Evening Star Newspaper, April 7, 1929, Page 62

SPRING HEHWAY + BREAK-UP STARTS Many Communiiies Suffer From Costly, Muddy ' Roads. In ‘Spring .the road builder's fancy turns heavily to' thoughts of the high- way “break-up.” More American road dollars will be: consumed this year in repairing the havoc wreaked by snow, jce and rain than ever. before, reports from all over the country indicate, ac- cording to E. E. Duffy, highway educa- tional writer. Ice coatings and intermittent freez- Ing and thawing weather have so weak- ened vast mileages of Northern. rural roads of low-type surfaces that ordi- nary traffic has battered them out of travelable condition, or has made travel over them tedious and uncomfortable. In the South. moisture is taking its annual toll with countless country dis- tricts all’ but isolated because of high- way impassability. Street Surfaces Punished. Unstable street surfaces, too, have undergone extreme punishment during the-last few months and repair gangs are out pafching up. the ruins of Winter. The high cost of travel over mud roads is indicated in the recent experi- ence of W. E. Buck of Georgia, a ven- turesome gentleman who consumed 12 hours and 45 minutes in making & 126- mile trip, of which only 30 miles was over dirt. Al it cost him, in addition to gasoline and & changed attitude toward the world, was the slight total of $20.90 expended for these items: Pulled out of mud, ditto, $2.50; | ditto, 50 cents: rope, $1 chains, $6; | washing car, $3.50. it Twenty dollars added to an auto- mobile license fee would doubtless cause many motorists to paint lurid pictures in the sky. Yet Mr. Buck, in one trip, expended that amount for the privilege of uncomfortably using a public high- way which, when the roads are dry, carries considerable traffic. His ex- perience pictures graphically that in | oné way or another poor roads cost| more than good roads. | 30! nds say, worshi| L S (Title registered U, 8. Patent Offce.) C% S fer, a. n SBURG__ P - ngm Ses 1&1%75}:' Stre. ,%1 rozg avenues p‘me 1 ; m ot'%; Side, entering nigh roadsc s!;%r 1 &) ulé sciences,or Lo i et perils of €x o presently see. —By James W. Brooks (Sketches by Calvin-A. Fader.) ttad g = ion asthe 2 o = MAINE SHOWS 1.00 MLES NEW ROADS Thoroughfares Once Hazard-‘ ous Listed With Highways | Safe for Travel. AUGUSTA, Me, April 6—Nearly 1,000 miles of Maine roads, once haz- ardous in Winter with drifts, deep ruts and “pitch holes,” have been added Truck Laws Enforced. Most States now enforce load limita- | tions’ on tru but even this necessary | but drastic-step frequently fails to keep the roads in a passable condition for | passenger cars and busses. Consequent- | 1y in the early and late Spring -com- | mercial transportation is not only fre- quently tied up for weeks, but also| pleasure and other business motoring is | at a ‘standstill. -« Unfortunately this | means to many communities that the . world has stopped moving, South Carolina,- in the effort to re- duce the mud:road bill immediately, has just passed & $65,000,000 bond issue, which will place most of the State high- way system beyond the reach of Win- ter destruction. Georgia is considering » $75,000,000 issue. Economies effected through such action are expected to more than offset the improvement cost. AUTOS PAYING MORE OF HIGHWAY TAXES Analysis of Figures Shows No Dodging of Large Expense of Public Work. Motor vehicles are paying sn in- | creasing proportion of the Nation's highway tax bill, accoring to analysis of highway income figures just com- pleted by the statistical department | of the American Motorists' Association. A glance at the figures is all that is | necessary to dispel the supposition | that motor vehilcles are dodging the | expense of the road construction and | maintenance and saddling the expense | upon the general public. | In 1921 the total highway income | was $1,149,430.896, which was derived | from the following sources: Bonds, | $438,109,273; Federal aid, $79,333,226; | motor vehicle fees, $118.942,706; gaso- | line taxes, $3.683,460; general property | taxes, $415,681,010; and miscellaneous, | $93,681,221. Six years later, in 1927, total high- way income had increased to $1,465,- | 076,204, and the revenue derived from | the same sources was as follows: Bonds, | $272,260,730; Federal aid, $80,459,671; motor vehicle fees, $229,513,810; gaso- line taxes, $216.678.981; general prop- | erty taxes, $527,122,830, and miscella- | neous, $69,040,192. From these figures it will be readily seen that of the total 1921 income, motor vehicles, in the form of fee and | gasoline taxes, contributed 10.6 per cent of the total sum. Motor vehicle fees more than doubled and gasoline taxes increased some 72 times over when 1927 figures are compared with those for 1921 and from these two sources 35.2 per cent of the total 1927 highway income was derived. It should be noted that road building funds | derived from bond issue were nearly | two times as great in 1921 as in 1927 | and there was a substantial reduction | in the amount of general property taxes which went into road construction and maintenance. . Bonds issued, which supplicd 38.1 per cent of the total highway revenue in 1921, contributed only 18.1 per cent of | the 1927 income. General property and | miscellaneous taxes made up 44.4 per cent of the 1921 