mUVBRSITYOF 
 
 ILLINOIS UBRARY 
 
 AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN 
 
 CPLA
 
 64th Congress [ 
 1st Stssion \ 
 
 SENATE 
 
 DOCUMENI 
 
 No. 350 . 
 
 NATIONAL SYSTEM OF HIGHWAYS AND 
 LANDSCAPE DESIGNING 
 
 ADDRESS 
 
 DELIVERED 
 
 BEFORE THE AMERICAN CIVIC ASSOCIATION 
 T^ AT WASHINGTON, D. C, ON 
 
 \^<i , 
 
 DECEMBER 31, 1915 
 
 ^^17 
 
 BY 
 
 CYRUS KEHR 
 
 VS-' '•! ( 
 
 A»^: 
 
 PRESENTED BY MR. SHIELDS 
 
 January 13, 1916. — Referred to the Committee on Printing 
 
 WASHINGTON 
 
 GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFRCE 
 
 1916
 
 REPORTED BY MR. FLETCHER. 
 
 In the Senate or the United States, 
 
 March 9, 1916. 
 Fesolved, That the manuscript submitted by the Senator from 
 Tennessee (Mr. Shields) on January 13. 1916, entitled "A National 
 System of Highways and Landscape Designing," being an address 
 delivered before the American Civic Association, at Washington. 
 D. C, on December 31, 1915, by Cyrus Kehr, of Knoxville, Tenn., 
 be printed as a Senate document. 
 
 Attest : 
 
 James M. Baker, Secretary. 
 
 2
 
 z 
 
 ^■ 
 
 NATIONAL SYSTEM OF HIGHWAYS AND LANDSCAPE DESIGNING. 
 
 Delivered before American Civic Association at Washine:ton, D. C, December 31, 1915, by 
 Cyrus Kehr, of Knoxville, Tenn. 
 
 The purpose of this address is to present a new factor in hmd- 
 scape designing, a factor which should receive attention prior to 
 and as a basis for both " city pLanning " and " country planning." 
 
 With respect to utility, this factor is of prime and extreme im- 
 portance for both national, civil, and military use. 
 
 As the reach of this new factor is nation wide, it may be said that 
 the address relates to " nation planning." 
 
 A city plan can not be made complete without the previous de- 
 signing of a group of main or trunk-line highways leading from 
 surounding cities to the city being treated. 
 
 The factor of communication in a city plan must be related with 
 communication between that city and other cities and towns or 
 major centers of communication so geographically located as to make 
 reciprocal communication from one to the other desirable or im- 
 perative. 
 
 In rural planning communication is also a prime factor, and must 
 be treated simultaneously with other important factors and devel- 
 oped in relation with main lines of communication leading to dis- 
 tant places. 
 
 The national system of highways which is to be discussed is to 
 provide communication between such major centers. Such system 
 is to comprise the laiger or dominating highways throughout the 
 Nation. If ideal methods are to be pursued, the location and de- 
 signing of all other highways must be subordinated to the highways 
 of this national system, and the latter must be located and designed 
 before other highways can be located and designed. 
 
 INCREASE IN RANGE OF COMMUNICATION. 
 
 The recent development of self-propelled vehicles adapted to 
 travel faster than is possible with animal-drawn vehicles has made 
 an increased demand for communication which is not relatively 
 local but wdiich connects towns and cities and other communication 
 centers separated from each other 100 or 200 or more miles. In 
 other words, it may be said that heretofore units of highway com- 
 munication did not exceed courses extending from a county seat or 
 other center in one county to a similar center in an adjoining 
 county, Avhile now such units of communication extend from a 
 principal center in one State to another principal center in a distant 
 part of the same State or in an adjoining State. In lieu of what 
 may be termed State communication, there is now a demand for 
 , ^ national communication. Effort should be made to so work out 
 
 ^ 12405—16 3
 
 4 NATIONAL SYSTEM OF HIGHWAYS AND LANDSCAPE DESIGNING. 
 
 this problem of national communication as to afford the most direct 
 and convenient communication between neighboring major centers. 
 
