PREFACE

THE historian of this country for the century which is now drawing to its close is likely to note the fact that the people of the United States bore in a singularly patient manner with the evils arising from poor carriage roads until near the end of the tenth decade, and that they then were suddenly aroused to a sense of the sore tax the ill condition of these necessary features of civilization had long inflicted upon them. Let us hope that he may be able to say that in approaching this great economic problem, they did so in a manner which showed that they were well informed as to the conditions under which they could deal with it in the light of the previous experience of men, and with the help which the resources of modern science could afford them.

There is always danger, as in any popular uprising directed against ancient and long-endured evils, that the people may, even if the matters are of a purely economic nature, act hastily under the guidance of enthusiasts and with little regard to the help which learning may give them. The result of such action is necessarily a considerable waste of capital, and in almost all cases it leads to much discouragement, and thus to the loss of the spirit which, properly guided, may bring a large accomplishment. An instance of this kind is known to those who have attentively followed the history of transportation in this country. In the early part of the nineteenth century, before the time of railways, there was a curious enthusiasm for canal-building. Guided by the profit that they had had from the admirable natural waterways of the country, the people sought to make artificial paths for boats in various directions, from one great stream to another, and from the Mississippi to the Atlantic. In their enthusiasm they undertook many enterprises which under no conditions could have proved profitable. All these ways intended for distant transportation, except the Erie Canal, became failures, with the result that, except in such local work as that which gave access to Lake Superior or afforded a passage around the falls of the Ohio, canals came to be regarded with contempt. It was left to the people of other countries to extend the use of canals and to show that, even in competition with railways, this method of carriage might have a great value.

Those who have the betterment of our American highways at heart should do all in their power to guide, direct, and even restrain the present movement toward their improvement, so that enthusiasm may be guided by a business sense, to the end that we may attain a system of ways properly related to the needs of the country. It is with this view that the writer has undertaken to prepare the following chapters on problems afforded by American roads. They are not intended to constitute a complete treatise on road-making. A work of that nature must be framed on different lines from this; it must be addressed to professional engineers. Works of this sort already abound. Many of them are excellent. None of them, however, so far as is known to the writer, are fitted to serve as guides for those who wish to understand the general aspects of the highway problem, or who would learn what kind of road may be contrived to meet the needs of the varied surroundings, natural and artificial, in which our people find themselves.1 They tell in an excellently detailed way how high-grade roads should be built and repaired, but in most cases their proposed constructions are exceedingly costly, even where the materials of which they are to be made are readily accessible. In great areas of country such as are found in the Mississippi valley, where for scores if not hundreds of miles in any direction one may seek in vain for rocks fit to be used as broken stone in forming Macadam roads, these admirable works serve only to dishearten those who would better their ways.

Those who would help the cause of better roads in this country should approach the problem in a large way. They should, in the first place, obtain a general acquaintance as to the influence which roads, as a means of intercourse, exert on the advance of civilization. Next, they should understand the history of the development of such roads, a history which is curiously linked with that of civilization, and is therefore full of interest quite apart from its economic application. It is important also that all who wish to promote the cause should gain a clear sense as to the relation of roads to the topographic, geological, and climatal conditions of the country. Because of the neglect of these features there is great danger that the effort to import the methods and apply the experience of foreign countries, or even of districts in this laud, to any particular field will lead to grave blunders. In a word, the student, if he would be helpful to himself and others in this matter, must be prepared to consider any road as an extremely local problem, in dealing with which continual reference must be had to all the physical conditions of the ground it traverses, as well as to the probable future of the population in the area which it is to serve. It is because the existing treatises neglect these important considerations that this book has been prepared.