Highways and Highway TransportationChatburn, George R.
History
Highways and Highway Transportation
Chatburn, George R.
Roads; Transportation
Here the results of robbery may lead to interesting possibilities. For
instance if the trucks above mentioned as robbed in New Jersey were
owned by the shipper the $120,000 is a dead loss to him unless he had
insurance. Even if the trucks were owned by a small capitalist he would
probably not be able to recompense the shipper. Had it been lost on a
railway it would have been paid for. If motor shipping is to continue
shipments must be covered by bonds or insurance. Even then there is
a loss to the public when outlaws seize a loaded truck and drive it
into wilds whence its contents can be disposed of at leisure. Shall
truckers, like the ancient caravans of the deserts maintain guards with
long guns to fight off marauding Bedouins? The western stages of some
years ago furnished employment as guards to the quickest shots in the
world. Is it the duty of the community to make its highways safe for
transportation or must the shipper take the risk and employ guards and
machine guns?
=Vandalism.=--Complaints are made that those who drive or walk to the
country are often guilty of vandalism and disregard for the rights of
property. Note this editorial utterance in the _Saturday Evening Post_
of June 17, 1922:[172]
On Sunday one dare not leave one’s farm or country place unwatched or
unprotected for a moment. The whole countryside is aswarm with Nature
lovers from the near by city. First come the makers of forbidden
beverages, trooping across fields and lawns, picking the once
despised dandelion and anything else that happens to be loose; then
the happy motorists in long procession, embowering their cars in the
spoil of orchards, woodlands, and wayside shrubberies. If there are
no flowers near the road these free-and-easy visitors will penetrate
one’s garden and break off the blooming branches of the rhododendrons
or lilacs or whatever other bush happens to engage their fancy.
With trowel and spade the woods are looted and sometimes, if it
looks safe, an unwatched garden. Following come shy maidens, in
twos and threes, daintily pulling up the woodland flowers by the
roots--arbutus, azalea, and a hundred little blossoms that wilt in
the hand that picks them; and everywhere are bands of half-grown
hoodlums helping in the spoiling of the countryside.
The bolder spirits are usually those who come in motors. They can
destroy more, steal more, and get away faster than the man on foot.
They meet remonstrance with effrontery and resent the notion that
a hick has any rights of property and privacy that they are bound
to respect. The flowers, the shrubs, the orchards, and occasionally
the unguarded gardens are their prey. They camp beside the woodland
brook or the shaded spring, hack the trees, trample the flowers, and
turn the spot into a garbage hole with their greasy papers, tin cans,
bottles and refuse food. Then up and away to the snug flat in the big
town, throwing out the wilted flowers as they go.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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