Newspapers / Oxford Public Ledger (Oxford, … / Nov. 11, 1910, edition 1 / Page 6
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7 OXFORD PUELIC LEDGER, FRIDAY NOVEMBER II, 1910 .AHOl'T (iH) KOADS. blatters I Vitiiiiiinj 1 Highways in ho riiilfd Staes as Compared AVith Foreign Countries .Ameri ca is iieatly Behind F.uiope in tfiis Kespect. Hy lion. Logan Waller Page., in "Southern Good Roads. The Present road situation in the United States may be briefly sum med up as follows: In mileage, we have the most tre mendous system ot roads winch any country has ever possessed the world began. According since to a careful road census, the length of oil of our roads amounts to 2,ir.", 000 miles. The most liberal es timate of our annual expenditure on these roads, both in money and labor, was a fraction over $79,000, ooo in l'.04, or about $1.0f per cap ita. At the same rate, this would he an expenditure of about. $90,000, K! a yoiir at the present time. Kng land, with only 150.000 miles of road, spends about $80,000,000 a year, or about fourteen times as much per mile. Same as ;$0 Years ago. According to our road census, we havt- less than 40,0oi' miles of stone surfaced road, or about 2 per cent of the total milage: we have 10S, 4)00 miles of graved road, or about f ps-'r cent of the total mileage. .Smuli as our annual expenditure for roads lias been, it has aggrega ted, during the ".io-year period from lS7o to i!00, a total of upwards of $1,800,000,000. tore, say that road ,UY. ,may 1 building in the United Stares is, considering area, population and wealth, at the same point at which it stood thirty years ago, and the seventeen hun dred ami odd million dollars have produced few appreciable results. When we turn to the subject of voad administration in the United States, we find that, about half of he. states are operating under prac ticaly the same road laws as prevail ed ia Kngiand when America was a Colony. This system of road ad ministration provides for the pay ment of road taxes partly in labor and localizes the work to an ex treme degree, by placing in authority the district or township road over seers, or road supervisors, no re quirement being made to insure skill of knowledge of road building on the part of these petty officials. "With few exceptions, no system of accounting is in force, so that an intelligent idea may be obtained as to the disposition of the road tax; and no definite lines of authority are established such as would guar antee the wise and equitable con duct of the work. This is the system which prevail ed in al t states until less than twenty years ago. It is, therefore, : easily understood why, at the pres ent, rime, the concrete results in I the mutter of road building are so few, are confined to a comparative- ' ly recent, period, and are located in those states which have broken i away form the inadequate and in- ' efiV-ciive system which i have just described. It can also be under stood why. at the present time, road, work in those states which ha- eiung r the old methods, and : the old system, is conducted in a "wjis; eful. intermittent and wholly ' ine!'!"c;-tivf manner, productive of no ; fc'oo.! results. ' Not on Sound Basis. Road administration has either !). :i placed on a. sound and pract ical "basis, or steps taken in that direction, in about half of the sta- I te of the union, comprising the j New England States, New York.) 3V:i!isylvania. Xew Jersey. Dela- ' war., Maryland, Virginia." West Vir ginia, Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Wis eoasin. Minnesota, Missouri. Kan sas. California and Washington. These states have adopted in princi- 1 Jde or pracih-e, or both, the system of centralizing under a state high way department the conduct of all : r part of the road work of the state, thereby securing uniformity in methods, economy in administra- ' tion, and skill in supervision. In some of the state highway depart- ' ments.the work is educational and investigative, with a view to nil i- ' mutely giving these departments ad ministrative powers. Some of the states, notably Kansas. Missouri i iind West Virginia, have provided for skiiied supervision in the coun ties, through the appointment of county highway engineers. In most , of these states, appropriations have been made from the state treasur ies, or the aid of the state convict force has been given toward carry- ing on road work throughout the various counties. It is not possible in a short pa per to enter into a discussion of the various system of state aid in effect in this country. Sufi ice it to say that tlx; principle of state aid and supervision constitutes the germ, of the only road administration -which has proven successful "n oth er countries. This movement fs gaining head- ; way at a very rapid rate, and, when wc consider that it has been little more than a decade and a half since