 P'rom the foregoing it becomes apparent that in civic improve- 
 ment we must make room for a new branch of landscape designing, 
 such branch comprising the location and designing of a national 
 or Nation-wide system of highways affording such convenient and 
 direct communication between all major centers throughout the 
 Nation. 
 
 In this national system every highway extending from one major 
 center to another should be regarded as complete in itself and as 
 constituting a main or trunk line highway unit ; and every such 
 unit should bear its own distinctjve name and be otherwise treated 
 independently of other units. The name of every unit may be com- 
 posed of the names of its two major centers, as, for example, Co- 
 lumbus-Indianapolis Highway may designate the unit connecting 
 Columbus, Ohio, and Indianapolis, Ind. 
 
 The forming of this national plan will be, in a geographical 
 sense, a large undertaking. But the principles involved do not differ 
 essentially from the principles which must be recognized in working 
 out a city or county or district plan. 
 
 HIGHWAY UNITS SERVE THROUGH AND LOCAL TRAFFIC. 
 
 At the outset, this one fact must be recognized, namely, that these 
 trunk-line highway units will constitute lines of through communi- 
 cation between the centers which they connect and will also perform 
 a very imjDortant part in local communication. In many local areas, 
 these trunk-line highAvays, if they are proj^erly located and designed 
 and suitably connected with subordinate highways, will carry one- 
 half, and in other localities as much as eight-tenths of the local 
 traffic. The latter would usually be the case with portions of the 
 trunk-line units which approach and enter their centers. At some 
 such centers a half dozen units will enter, and for some distance out 
 from the center they will lie near enough to each other to receive 
 all local traffic to and from the center, either directly or after going 
 short distances over auxiliary highways. 
 
 It is probable that at least three- fourths of all the highway traffic 
 in the United States, outside of cities, can be put upon such a 
 national system of highway units, while the remaining one-fourth of 
 such traffic is scattered over a considerable mileage of auxiliary 
 roads. The fact that these trunk-line units will carry large volumes 
 of traffic makes it not only permissible but imperative to Avork out 
 for every such unit the best possible location and grades and to put 
 into it ample and substantial construction. 
 
 LOCATING MAJOR CENTERS, 
 
 The first step toward making this Nation plan must be to deter- 
 mine the major centers or focal points Avhich are to be connected 
 by means of trunk-line highway units. These centers must be 
 selected Avith reference to present and prospective population and 
 commerce and industrial development. JNIilitary considerations 
 should also be taken into account, Avith a vieAv to producing routes 
 and centers for easy militaiT movement and concentration. When 
 choice for a center must be made betAveen tAvo places, preference 
 should be given to the place Avhich Avill best sei-A'e to group units.
 
 NATIONAL SYSTEM OF HIGHWAYS \ND LANDSCAPE DESIGNING. 5 
 
 DESIGNING TRUNK-LINE UNITS. 
 
 Each tnmk-line unit must be so located and designed as to im- 
 part to it the greatest degree of continuity and directness. It is not 
 meant by this that such'unit must run in straight lines. Straight 
 lines are frequently undesirable and positively objectionable. What 
 is meant is that the course should be free from oifsets and sharp 
 angles and such short curves as will destroy the mental impression 
 of continuity and as will make it difficult for the traveler to tell 
 whether he is keeping the proper course at points where branch 
 roads join the trunk line. The trunk-line unit should be so located 
 and treated as to make it substantially unnecessary for the traveler 
 to consult guide books or people while traversing the route. This 
 might be accomplished in part by using a right of way and a roadbed 
 wider than is given to other roads. 
 