income as compared with only 40.7 per cent of the greater total income in 1927. “These figures are interesting,” declared Thomas J. Keefe, general manager of the American Motorists’ Association, “because they offer the best possible proof of the fallacy of the supposition that motorists are dodging their share of highway construction and maintenance costs. Motorists paid more than one-third of the total rural high- way bill in' 1927 in_the form of fees and gas taxes and as a large ‘part of the general public contributed much more in the form of general property - e Duray Abandons Speed Test. ‘ Leon Duray has abandoned his-at- - tempts for the 91-cubic-inch straight- away speed record now held by the late Frank Lockhart. On Duray's second Visit to Dry Lake at Murbe, Calif.; con- tinuous rains covered. the. surface with several inches of water, making for im- | brought about by the | towns the cost of road-breaking up to | in force for a period of only five years, this year to the total of highways in the Pine Tree State which have been kept clear under Maine's “Winter open roads” policy. These roads have en- abled motorists to travel this season over 4,276 miles of highway kept clear under State and local supervision. This is in addition to several thousand miles of road which, thanks to mild Winters, are in use by motorists practically 12 months in the year. Two hundred and seventy communi- ties have . co-operated, with ‘the State High Department’ this season in open-roads work, & gain of nearly 30 towns over last year. A combined fleet of 150 tractors and 50 trucks, equipped with snowplows, form the road-breaking equipment, manned by 400 men. Highways also are protected by some 20 miles of drift fences—metal palings which are set up alongside the roads at points where drifts might form. These fences break the force of winds and draw drifting snow into heaps about the fence itself, tnstead of per- mitting it to blow into the roads, Returns trom the State gas tax in- dicate the increase in tor traffic “Winter open roads” policy. Under a 3-cent tax the receipts for the four Winter months of 1926-27—December, January, Febru- ary and March—were $242,686, indicat- ing & consumption of 8,089,558 gallons, Receipts for the same four months of 1927-28, when the open-roads policy went into effect, were $496,557, or a consumption of 12,413,938 gallons. Contributing Fasters Cited. Several factors enter into this in- creased consumption of 4.324,380 gal- Jons, as compared with the previous Winter. The tax was raised to 4 cents, and the weather was mild. On the basis, however, of this Winter's fig- ures to date, with allowance for the average increase in the number of car owners, State highway officials believe that the open-roads policy has resulted in & 30 per cent increase in Winter motor traffic, although the open-roads program to date is effective on only one-sixth of the total highway srea. Highway officials report, moreover, that the cost of spow removal, in which the State shares equally with the $50 per mile, is offset by the receipts in taxes from new car owners alone, who are increasing at the rate of about L] PARIS DRIVERS FACE MEDICAL INSPECTION Doctors Believe Physical Examina- tion Prerequisite to License. PARIS (#).—An automobfle death list of 200 persons each month is & medical specialists to seek a way of the mounting accident rate. Police reports in the Paris district shaw that slightly, more than haif the fatalities are due to “imprudence,” but the dooters. think that.some of the im- prudence ‘is & wrong label for physical incapacity. - - . . Dlg.m%ul Blondel suggests that de- fective sensibilities and faulty reactions. often are to blame. Medical tests for driver's licenses have been proposed, but the government decided such a program unworkable because of its expense and inconvenience. Nevertheless, many medical suthor- ities are urging the adoption of such & plan to be administered through. cen- tral examination institutions. _The physicians’ say - that licenses.should be checking when' another examination should be { considered necessary. Tests made of 100 chauffeurs ex- ‘amined by a Paris bus system and 100 men .otherwise acceptable who had not | taken the examination showed that the former had 16 per cent fewer accidents. This, the doctors argue, indicates the requisite to obtaining a driver's license. Haulage Under 100 Most of the haulage by motor truck is less than 100 miles. In Californis 11 per cent of the truck operation is for more than 100 miles, but in most States 95 per cent of the truck haulage possible driving conditions. - is for less than this distance. Indianapolis Speedway Manager Admits - He Knows Little of Motor Car Mechanics INDIANAPOLIS (#)—The man who yuns the largest and best known auto- mobile race track in the world says he known no more about motor cars than the ordinary owner. He is T. E. “Pop” Myers, vice presi- dent and general manager of the In- dianapolis motor speedway. For 19 years Pop, as he s familiarly known, has guided the destines of the organi- zation, which annually stages the 500~ mile race here. Unlike most men prominent automobile world, -Mr. Myets gain his start as a race driver, a me- « chanic or an inventor of some intri- cate thing which improved the efficien cy, of the motor. He, ager for a realty conitern