Highways and Commerce.
Page 24
Page 25
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
By H. Howard Humphreys, M.Inst.Mech.E., A.M.Inst.C.E.
(Specially written for "The Commercial Motor.") Teeming with historical interest, varying only in degree, the records of the development of the highways of the country bring before us vivid and almost living pictures of national progress from the time when the invention of the bronze axe wrought so singular and beneficial a change in the aims and aspirations of the human race, a change which led our ancestors speedily to evolve from mere bloodthirsty savages, having the family as the unit of interest, to traders and agriculturalists with primitive commercial laws and instincts. With the bronze axe, clearances of the virgin forest became possible, and the real birth of agriculture naturally took place. The establishment of focus points where men could meet and exchange their surplus produce created the first necessity for roads : thus rough bush tracks were formed, along which transport was possible, and primeval roads were made consisting only of cleared paths and bridle ways, but having no surfacing other than that provided by nature, The difficulties due to soft and marshy places were doubtless the cause of the first crude attempts at readmaking, tree-trunks and bushes were used, and a " corduroy " covering laid down. As markets increased in numbar and importance, the foundrous state of even the harder parts of the tracks made it needful for joint action to be taken as to repairs. In the middle ages there are numerous private requests recorded in the " Rolls of Parliament " for the right to levy taxes on merchandise passing over the various highways. These requests were sometimes met with curt refusal by the Crown—as, for instance, when Walter Godelak, of Wallingford, sought this power from Edward I. (1289), and received the reply, " The King will do nothing herein."
Nomadic habits of the Courts, induced by the stern necessity for economy, brought home in some measure the need for repairs of ways leading generally from London to the homes of the more affluent barons, and the right to levy taxes on vehicles was farmed out to Kings' wives, favourites, and others, who promptly (and naturally) abused the trust reposed in them. District roads appear to have been more or less looked after by the clergy, partly on account of general responsibility as owners of lands, and partly because the wayfarer then, as sometimes now, was a person who was considered to be a sufferer in a greater or less degree, and thus entitled to the sympathetic and, what is even more to the point, the practical help of the Church. There are, however, many cases on record where the Church got rid of this unpleasant moral responsibility by granting "dispensations " to small corporations or guilds of " grievous sinners" on condition that the latter would mend their own and others' " wikked wayes." Forgiveness of past errors and perpetual prayers for future welfare were promised by .the holy men in exchange, and although, at the present time, the contract would appear to have been one-sided, there were many whose uneasy consciences caused them to enter into the bargain, though the weight of their sins certainly decreased at a pace out of all proportion to the work they accomplished by way of expiation.
The early history of English roads would be incomplete if passing reference were not made to the magnificent highways constructed by the Roman invaders, but the main object of these roads was not the development of the know. ledge and resources of the country. It was to afford an easy means for the suppression of the untamed Saxons and Celts ; the fact that the roads did actually hasten progress was regarded as a more or less fortunate accident. Through the middle ages, and, indeed, until the close of the eighteenth century, chaos reigned in road administration, but owing to the supersession of the pack-horse and litter as means of transport, and the increasing tendency of commercial men to travel together with the growth of trade consequent upon the introduction of machinery, it became needful to provide proper routes for heavy wagons and coaches. The early part of the nineteenth century saw great progress in the science of roadmaking. Macadam and his rival, Tel.
