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1 -'E5SSSS IK jflL I Public . w vaaavaift IfiVUl Effective In Increasing City's Heaithfulness and Beauty?Also Pays Best Cash j- j Profits. depth of the blocks and make them of somewhat smaller size otherwise, thus gendering It possible to get a better cut block at the same expense as before and allowing the blocks to be laid IWlth a closer Joint, thus reducing abnormal wear. Wood Block Pavsments. Wood pavements have been laid at Intervals in this country for bo mo sevflply years. The first pavements were (|Ot only of untreated wood, but of wood selected without much regard for Its natural durability. The first treated wood pavement In this country was laid In Treinont street, Boston, In 1900. This pavement has been in use during this entire period, with very sninll repairs, and Is In good condition nt the present time. . The present method of laying wood pavements In this country lias not been In use long enough to determine what the cost of maintenance Is, but figures obtained from St. Ix>uls, Mlnneuitolls and other cities indicate that It Is exceedingly small. It lias been given a value as shown in the table below. Brick Pavements. The first brick i>avements in this country were laid in "Wheeling, W. Ya., In 1870, but the material did not come Into general use for some time. Many failures have occurred In brick pavements bccuuse people did not uudera' stand the difference between bricks, and It was not easy In the early days of the Industry to determine previous to Its use whether a certain brick would or would not make u good pavement Asphalt Pavements. The first sheet asphalt pavement ot any note was laid on Pennsylvania avenue, Washington, in 1870. So great was Its success that It soon came Into general use all over the country. While called asphalt puvement, It is almost entirely composed of sand, as the standard pavements have but 10 to 12 per cent of bitumen, which Is the valuable property of the asphalt, the rest being made up of sand and a small portion of stone dust. The pavement Is pleasing in appearance, smooth, not noisy and on light tralllc streets seems to be almost ideal. ? It is more slippery than the hard block pavements, and in the coast cities it Is not generally laid on grades over 11 or 4 per cent In the interior, however, where the atmosphere contains less moisture, it is often used on grades as high as 7 percent without trouble. Data collected from tho cities of Brooklyn. Boston. Buffalo, Chicago, New York. Phlhiflnlnhtn Kf T./mia ?? ,?! Washington show that these* cities in 1800 hn?l a total of 240 miles of asphalt pavement and In 1011 2,348 miles. This gives an Idea of the popularity of the pavement, although it must be taken into consideration that this was daring a period when there was great activity In laying new and smooth pavements. In Brooklyn, in 1805, there were eighteen miles of asphalt pavement, while at the present time there are 540 miles. Brooklyn Is a reslden^ tial city, without many steep grades, ^ and one to which this material is par, ttculorly adapted. v / Relative Costa. The following table shows the coat of different kinds of pavement for a period of years, assuming that granite has a life of twenty-five years, wood twenty years, brick fifteen years and asphalt eighteen years. This life, as has been intimated before, Is probably too small for Ohio brick pavements or those in small cities: Average First Expense expense cost, per yard per yard square per year, per year. Material, yard, first period, fifty years. Granite 13 50 fO.m 90.370 Asphalt 3.00 0.208 0.1*4 Wood 3.GO a308 0.274 Brisk 2.50 0.224 AIM ***< *? (r --" ? p<Ay\ "f/, > ^-v:" 4 \ . '* ''' ' ' '' ' '' " * Another advantage of smooth streets is that they fount heavily lu favor of healthfulne8s. Half the advantage or a sewerage system is lost unless there are smooth pavements properly drained Into the severs. The right kind of pavements can be laid so that there is literally no place for refuse and dirt; rain washes them clean or they can be flushed. Th?. dust and dirt of a roadway are not only Injurious to health, but they are a nuisance, especially annoying ou motor traveled highways. Advertising Value of Good Streets. Still another factor well worth taking into account Is the advertising value of well paved streets. No other Improvement makes so Immediate an Impression. The men who have been most successful in suburban real estate development say that there Is nothing llko a good pavement and sidewalks to make lots sell. These are the things that people notice first. Last spring a New York town lost the biggest Industry It ever had a chance to get because the men who went there to look Into the prospects for locating a plant found the streets a sea of mud and were so prejudiced by this condition that they went elsewhere for their plant site. These men were not going to live In the town. They were not going to j haul ever the town streets. But they were looking for a live, progressive town, and the advantages that the abandoned location really possessed were nil Ignored because of the unfavorable impression made by unpaved streets. Not reasonable, you say. Perhnps not. but these are the facts Clothes don't