operated. by Carl G, Pisher and the late James A A. Allison, ‘two of the founders of IWAY. o Soepes g 4 in did niot | was office man- Things were not going just right in the office of the speedway and Mr. Myers more or less was drafted into service there, He made a number of changes which. saved the speedway. money, and as he learned more about the business, he soon convinced its owners that they could forget all about the details. Although he has known almost every great . race driver in the world, Mr. Myers 'has cared to ride with few. He went around the famous Sheepshead Bay course with the late Johnny. Aiken value of physical examinations as a pre- | . ogle Beliuitding Wrecked Car. W;ar of Tires Doubles as Spee& Hits 50 Miles Per Hour, Road Tests Reveal Ed Yagle of Philadelphia, owner of the speedway car Keech campaigned last year, is having it completely re- bullt at the Miller plant on the coast. The car was badly wrecked at Salem last Fall. A new frame has been in- stalled, a new body designed and built | and the ‘engine reconditioned. has not yet nominated a driver. cities of 500,000 and over. on on and has had a taste local track. Ricken] _ Leonard 8 Dupont Ci Yagle | miles an hour has been proved by tire men. AT It was found after exhaustive tests Only 11 per cent of all cars are lnlth‘t cars traveling then increased H. C. Fleming Motor Co., Hyattsville, Md. * Frye Motor Co., Leesburg, Va. town Motor & Hardware Co, town, Md. at 35 miles and to 50 miles per That the rate of tread wear is|would show the rate of tread wear at| doubled with an increase of but 1550 miles that was shown at 35 miles. But that is not the only result of ils'.i driving and the. heat that naturally follows.. Under such & strain the car- cass of a tire will become softer—there will be more give and play to the cords of the carcass—and the whole carcass will weaken. For this reason and to better serve the car owners who are not satisfie unless they are speeding, Deluxe -and super tires are being built with greater strength in carcass and much thicker treads. These tires are bullt to take the pumishment of high speed, and still }glve extra mileage—some of them last- ing as long as_the average man keeps his car, ¥ D — g The ayerage life of a motor vehicle is seven years. 4 Plugs Help Improve Motors. Today's high compression motor car engines would be unable properly to function if spark plug manufscturers had mot radically improved both the design and the production processes {of their product, points out R. A. Stranahan, president in the spark plug industry. This constant advance in designing and magufacturing spark plugs has been of «qual value in the development of airplane -engines and motors for heavy duty on- trucks and as well, adds Mr. Stranahan. Designed to y, Out-perform — Out-style — Out-value anything near it in price THE success of the new Dodge Brothers Six is the triumphant ROAD BUILDER WINS MEDAL FOR ‘ARTISTRY’ President of Bronx River hrkwly Association Is Honored by Society. NEW YORK (P)—Painters and sculptors have recelved the coveted medals of the Society of Arts and Sciences, but Madison Grant of New | York was the first road builder to be | %0 honored. Mr. Grant, president of the Bronx River Parkway Association, had com- | memorated his share in the bullding of | the Parkway, a_15-mile boulevard stretching _into Westchester - County | from New York. This drive is consid- ered one of the most beautiful in | America and is being widely used as a wmodel for other parkways. The Bronx project was completed in 1925 at a cost of $1.000,000 for each mile. It differs widely from the ordi- nary highway in that vast stretches-of properiy were acquired on each side of the roadway and so beautified as to make the parkway almost a rural re- treat. Severe building restrictions have prevented unsightly structures from en- | croaching on the parkway and elaborate landscaping has been employed when- | ever feasible. . | " The parkway, started by s public | spirited group of citizens, re; ts the | labor of 20 years. Long before the first concrete was poured, the association battled politicians and strenuous oppo- sition until the State Assembly ap- pointed the association as a commission to handle the project. The cost was borne by the City of New York, West- chester County and the State, Mr. Grant and 15 ates of the assoctation received a ddl from the soclety January 24 in New York, Speakers at the tcsiimonial dinner when the presentation was made were lavish in praise of the parkway-and of the men responsible for combining | beauty and utility. result of a definite plau on the part of Dodge Brothers and Walter P. Chrysler —to create a car which, by sheer force of itg extra value, would thrust itself above and beyond all competition. Oply when you see and drive the_ remarkahlé new Dodge Brothers Six and note its alluring new style, gefierous new comfort and vivid new performance, will you' realize how brilliantly this purpose has ‘been achieved. EicHT BoDY STYLES: $945 1o $1065 F.o0.B. DETROIT 'BROTHERS _SIX @’cnnysn:n MOTORS PRODUCT . SEMMES MOTOR RAPHAEL SEMMES, President Open Sunday t;lld Nights. Main 6660—Night Phone Main 1943 Ine., AL Y CO., Inc. 613G St. N.W. Mitchell Motor Co., La Plata, Md. ' Prince Georges Motor Co. Forestville, Md. E. B. Semmes, Inc., Alexandria, Vq.,