho con-v querlng hbro, give him a vacation and thon a real, good Job. It will not bo enough to pat him on tho back and cheer him on fotc days. Ho will havo saved the world. He will know It. Ho will let other pcoplo know It Ho will demand his rights as a savior of humanity. Construction-. work Is the most beneficial bene-ficial work In tho world. It doos not competo with any other work. If you start to mako shoes or boats'or Iron or freight cars In St. Louis you compete with othor people, and In tho dull times tho man you put to work In the Indus- ' trial trades In one place automatically 1 throws a man out of work somo othor . place. 1 But tho man you pift to work In tho ' groat construction enterprises like tho Panama Canal or Arcadian Highway : gets a Job and does not throw any other ( man out of a Job thereby. 1 I do not mean to say that wo should put the soldiers to work on tho roads. ' Not at all. Each soldier to his talent Many of them love their old Jobs and will go back to them, Many will not go ( back to tho old pen-pushing, ribbon-rolling, ribbon-rolling, machlno-tendlng job. Thoro may be a period of deep commercial de- ( prcsslon after tho war. Men will want food and lodging. They must havo them. Our fighting men will fight for 1 their rights at homo an well as abroad, 1 So tho period after tho war must bo one of groat reconstruction. 1 That Is why I say that tho next presl- j dent of tho United Stntco should be a civil engineer. Wo cannot afford to havo any.uncm- J ployed people. Statistics inform us that ( tho avcrago producing power of a man I is $10 a day. In December, 101-4, wo had 0,000,000 t unemployed or casually employed mon. i buy their products. There was no use In setting men to mako shoes wh.m tlicro was no ono to buy shoes. Loss of Productive Power. y"B must set to work to construct, to - build roads, to rebuild cities. Theso Is no overproduction of land or parks or good gardens. Tho unemployed man Is not only losing money for the statu, ho Is losing In manhood and In producing produc-ing pouor. Idleness disintegrates cho human body and mind. So whon wo havo millions of unemployed unem-ployed we lose not only what thoy sh7U'd bo producing, but there ls a decided de-cided deterioration of the producing body. It takes threo or four months to rcbnbllltato a man who has been out of work and probably hungry for a month. Who wants a weak, sick man? If a man Is out of work for fiVe years ho Is utterly useless. His depreciation on account of Idleness Is 20 per cent per year. Whon men are out of work, plants arc out of work and the depreciation deprecia-tion on plants and the loss of Interest on capital Invested Is beyond computation. computa-tion. Therefore wo cannot afford to havo an ldlo man or an Idle plant. When we remember that we Jose ?10 a day by every man unemployed, that tho man doprcclates 75 cents a day while unemployed for long periods and that wo must feed and keep hlrn while ho la unemployed, tho staggerjng loss from unemployment becomes clear. Tho United States spends $200,000,000 on "charities" every yoar. Two-thlrd3 of this $200,000,000 let spent to tako care of pcoplo who suffor from unemployment unemploy-ment and the ill-effects of unemployment unemploy-ment War Has Opened Our Eyes. 'J'TEN, when a man Is unemployed he docs not consume tho amount of food and clothes and luxuries he should jonsume and our industries suffer thcrc-trom. thcrc-trom. Tho groat war has dono ono great thing, opened our oyes and showed us how tmall and cheap and foolish and wasteful wo havo been. It has shown Js that money Is not everything. It has taught us how to do bis things In a big ivay, Tho war set 8,000,000 men to killing jach othor for 700 miles, from Swltzer- ' and to tho North Sea, 1000 miles, from tho Baltic to tho Black Sea, and an-Jther an-Jther 1000 miles from tho Black Sea .o tho Arabian Gulf. Twenty-seven lUndrcd mllps of men In rows ten dc5p i lestroylng llfo and property. ' With this In mind can wo say that It s chimerical or absurd to put JW.000 mon to work for ono yoar making a jreat highway and a groat