 But while, as above stated, straight lines are frequently undesirable 
 and positively objectionable, there should, nevertheless, be no varia- 
 tion from a straight line unless reason therefor will be apparent to 
 the traveler. Wherever a straight course would preclude low grades 
 or necessitate inexcusable cuts or fills there is ample reason for mak- 
 ing curves; but such curves should be on as long radii as possible. 
 A short curve should be used only when it is clearly impractical to 
 use a long one. In such case the reason for the short curve is usually 
 apparent to the traveler. Only obtuse angles are permissible, and 
 an}^ angle approaching or exceeding a right angle and any offset 
 should be regarded as out of the question; and wherever possible a 
 curve should be used instead of even an obtuse angle. 
 
 As an example of continuity, reference is made to the old National 
 Highway constructed from east to west across the State of Ohio, the 
 location having been made during the years 1825 and 1826. The act 
 called for a straight line 80 feet wide, and this survey was so early 
 in point of time that villages and towns afterwards grew along the 
 highway, the latter forming a principal and direct street. This con- 
 tinuity or directness remains, although the highway went through 
 periods of neglect and finally passed into the jurisdiction of the 
 State. But if a traveler makes a tour eastward or westward across 
 the northern portion of that State he finds a total absence of con- 
 tinuity of the course. The entire route is composed of local roads 
 differing in character and joined to each other by angles and offsets, 
 so that the traveler must constantly make inquiry to keep to the 
 course. 
 
 Clearly, such a course is comj^osed of a large number of highway 
 fragments and can not be called a highway. 
 
 When the trunk line has been located by observing the limitations 
 mentioned, an important condition will have been met, namely, giv- 
 ing to tlie traveler going over the unit from one of its centers the 
 mental impression that he is not required to traverse unnecessary 
 distance. 
 
 LOW GRADES. 
 
 Another factor in cverv trunk-line unit should be what are now 
 regarded as low grades. The maximum grade should be 2^ per cent. 
 Under the present stage of highway practice in this country that 
 will appear to be a low maximum." It will be so by contra.st, for
 
 6 NATIONAL SYSTEM OF HIGHWAYS AND LANDSCAPE DESIGNING. 
 
 there are still many highway builders who regard 5 and 6 per cent 
 as ordinary grades, and 7, 8, 9, and 10 per cent as permissible. But 
 2| per cent is, in fact, not a low grade. In railroad work 2^ per cent 
 is now excessive and impossible for trunk lines. It is only per- 
 missible in branches. In the earlier days of railroading, grades of 
 2, 3, and 4 per cent were thought permissible on trunlv lines. But 
 now it is considered almost imperative to keep within 1 per cent and 
 very desirable to keep within one-half of 1 per cent. Of course. 
 it is phj^sically possible to operate trains over steeper grades, but the 
 managements of railways endeavor to operate on business lines, and 
 they have found that steep grades make operation expensive. There 
 is economy in operating trains over low grades. This is a matter 
 of dollars and cents, or, we may say, hundreds of thousands and 
 millions of dollars. It is economy to have one crew and its one 
 engine haul the largest possible tonnage in a train, or to make the 
 steam from a ton of coal haul the largest possible number of tons. 
 There are railroads upon which freight trains are made up to be 
 hauled by one engine on grades ranging as high as 1 per cent and 
 helping engines are needed to go over places having an addition of 
 only one-fourth of 1 per cent to the grade. Railroad companies have 
 learned that there is economy in expending hundreds of thousands 
 and even millions of dollars to make what might popularly be 
 regarded as an unimportant ^rade reduction. 
 
 It remains for highway designers and builders and users to learn 
 what railroad men have learned in this respect. The cost of hauling 
 a ten of freight on a highway is an economic matter just as much as 
 it is to haul a ton of freight on a railroad. Freight and passengers 
 should be moved on highways at the lowest possible cost. Generally 
 speaking, a load which a team can haul on a level road must be di- 
 vided for hauling up a 5 per cent grade. There is also economy in 
 low grades for the movement of an empty vehicle. If a loaded 
 vehicle goes one way over a low grade road, it can return emptv in 
 much less time than would be required if the road had steep grades. 
 
