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Show ROAD WASTES STIRS PEOPLE Taxpayers to Demand Better Bet-ter Highways and Proper Maintenance One fundamental fact which stands out In all serious consideraUon of the great question of road bulldrng and road maintenance in the United States is that the country cannot stand still. There must be enduring progress, prog-ress, or there will be loss of ground already gained, according to I,. G. Falrbank. a rubber tire expert of hlo. "For the people will not endure the burden of paying for the construction of costly highways, only to Bee them go to pieces in a year or two. Tho waste is Intolerable, the coat too heavy to be borne. TIim Improved roads must last longer or they will not be kept up at all," says Falrbank. '"To put the problem that way Is to show that road building must be better bet-ter ilonc nnd road maintenance must be more careful and morn intelligent. America cannot f.lnk back Into the mire of highways which had no bottom bot-tom in the winter and no top In the summer. That period Is past. We must go ahead, as a people In the con-struetlon. con-struetlon. use and enjoyment of good roads Public sentiment decrees the progress which economic needs demand. de-mand. "The movement toward heavier and larger vehicles on Improved roadV Is In harmony with the progress of the! age. It marches with the times 61m-1 liar changes are btcadlly Rolng on In transportation by sea und on Inland Waterways. They have been marking and hastening the: development of America railroad They character-i character-i Ized the growth of the Interurban trolley trol-ley lints, until they ran Into the hard and almost paralyzing conditions which were partly the result of the war and partly Iho fruit of unsound early financing and Inadequate construction con-struction and equipment, from the beginning. "Everything points to Increasingly powerful and capacious motor vehlcli h of various kinds, used In greater and 6tlll greater numbers, and such transportation trans-portation will depend upon and necessitate ne-cessitate roads solid enough and ecb n-tlflcally n-tlflcally sound enough to bear the strain to which Mich traffic will subject sub-ject hem The larger units will drive the smaller before them, on the public pub-lic roads ns they have done the same thing on th steam railways, the trolley trol-ley lines the rivers, the seas and even the canals. "Since all this Is clearly foreshadowed foreshad-owed and la plainly near at hand th only escape from ruinous expenses, in struggling with the road problems of a country which lahors under serious climatic "difficulties, in Its sections of greatest populatlou and heaviest traffic traf-fic la to prepare as rapidly as possible pos-sible for the coming ora of wonderful motor truck transportation by building build-ing roads which can stand up' under th loads they must carry, and do it year after year, for long periods. i That is to say, the road building of this rich and progressive but sometimes some-times wasteful and careless nation will havo to be done with more scientific pains and gre.itr-i efficiency. "The importance of this problem of government and economics is not yet fully understood, but It Is growing clearer, day by day. as the use and' enjoyment of good roads, even good lni tho superficial and painfully tempo-' rary sense, makes converts and wins tho favor of tho public that pavs the bills. Wo must get more v.irs. even though we have to accept leas miles' for our millions poured out In the building of highways We. must move' more slowly but with few mistakes." |