experiment farm ovor 1200 miles of tho richest territory ter-ritory in the world7 Roads Weak Link. . pHE war costs tho world $50,000,000 a day, every cont of it for destruction. It wo cut tho great war short by threo lays wo will savo onougn money to buy :ho right of way and build an Arcadian llghway from the Great Lakes to tho julf. This covers tho cost of tho experimental ex-perimental farm, too. Can wo afford it? Horace G. Cupp"ues WELL, Chicago spent J50.000.000 on a sanitary canal. Wo aro spending $35,000,000 on a railroad In Alaska. Tho rlghOof way at Panama cost us $-10,0X),-000. Wo aro talking of spending $140,-000,000 $140,-000,000 on a doep water way from tho lakes to tho gulf. Waterway promoters overlook tho fact that '.ho cheapest way of hauling goods is ovor a lovel rail. Tho grado botweon tho lakes and tho gulf Is 1 foot to tho mllo. Lovol as a board. Waterways aro slow and expensive. ex-pensive. Ico and floods mako them Inoperative In-operative at least In part three months of every year, Americans llvo much Better than any othor pcoplo In tho world. Yot Americans Ameri-cans arc not living up to their opportunities oppor-tunities by half. Wo aro not eating so much or so wcl! as wo should cat, becauso wo havo not got road3 whereby tho crops may be put In, fertilized and hauled to. market Wc have not tho clothes wo should havo, because our lands aro not developed de-veloped and tho cattle, sheep, cotton, otc, that should bo raised aro not raised. Wo have not tho comCoitp wo need in tho way of heat and light and air, bo-causo bo-causo our transportation power and distribution aro poor. ' Great New Sections of the Country Were H Populated as Result of Immense Rail- H road Development Plans West of the H Mississippi River. Take heat, which next to food ana clothes, Is tho moat lmimrtant of domestic do-mestic necessities. Can anything Do moro uneconomical than our system of mining, hauling, distributing and burning burn-ing coal. Qoal Is mined within twenty-five ciilcs of St. Loul3 for SO ccn.s a ton. It costs tho consumer many tlmca that sum delivered de-livered In his cellar In St. Louis. Ho gets his houso filthy with coal smoke', grime and ashes. Wall paper, curtains, llnons, carpets, tapestries aro destroyed by smoke, dust, ashes. Tho work of tho housewife Is Increased ton-fold. ton-fold. Tho householder must nhovel the coal Into the furnace. Ho 'jew about two-fifths two-fifths of the heat ho should got. He must shovel tho coal out lit ashes, carry It to tho ashpit and thon pay. a man for hauling the ashes away. Power from Missouri. 'jr'HE householder tenda hla own fur-naco, fur-naco, destroys his linen, grlmos his hair, face and hands, ruins his clothes and his temper. The uneconomical furnace fur-nace has caused more trouble tbetween husband and wife than any other household house-hold matter. With proper construction your houso would bo porfectly heated by a plpo carrying gas or a wlro carrying electricity. elec-tricity. There would ha no dirt, no grime, no lack of heat, no shivering, not too much heat, not so much cold, not 30 many colds and not so much pneumonia. pneu-monia. Sore throats, tuberculosis, etc., would be greatly reduced. Coal smoKc causes a lot of bronchial troubles. Tho cheapest way to handle coal would bo to burn It at tho pit mouth and transport thc heat and power generated gen-erated to tho city In pipes or by wires. "Wc can Improve coal heating or coal power In any form If we can get hydro-electric power near a city. Most cities can produco hydro-clcctrlc power closo by. By diverting a certain porcentago of tho overflow of the Missouri River Into tho channel of the Meramoc River, St Louis can develop horse-power for traction, trac-tion, lighting and heating. When you consldor the saving In health, doctor's bills, pleasure, comfort, laundry bills, dry goods, personal wear and tear tho actual cost of .construction would be Infinitesimal. Tho saving of wear and tear on the housewife alor.o would pay for the cost . of the Improvement. Transporation Costs. "E aro Just beginning to build our houses