 PENALTY OR TOLL FOR STEEP GRADES. 
 
 The cost of maintaining and operating an animal-drawn or a 
 motor-driven vehicle for hauling freight on highways or streets aver- 
 ages as high as $3 per day. Steep grades may easily reduce the 
 total efficiency of such a vehicle by one-half, counting the amount 
 hauled per load, speed with and without the load, and durability of 
 the equipment. Assuming that on a given trunk-line highway unit 
 5.000 vehicles operate per day and that their efficiency is thus re- 
 duced only one-third (instead of one-half), the total toll or penalty 
 paid each day for the grades is $5,000. and for 300 w^orking davs of 
 the year $1,500,000. which equals interest at 5 per cent on $30^.000,000. 
 This for only 1 unit. 
 
 Economy not only justifies but demands the low grades. 
 
 Notwithstanding all these facts, there are intelligent men who 
 argue that grades ranging as high as 5 per cent and even more are 
 not only permissible but desirable for travel or hauling by both 
 classes of vehicles. Yet those men must admit that while ascending 
 such grades the engines of automobiles and auto trucks consume 
 excessive quantities of fuel and become heated, and we must assume
 
 NATIONAL SYSTEM OF HlUllWAVS AND LANDSCAPE DESIGNING. T 
 
 that if horses and mules could speak they would express a prefer- 
 ence for a level course skirting along a hillside rather than for a 
 course going over the hill. Furthermore, going down a steep grade 
 with any vehicle is costly. 
 
 It is generally thought to be out of the question to provide low- 
 grade highways in hilly or mountainous regions. But the contrary- 
 is the case. A study of this question reveals the fact that in such 
 regions many of the steep roads are made so by obstinately locating 
 them up one side of a hill and down the other side, or up one end of 
 a ridge and along the backbone and then down the other end, wdien». 
 m each case, a level or nearly level hillside or valley course is at 
 hand. In some cases these level or low-grade courses are readily 
 apparent, but in other cases they can be found only by careful study 
 by persons having suitable ability, a peculiar creative skill resern- 
 biing the skill of the sculptor. Men of similar ability specialize in 
 railwa}^ location, some having the pioneer instinct* to such extent as 
 to regard construction distasteful drudgery. 
 
 Many mountain places thought to be hopelessly isolated may be 
 connected with the outside world by level or low-grade highw^ays, 
 and mountain ranges may be crossed in this way at places where it 
 has been supposed that they can be traversed only at distant gaps or 
 passes. The writer has traced a route for a trunk-line highway 
 across the Cumberland Mountains, all of which may be constructed 
 within 2 per cent grade, while it had been supposed that the best 
 passage feasible across those mountains must be by a highway many 
 miles distant and having grades ranging from 5 to 10 per cent. 
 
 Among hills and mountains it is easier to provide low grades for 
 a highway than for a railway, for the highway permits more and 
 shorter curves. 
 
 CHOOSING COURSE WITH REFERENCE TO AUXILIARY HIGHWAYS. 
 
 When along any portion of the trunk-line unit there is oppor- 
 tunity to choose between two courses, preference should be given to 
 the course to which local lines of communication may best be con- 
 nected if there is difference in this respect. 
 
 ADOPTING LOCAL HIGHWAYS. 
 
 When we approach the task of connecting centers with a trunk- 
 line highway unit, we shall at once be met with the suggestion and 
 temptation to adopt and use such local highways as we find between 
 said two centers. But there is grave danger in such suggestion and 
 temptation. When such local roads have excessive grades and are- 
 on courses not adapted to the trunk-line unit, such local roads should 
 be ignored. Reference might be made to such a unit having a length 
 of more than 100 miles and 80 or 90 per cent of new location. But 
 nearly all the old roads adjacent that trunk line will still be re- 
 quired for local traffic, so that there need be only small loss in this 
 respect. 
 