make the man, either, but It Is hard for a shabby looking man to get a good job. It is just as bard for a city to attract business un A STREET LIKE Tl ^^^qPAVir.c T HIS ST REE ^gg^lNCREMED PR OPE ( < 1 TWSA SO DOUBLED 1 PROPERTY THE LANCASTER NEWS > less It looks prosperous and up to date. Pavements do more to produce this effect than any other Improvement. Here Is what John Mac Vicar, exmayor of Des Molues, la., says on this subject in general, reinforcing his opinion with an illuminating instance as to the effect of u good pavement on business: Business Follows Paving. "Observing business men. particularly the retail merchant and the realty agent, have learned that business follows good pavements. This fact Is particularly noticeable since the advent of motorcars and the Important passenger traffic this menns of transportation has developed. "The truth of the above was forcibly brought to the attention of the property owners and leaseholders on Walnut street Des Moines' most Important business street a little more than a year ago. The pavement on this street because of poor railway track construction and other causes, became somewhat defective, and it was plainly seen that vehicle traffic avoided Walnut street giving preference to its most formidable rival. Locust street which had a better pavement A petition for the Immediate paving of Walnut street (at the expense of property abutting) with asphalt was promptly signed by every local property owner. Following the repaving of the street. It was noticed there was a prompt return of the traffic which naturally belonged to it. "Since this improvement was secured for Walnut street the property owners on Locust street have induced the city council to extend n modem pavement to the extreme west end of the street and to remove an antiquated and rough, though by no means wornIIS IS A DISGRACE i?.-- ^ ' .?.,. ,"5 I-. ? &+&;' r^rr c. *7 * I >"* -,,>-v: ? x&i 3 TIN A TENNESSEE CITY RTY VALUES IMMENSELY JBBI '-: ; : . v<^ Jiki&m ' y HfeWC# yyjmS . :> V"/ x JTH CAROLINA TOWN NEARLY VALUES. - !, MAY 11, 1015. ^pay^DT k fXv*,> " ??www i>... ^ M.FTER. > out. pavement, hoping thereby to re- nss gain some of the lost ground." co|] Start Right. the It was said above that communities tyi that once started to pave their streets Pai properly never went backward. This thi is strictly true, but note that word nni PHOPEItLY. Where apparent exeep- on tious to this rule are found it is also *'1C discovered that what the backsliding town tired of was not good paving, but co1 bad paving. Towns sometimes get 1,1 swindled or they try to save money on sm their streets and tiud that there was ')r' no saving, but that, on the contrary, their money has been thrown away on K Imitation asphalt or poor construction SU( or some patent paving fad pf which n nearly very year sees a new example. " The cities that have the best pave- n ' ments have been laying tho same kind with the same materials for more than P" kni a generation. They know, and when ^ their example is followed there is no risk taken and no chance that any community will regret its investment j" and f?r? hnplf Into tho mud nod duo* Property owners, those who use and pay for pavements, onght to know | something about them and, possessing ^ that knowledge, to have something to }m say about what their pavements shall gtn be. Intelligent public opinion on pub- rj 11c improvements is the greatest as- or suranee the community can have of wi good work. Of course we must have rj expert advice and assistance. But we j)e must think for ourselves, too, and be ()a able to tell experts and engineers what -< we want them to do for us. jni The places where money has been W( wasted on paving are those places where the people were too Indifferent to demand what was best for them and where, in consequence, somebody "put nu one over." Itutted brick, cracked con- Ktl crete, bulging wood block and raveling Imitation asphalt are the poorest sorts of investment. Beally good pavements * are the best kind of investment, but not to be obtained except by eternal and intelligent vigilance. Be gri Washington's Experience. .Washington, D. C., Is one of the best I paved cities in the world, as it should pre be as the capital of the United States. pe< Captain Mark Brook, engineer commls- th< sioncr of the District of Columbia, re- pai cently told the members of the Engi- is neers* club of Baltimore how Wash- of ington had achieved its results. "Wash- yes ington is a city of asphalt pavements," on! lie said. "It has in round numbers ma 4.SOO.OOO square yards of street pave 3ir meuts, of which 3,311,000 yards?150 miles?are sheet asphalt. It is safe to ' fOrQ< J r /? ' 1 fx:. THt KIHD OrPKVE.MEN /ID&NDi (tk ' ^ . i .