its inception, the fact that half of the states have adopted it in principle and have actually expend ed from state treasuries considera bly over $".0,000,000, we may well feel encouraged for the future of road building in this country. Foreign Highways. France, The striking feature of the French road system is the skilled supervision provided in eve ry grade of road work and in every ' unit of the administrative organiza tion. The basis of the' system is the school of roads and bridges.one of the finest technical schools in the world, .maintained at the expense of the national government. In this school are trained the highway engi neers to whom are entrusted the building and maintenance of the roads of France. The course of study lasts three years and the in struction is free. At the head of the administrate organization is an inspector-general ,! bridges and highways, under wrovH are chief engineers in charge of the road work of single depart ments and communes. Single ar- rondissements are under engineers, the latter being equivalent in rank io non-commissioned officers in the army. The sub-divisions are under t'ie direction of principal conduct ors and ordinary conductors. Xext in I in,- come t he foremen of con struction gangs, the clerks employed at. headquarters, and finally the contemners or patrolmen, each hav ing from four to seven kilometers 5-igbway under his immediate super vision. This great administrative machine working in complete har mony with definite lins nf lvsnmi- ' sibility cleaily established, accom results with the precision ; h'ishes and regularity of a great clock tick ing off the seconds of time. Proba bly the most important unit in this great army of workers is the can- ; tonnier or patrolman who has charge ! of a single section of the road. He keeps the ditches open, carefully , fills holes and ruts with broken : stone, removes dust and deposits of saud and earth after heavy rains, trims the trees and bushes, and when ordinary work is impossible he breaks stone and transports it to points where it is likely to be needed. He brings all matters re j quiring attention to the notice of j his chief. Each cantonnier carries !a little book in which the chief can ; tonnier notes his instructions and : checks up the work accqmplished. The conductors go over the line at ' regular intervals and direct the ! chief cantonnier and all reports are transmitted to the central au thorities. so ex; that any day or any hour the let eomlitimi of rverv ! foot, of road throughout France mav ; l)e nse.M-t:infd tfvoi v vAr thl , conductors prepare estimates of necessary expense for the next year, under three heads namely; main i maintenance, heavy repairs and new , work, ami the parliamentary, ap , propriations are based upon these careful calculations. French Huad Figures. There are in France at the pres- j ent time 23,t;rG miles of national : routes which cost $303, 975, 000 to . luild. There are 31'J,8J8 miles of , Iteal highways built at a cost of j ';;.s.S00.0O0 of which the state li.iuiished $81,060,000 and the in terested localities $227,740,000. The roj.d.s of France are classified into cashes: 1st, national routes, : rr versing the various departments ; and connecting important centers of population. 2nd. the department 1 routes connecting the important cen ters of a single department and dis secting the national routes. 3rd. Highways of grand communication little less important than the pre vious class. 4th, Highways of public interest traversing a single canton ami connecting remote villages and groups of houses with the more im portant roads. The Fnglish lioads. England, There are at the pres ent time 1 49,759 miles of road in England, from which the annual ex penditure for the year 1905 to 1906 amounted to $78, 039,000. It is.there fore. evident that the annual expen diture per mile of road amounts to about $520. In view of the fact that most of the principle roads of England have already been constru cted would appear to be devoted in a large measure to maintenance. It would seem that a system which re quires tin annual outlay of $5 20 per mile for the entire "milage must be ineffective and costly. The ex planation of this is found perhaps in the fact that in England the maintenance of the public, highways devolves entirely on local authori ties, these numbering about 1900. Jurisdiction over the roads is vest ed in, first country boroughs; 2nd, the county councils; 3rd, the urban district councils: 4th, the rural district councils. The county boroughs are certain large towns which hold charters from the crown entitling them to the privilege of self-government. In these the main tenance of the highways devolves entirely upon the borough of town council. In counties, the mainten ance of the highways devolves upon urban councils in the urban districts and rural councils in the rural dis