 YIELDING TO LOCAL INTERESTS, 
 
 In determining the location of a trunk-line unit, local interests 
 should be given consideration in only a subordinate way. Pri- 
 marily, the route should be regarded as a means for relatively long-
 
 8 NATIONAL SYSTEM OF HIGHWAYS AND LANDSCAPE DESIGNING. 
 
 distance travel. Requests and petitions from individuals and dele- 
 gations that the route be diverted here and there to adapt it to 
 private interests should be ignored. 
 
 DIVERTING COURSE TO REACH HISTORIC PLACES. 
 
 On account of sentiment there is strong temptation to locate high- 
 ways to reach historic places. But these trunk-line highway units 
 should not be diverted for such purpose at a sacrifice of grades and 
 directness. Usually such places should be reached by branch lines. 
 
 COMBINING BEAUTY WITH UTILITY. 
 
 While in the location of such a trunk-line unit utility must 
 control and easv hauling for freight and easy going for the trav- 
 eler must be given first consideration, yet everything consistent 
 with utility should be done to make the course attractive, pleasing, 
 and inspiring to all who traverse the road. This should be recog- 
 nized Avhile working out location, and after the location has been 
 completed construction and future treatment should be prosecuted 
 with the same purpose in view\ 
 
 In connection with location there is here an opportunity for land- 
 scape designing on a large scale. All the way along the course it 
 should be sought to present unexpected and emphatic changes in 
 landscape views. It should be sought to present the largest number 
 of the best possible landscape pictures, so that traversing the road 
 will, in this respect, be superior to visiting an art gallery. Some 
 of these pictures should be at short range, while others cover ample 
 distances, and in others there should be an emphasis of height or 
 df>pth. 
 
 In many places proper grade and distance can be had by adopting 
 either of two locations, one presenting ordinary scenery and the 
 other some splendid picture. The latter should be chosen. 
 
 As is the case with streets in city planning, so, in locating such 
 a trunk-line high^vay unit, it should be sought to bring different 
 stages of the road into alignment Avith objectives. These may be a hill 
 or a mountain, a building or a group of buildings, a tree or a group 
 of trees, or a gap between hills or mountains. 
 
 In nearly all portions of the United States nature has lavishly 
 provided material for this kind of designing. If this opportunity 
 is properly appreciated, splendid results constituting immense assets 
 for our country will follow. Failure in this respect will involve an 
 enormous aggregate loss. 
 
 Both for utility and dignity, the right of way of the highway 
 unit should be at least 100 feet Avide. in order that at present and m 
 the future there mav be room for a roadway of ample width for easy 
 travel in both directions and in order that cuts and fills may be 
 freely treated without interfering Avith adjacent private lands and 
 in order that there may be spaces at the sides of the roadway to be 
 occupied by trees, shrubs, vines, and grass. Wherever there are 
 spaces suitable for this purpose, trees, shrubs and vines already on 
 the right of way should be protected, and there should be addi- 
 tional'^planting. care being exercised to select species best suited to
 
 NATIONAL SYSTEM OF HIGHWAYS AND LANDSCAPE DESIGNING. 9 
 
 utility and art. In this way these highway units may be made 
 practical lessons in forestry conservation and in beautification. This 
 feature may be augmented by adding to the right of way small 
 pieces or fragments of land which have special beauty on accoimt of 
 topography, water, and plant growth. Along the courses of these 
 highways there may be many such fragments of land having a 
 small stream, spring, or rocks, cliffs, trees, shrubs, and vines, consti- 
 tuting a case in Avhich natural beauty is the predominating feature, 
 and utility in the ordinary sense is nearly or altogether lacking. On 
 account of such quality these places may be made very desirable ad- 
 juncts to such highways. 
 
 CONDUITS FOR ELECTRIC WIRES. 
 
 Conduits for electric Avires placed in every highway unit will 
 form a national system of such conduits, providing for a national 
 system of underground telegraph and telephone wires, the highways 
 being without poles excepting for lighting. 
 
