GOOD ROADS.

Evening Post, Volume XCVI, Issue 41, 16 August 1918, Page 11

GOOD ROADS.

According to information collected by "Good Roads," of New York, abottt £60,000.003 will be spent on roads in the tjnited States during 1918. The necessity for this expenditure even in war time (in fact, because of the war) was indicated recently by former Governor John, K. Tener, of Pennsylvania, who now is the president of the Permanent Highways Corporation of New York. Governor Tener declares that "it is a military necessity for the various responsibje authorities to. protect these roads by a proper surfacing. We must preserve the roads of the country and especially must "we save their foundations if the. United States is to do its full duty in the war, and if the Government is to protect the commerce and the induß« tries of the country, which are supplying the needs of our men on the battle fronts as well a-s the taxes of the Government and the necessities of the men, women, and children, who are keeping the wheels going at home. The Federal Government, the manufacturer, and thefarmer for months have been depending on the highways for the transportation of enormous amounts of materials and supplies by motor trucks. The roads are wearing down fast, and hundreds of miles of highways will become useless unloss the resurfacing of these roads is encouraged, so that the- foundations may bo saved. In road construction the principal cost is in the foundations. The top, or road surface, naturally is the first to give way, break, and finally grind up and disappear, leaving the foundations exposed and next in the line of destruction. Foundations costing hundreds of millions of dollars now are in danger of being ruined for ever, when they would be saved by proper resurfacing, but this resurfacing should be done at onco, or else the costly foundation work will have to be ■iono all over again in order to make the highways available for traffic, which depends so much upon them. In some States and localities, I am informed, there is a disposition to delay road work until after the war, on the theory that the men and materials are more needed elsewhere "in the war work. This is a grave mistake, which should be corrected at once. Without the. highways, the business of the country would "be crippled. The roads must be preserved both for war purposes and fot the preservation of the industries upon which tho country's revenues depend, as well as for the living necessities of those who are doing their full share by keeping tho home fires burning."