right. Just beginning! Wo will Improve our domestic construction. A houso should bob ullC on the plans of a thermos bottle, to keep In warmth In winter, to keep out heat In summer. Stalr3 should be avoided. Men would object to climbing twenty flights of stairs a day. Most housewives run up nnd down stairs twenty times a day. Mon havo clovators In their oluce bulld- Ings, but stairs In their homes. Stairs : kill womon and destroy families, i Tho ideal houso should bo of ono floor, In a garden of two or threo acres, built on tho thermos plan, almost level with the ground. To glvo each housoholdcr two or threo acres means rapid and cheap transportation. Homos would bo at :ong distances from places of employment employ-ment Rapid nnd cheap transportation means good roads, and maybo elec tric power for motor cars, so that tho 'HH housoholdcr may travel to and from ! work rapidly and cheaply. 'H It costs, I bcllevo, from cents to 6 cents a mllo to opcrato the gasoline- iH moved cars on a macadam road. !H Jt would cost about ono-thlrtleth of iH that cum to achlovo tho samo time and ,H dlstanco In a gasoline car moved oa rail instead of on macadam. 'H So wc may have rails for motor cars. The doep waterway schema Involves ,H a plan to dam streams. If this plan ;H Is carried out 30,000,000 square miles of the richest bottom land In tho world 'M will bo forever Irreclaimable. This Is throwing away an empire to waste 'H money on an Impractical and costly scheme. iH fBcttcr spend the money stopping tho ravages ot floods on tho Mississippi and reclaiming the bottom lands. Wc would havo a strip of land one-fourth one-fourth of a mllo wldo all along the Arcadian highway. Thcro wo would .H have a model experiment farm acord- ,H Ing to climate. Many experimental farms arc in remoto places. A Lakes- to-thc-Gulf farm would be seen by jH every one. You could not help bump-lng bump-lng -into From each side could como farmers jH necking knowledge. A great parkway one-fourth of a mile jH wldo and 1000 miles long. A smooth concrcto road through tho parkway. :H Rails, maybe, for motor traffic, rails H for steam or hydro-electric traffic, fruit trees all the way. It would mean one solid row, maybo 'H sovcral solid rows, of houses from the Great Lakes to the Gulf. It would bo tho Inspiration of other great highways lined with villages. ll Rails, wires, malls would follow the great natural routes. Lateral and radi- ' atlng roads would bo innumerable. 'H The Coal Embargo. jH 'p'HE natural channel of all traffic be- tween tho Alleghanlcs and the il Rockies Is down tho Mississippi Valley jH to tho Gulf of Mexico. Tho grades on tho roalroads that cross tho mountains H aro prohibitive. The St Lawrence River Is frozen and closed to traffic for many months each year. Now York is not a warm water port. When war traffic was at its most Important stage last winter the port of Now York was practically H closed by Ice and snow. That Is the IH rails behind tho port wero closed. Traf- IH flc could not move. Commissioner Gar- field had to order suspension of all in- iH dustrlcs requiring coal. This cost the tl United States many billions of dollars and untold recriminations. Wo should reduco the cost of motor H producing fluids or solids. Hydro-elcc- trie power may do a groat deal. Hydro- H electric power may cnablo us to opor- H atp motor cars very cheaply. We may il havo wires and trolleys for motor cars. J IH Wc can sccuro much greater volums ! JH of gasollno by now methods. Whon I i IH was a boy In Pennsylvania gas fields i jl I noticed that a great deal of gas be- ' camo fluld-gasollno in cold weather. The ' fl vents of tho gas wells wero wet with ' IH gasollno In freezing' weather. Now thoy j jH arc confining this gasollno and selling rH it Gasollno is liquified gas. Wherever, j IH gas is generated there also is gasoline. ' IH Wo may produco other sorts of mo- j jH ttvo power. If wc could dovlso a, moth- lil od whereby fulminate of mercury, a '1 solid, could bo powdered or liquified and IH fed Into an onglno in proper quantities !' a man could carry enough power in his IH |