 RESTING AND CAMPING PLACES. 
 
 As further adjuncts to these highways there must be places for 
 resting and camping — places on which tourists may procure water 
 and rest for a half hour or an hour or camp for a night or longer. 
 The ordinary highway affords no such places. Usually the traveler 
 may now stop and rest or camp only by encroaching or trespassing 
 upon private lands. There are already regions where few such pri- 
 vate places can be found, and owners will gradually exclude the 
 public from their lands. Before lands become more valuable and 
 before places suited to this purpose are denuded of trees and other- 
 wise spoiled for this purpose, such places should, as far as possible, 
 be acquired for the public. These places should be for the use of 
 those who travel for pleasure or business and for those who haul 
 farm products, merchandise, or other freight. 
 
 In some instances these rest or camp places may be added at one 
 side or the other of the 100-foot right of way, and in other instances 
 they may be put into the middle of the right of way, the roadway 
 being divided and extended along both sides of the rest or camp 
 place and the right of Avay being correspondingly widened. 
 
 Recently in the city of Ashland, Oreg., in a public park, camp 
 lots were marked by suitable boundaries and the free use of these, 
 including water and lights, granted to automobile tourists bringing 
 their own tents. 
 
 LOCATING AND PLANNING AUXILIARY HIGHWAYS. 
 
 When any trunk-line unit has been located and designed, the plan 
 therefor may be made the basis for locating and planning auxiliary 
 highways leading to and properly connecting with tlie trunk-line 
 unit and connecting minor centers in the same manner as tiie trunk- 
 line unit connects major centers. In the designing and ])lanning 
 of these auxiliary highways, substantially the same principles should 
 be followed as controlled in the location and designing of the trunk- 
 line unit. Then still less important local higliAvaiys may be planned
 
 10 NATIONAL SYSTEM OF HIGHWAYS AND LANDSCAPE DESIGNING. 
 
 and connected with the trunk-line unit or the near-by auxiliary high- 
 ways. In this manner the planning may be developed until the least 
 important local roads are reached. At each stage of this development 
 new opportunity is given for features of landscape designing in 
 both direct and "indirect association with the highways. And it will 
 now be seen that all through this development the treatment of cer- 
 tain features of designing must await the treatment of some other 
 feature; that practically all features which are not highways or 
 directly associated with highways should await the location and de- 
 signing of the highways and that the designing of the highways 
 should be progressive, beginning with the trunk-line units. As soon 
 as the trunk-line units in any given section of the country have been 
 designed the designing of auxiliary and other roads in that section 
 may be undertaken without waiting for the designing of all the 
 trunk-line units throughout the United States; and even the con- 
 struction of the auxiliary and local highways may be undertaken 
 and completed before the plan for near-by trunk-line units has 
 been executed. 
 
 SYSTEM or UNITS AFFORDS NATIONAL COMMUNICATION. 
 
 When all these trunk-line units have been planned and built 
 throughout the United States, the people of practically every con- 
 gressional district in the Nation will have easy highway communi- 
 cation with practically all other portions of the United States; and 
 any person desiring to make a long journey by highway can do so 
 over an ideal highway either from his own door or after traveling 
 only a short distance over an auxiliary highway, and practically 
 every locality in the entire United States will have the benefit of 
 travel from all other portions of the United States. 
 
 While, as already stated, every unit of the national system will 
 bear its own name, consisting, preferably, of the names of the two 
 major centers connected by said unit, any group of units arranged in 
 series may be designated as a " route " connecting the major centers 
 located at opposite ends of said group. For example, " Washington- 
 Atlanta Route " may designate, collectivelj^, the connecting trunk- 
 line highway units forming the most direct course between AVashing- 
 ton, D. C, and Atlanta. 
 
 LONG-DISTANCE SINGLE HIGHAVAYS UNDESIRABLE. 
 