* > i at CV- ^ iert that, cost and everything else isldered. bituuiiuous pavements of sheet asphalt or usphaltic maeadam >e are as near the ideal form of I foment as any we nave, anil I also nk that anions the eastern cities the ount of such pavement may be talcas an indication of the condition of ir streets. Washington pavements will bear uparlson with any 1 have seen, both cost and quality. Such measure of cess as we have attained has been uclpally due to the fact that our ring problems have always been enleering questions and not political ls?s; that we have very largely coned our efforts and expenditures to improvement of a single type well ipted to local conditions." ' )thers have paid for experience In 1 ring. The advantages are too well 1 own to require further proof. We, common with other progressive com- 1 initios, want good pavements. The ' estlon is not. Can we afford them? 1 is. Can we afford to do without 1 un? ! This newspaper intends to keep this 1 bjeet to the fore until it can be said it this community, at tho least, is 1 long the best paved towns in the 1 ite. Chose who may now be indifferent even opposed to this improvement < 11 soon be converted. Those who are already with us can lp by circulating the gospel of good vements on all occasions. EVatch for the special articles on pav? that will appear from week to ?ek in these columns. The transformation wrought in a : inber of cities hi Indiana by good eets has made reputations for them lich arc the envy of other communis. lood streets in Evansvillc, MLshawa , i>t?w (jostie, wauasn, Fort Wayne, I fayette, Garrett, Auburn, South ' nd, Michigan City, Peru and Lo- ; nsport, where asphalt predominates, ' n all the central west there Is no I igressive town or city the ambitious | >ple of whicli do not feel a pride in ?ir public thoroughfares, and this Is ; rtly because the measure of progress so often taken from the character streets. Permanent paving, a few irs ago thought to be practicable ly in the larger cities, is now deluded wherever there is a people de- j 1 ous of keeping up with the times. 77! BWWMMHA^ > -, t* .. wtm-rmm _ . J ' * ? <*. \-.T*rTnB',a^ , ?. _"JV - *- ? ? ? 3 | * PUTTING PAVING ON j SYSTEMATIC BASIS I Now I niiiolano I qui o MnHnl nun uuuioiuiiu UQIf 0 IT1UU0I For Other Communities. New Orleans has Just begun work under a new paring law which represents Improvement and progress toward the systematizing of city paving work. The essential features of the law are that prior to the 1st of September the city must make Its plans for all the street paving that Is to be M lone during the succeeding calendar /fl ' year. After the bids are opened they are published for a month, and the property owners are given an opportunity to petition for the typo of pavement that they desire. Thereafter certificates are sold against the assessments for the work, and the proceeds of the sale of the certificates are used to pay the contractors. The assessment proceedings are to be finished before the beginning of the work, thus financing the property owners' portion and doing away with the troublesome tax lien. The bonds sold In anticipation of the collection of the property owners' share of cost rest not only for their security on the fund created by the assessment, but are made by law an obligation of the cny ami given n specnic nen against the city's reserve funds. They may be sold as low as 93, thus facilitating their prompt disposal at times when the bond market is below normal. This amounts to making up in advance a plan for the ainouut of paving to be done and types of pavements, as well as the financing of a year's work. It is provided that bids are to be taken on a great many types of pavements, for which detailed specifications are legalized. These specifications include sheet asphalt, asphaltic ^ concrete, cement concrete, rock asphalt, mineral rubber and wood block. havo won a recognition impossible to be attained by adherence to old methods. What has been accomplished in those cities can be accomplished here. The Indiana cities are cited merely as examples. Hundreds of other cities in other states nllonl proof that where there is a will for good pavements there is a way to get them. Never Too Late or Too Early. It is never too late or too early in a city's life to begin paving. Since this scries of articles was begun a correspondent has called our attention to the fact that Urbana, O., was 100 years old before it began paving Its streets in the spring of 1914. The Urbana banker who sends this information says that the improvement has brought several new mercantile estab- " llshincnts to the city anil that next year it will lay from 40,000 to CO,000 yards of additional asphalt paving. From the mayor of another Oldo town?but a much smaller one, Wauseon, with a population of only 2,700? comes the information that tlio paving of nine Btreets with bituminous macadam last year has increased the value of property by 40 per cent and led to the determination to do more paving In 1915. "The people hero did not know what a pretty town this could be uiiui uiey got gooa streets. Now they would not give them up for twice their cost" That Is the way It goes. If every one could seo what pavements would do for Ills street there would bo no question about going ahead with the work. Look at the photographs of beautifully paved streets on this page. If you are now living on an unpaved or poorly paved roadway plcturo how much more attractive your street would be with.a smooth, clean surface. To promote health, beauty and progress let us all get together for good pavements In 1915. More Evidence Fcrthcoming. More evidenco If needed will be forthcoming to prove to those In doubt that nothing will boqm this community