tricts. The only exception to the control of the urban and rural dis trict councils is in the case of main roads which are highways between great towns, and the maintenance of these roads devolves upon the county councils. Revenues ue provided by district taxes except for the main roads, for the maintenance of which a county levy is made. The national PEOPLE WHO ARE SUBJECT TO BACKACHE Will find relief by applying DR. -JONES' OMMENT For sale by F. F. LYON, None Genuine without the Beaver Trade Mark. government aids in the mainten ance of the highways by a contribu tion proportioned to the sum rais ed by the imperial taxation levied in the different areas. As to skilled supervision it may he said that no qualifications are ice-iiied by law to be uossessed bv the men in charge of road building j and maintenance, but it is the gen- j era! j ractice in the important dis- j . tricto to appoint experienced engi- j iieers for this work. The English system lucks strong central control j in each county there being four j different classes of government unit: j namely the county boroughs, the j urban districts, the rural districts ! ai:u rural parisnes. nile tne coun ty council exercises some control , over the rural districts and the ru ral parishes, they exercise none ever the other two units. How ennany does it. Germany, Germany is a federa tion of states, and it follows that road administration is conducted separately by each state of the em pire. The imperial government ex ercises very little control over the highways, and does not in any way contribute to the expense of their construction and maintenance. The Kingdom of Saxony may be taken as a representative state of the ; German empire. In Saxony, the high ways are divided into state roads, country roads and private ways. The state roads comprise those which have been Built by the state and are maintained by the state. The coun try roads are generally termed "communicating roads," and are built and maintained at the expense of the parishes through whose ter ritory they lead. A striking feature of the Saxon road system is the practice of plant ing of fruit trees along the roads, the fruit yielding a considerable re venue. About $40,000 a year is obtained from the fruit grown along state roads, while the amount ob tained from the country road repre sents a much larger sum. The state roads are cared for by a commission of engineers. The Kingdom is divided into seventeen road districts, in each of which here is a road inspector and road masters, who are employed constant ly throughout the year. Each road master has about thirty-seven miles of road cider his direction, and a road force of about fifteen men; each man caring for two and a half miles of road. in the case of the minor roads, the direct responsibility is borne by the authorities of the county. They levy the cost of maintenance and collect the revenues. The communi ties engage the road emploves for the continued care of the highways. TIxjb technical supervision, however is exercised by the road masters ol the state force. Strict provisions are made re quiring skill and special knowledge before road officials are annointed. Little Switzerland's Method. Switzerland. The road svstem of Switzerland is local in rlmraetov the various cantons having juris diction over the roads within theiv respective borders. The roads are classified into state roads built and maintained at the pviwusp rf the respective cantons; community roads built and maintained by the communities: and side, or anvil- -is, connecting main lines of state or communitv roads Each canton has at the head of ns road system and engineer with capable assistants. In the canton of St. Gall, which may be taken as. representative, there are under the control of the engineers five inspec tors, or road masters, who are as signed to certain districts in the canton. The engineers and their assistants must have an academic education, and possess a diploma from the Polytechnic Institute, While the road masters are required to have a good technical education. Conclusion Di-iMvn. General Analysis It is apparent from the foregoing that while the units of administration in European countries range all the way from the localism of England to the high ly centralized system of France, through varying degrees, skilled su pervision is provided by nil of the systems, as well as an ample cash revenue sufficient to enable the engineers to carry out adequately their plans for improvement and maintenance. England is the most striking example of extreme locali zation, and it is a significant fact, that England is also the most strik- to tliht- affected parts. 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Oxford Public Ledger (Oxford, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Nov. 11, 1910, edition 1
6
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