 Only such a national system composed of highway units will 
 serve and be fair to all portions of the country, and such a system 
 will render long-distance single-highway projects unnecessary. Such 
 single projects are nonaltruistic, in that they aim to procure ad- 
 vantages to certain localities to the exclusion of other localities, and 
 they are disappointing because the launching of every such project 
 is followed by other similar projects leading through disappointed 
 localities, or the single highway project is made to evolve or expand 
 ipto a project for a system composed of units resembling those here 
 suggested, in order to satisfy and obtain the cooperation of more 
 people. Nearly every long-distance project has been thus expanded 
 or amplified, and in some cases portions of these projects overlap two,
 
 NATIONAL SYSTEM OF HIGHWAYS AND LANDSCAPE DESIGNING. 11 
 
 three, and four times. Thus exclusiveness, individuality, and identity 
 of these projects are lost. 
 
 Nearly every such project has had its origin with some interested 
 town, city, person, or business interest, and many have been the un- 
 seemly scrambles and contests for the location of such portions of 
 such projects as were not fixed by the originators. Large numbers 
 of people have traveled long distances and participated in prolonged 
 and intense meetings with a view to winning what they deemed an 
 important prize. 
 
 There is decided mutuality in this matter. It is to the interest 
 of the people in any locality to have good communication provided 
 for every other locality in the Nation. It is to the advantage of the 
 people of every locality to have means of communication with every 
 other locality in the Nation — for easy travel to every locality in the 
 Nation and from every locality in the Nation. _ In this case the ad- 
 vantageous availing kind of selfishness is altruism. 
 
 If the development of highways extending throughout the Nation 
 is left to local, disconnected, and interested initiative, the various 
 projects will eventually, in a crude and wasteful way, approach a 
 national system of highways resembling the system which I have 
 suggested, just as a city which has grown from year to year through 
 individual, interested, and disconnected initiative, in a general and 
 crude way, approaches what that city should be. A city can be 
 most economically planned while it is still in a formative state. 
 Our Nation can be most economically and most successfully planned, 
 if the task is undertaken and vigorously prosecuted before local 
 and unrelated efforts proceed further. 
 
 INTEREST or GOVERNMENT IN NATIONAL HIGHWAY SYSTEM. 
 
 Our National Government has a large interest in this matter of 
 creating a national system of highways. On account of the post 
 service, interstate commerce, irrigation projects, forest reserves, and 
 national parks the interest of the Federal Government will be served 
 by such a system of highways. Furthermore, no national military 
 system can be complete without such a highway system. No pro- 
 gram of " preparedness " for national defense will be complete un- 
 less it comprises a system of trunk-line highways adapted to rapid 
 and easy movement and concentration of armies, army equipments, 
 and supplies. The highway system which I have suggested can be 
 adapted to meet military as" well as civil requirements. In the 
 execution of the plan for such a system, preference should be given 
 to such units as will most probably be needed in military emergency. 
 Recently it has been proposed to provide heavy, mobile coast-defense 
 artillery adapted to be taken from place to place along the coasts. 
 If that is to be done trunk-line highway units should be adapted 
 as far as may be to that purpose and their construction begun. In 
 other portions of the country other military considerations will 
 probably call for the location and early construction of other such 
 units. 
 
 No more important national public work for civil use can be 
 undertaken. There can be no more important factor in " military 
 preparedness." If this is made part of our national military pro-
 
 12 NATIONAL SYSTEM OF HIGHWAYS AND LANDSCAPE DESIGNING. 
 
 gram, there will be no loss even if war does not come. Xot so with 
 
 battk'sliii)s. ^ , -, ^ • o 
 
 And is not this an amply larpre task for landscape desiG^nms:? 
 Since, even in its civil relations, this national system of hi^rhways 
 will be national in character and importance, it should be regarded 
 as a system of national highways and constructed and maintained 
 
 as such by the National Government. 
 
 » 
 
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 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS-URBANA 
 
 3 0112 002290507