ford, led the way, and were assisted by a race of road engineers who did work of incalculable value. The difficulty these men had to face was not so much that of increased cost of maintenance, but the fact that entirely new roads had generally to be constructed. How they dealt with their task is well known, and the people of the country were at that date farsighted enough to see that road traction' was necessary as a supplement to, and in many cases a competitor of, canals. It must be remembered that steam, though in its infancy, had clearly demonstrated its potentialities; the effectual incarceration of Napoleon gave commerce a chance to develop, and England rapidly became the manufacturing centre of Europe. In studying the history of English roads, wherever recorded, the inevitable conclusion is come to that, excepting the time of the Roman invasion and for a short pm riod in the nineteenth century, little has been done to cater for the future ; there has been no coherent, general and sustained effort to bottom and improve highways other than county main roads ; it is notorious that in many cases enough has not been done even to provide for the present requirements of traffic. The reason is not far to seek. In the early times the conditions of society did not demand much in the way of roads, and haphazard methods of repair obtained, but, comparatively latterly, the railway era in the forties led people in this country to turn their attention away from road and canal transport. As a consequence, many of the lessons taught by Macadam and Telford have been forgotten, or are at best but dimly remembered. It is true that considerable improvements have been made in the main roads since the Local Government Act of 1888 came into force, but the same cannot be said generally with regard to district roads, of which there is, of course, a far greater mileage. The defects which occur under a system of "local option " in road upkeep were brought out clearly by the Report of the Departmental Committee on Highway Authorities and Administration last year, it being shown that :—" There has been no uniformity of method in the different counties. In some counties nearly every road of any importance has been declared to be a main road ; in others, the county councils have adopted a policy of steady opposition to maining coupled with a more or less liberal use of their powers to contribute to secondary roads. We do not think that the Act contemplated either the general maining' adopted by the former class of counties, or the general refusal to main' of the latter class. It has been explained to us that the refusal to main ' is largely due to the fact that, upon a road becoming a main road, the responsibility for the bridges and culverts which carry it is transferred from the district to the county. This does not appear to us to be sufficient reason for refusing to take over as main roads routes of communication obviously of much more than local importance. There is, however, at present no appeal from the decision of a county council in this matter. We think that a right of appeal to the Local Government Board should be given to a district council in cases of refusal 'to main,' but that such appeals would not be frequent if the power to decide in the first instance were given to authorities representative both of county councils and urban district councils."
Again, there arc considerable differences of opinion as to the best administrative method of dealing with the actual maintenance of county roads; such differences inevitably result in lack of efficiency. Under the 1888 Local Government Act, it -was possible for urban authorities to claim (within 12 months) the right of maintaining such sections of a county main road as passed through their districts, the county council refunding the proved annual cost of maintenance. Rural authorities often maintain main roads by agreement or contract with county councils, and it some. times happens that there are no less than five classes of authorities engaged in the maintenance of the great arteries of traffic within a comparatively small area. These are
county, borough, town, urban, and rural councils. It is true that a general supervision is exercised on main roads by the counties, but it is a matter of almost infinite difficulty to obtain anything like uniformity of strength under such varied conditions of administration, and it must be remembered that the measure of the traffic-carrying capacity of a road is only the strength of its weakest part. The Departmental Committee on Highways differentiated between ordinary county main roads and those which are obviously " National " in importance; the efficient maintenance of the latter they considered to be a matter of the greatest moment, looking not only to present commercial interests, but to possible military developments, involving the transport of guns of position in addition to concentrated artillery and troop movements. Further complication in highway matters is caused by the bridge question, which must be considered as an integral part of our road system ; but to the five classes of councils which are engaged in road upkeep there must be added, in the case of bridges, lords of the manor, who sometimes maintain these structures ratione tenurce, and private owners, as railway and canal companies, which usually exhibit a dogged determination to do nothing to strengthen or improve bridges carrying highways, although they were allowed originally to cut through the latter for their own ends. It is, therefore, not difficult to see the reason why, with no proper system of standards, bridges have been, and are being, built of all sorts of strengths ; many of those which were once strong enough to carry practically any weight have fallen into disrepair, and the present state of the Law is such that it is immensely difficult—if not absolutely impossible—to get them restored to carry present-day traffic. If there is confusion and lack of homogenity about the methods of county road and bridge maintenance and administration, the case with regard to district roads is far worse. Roughly speaking, there are 1,8so local councils in this country maintaining district roads, and some of them naturally administer their highway affairs in a most parsimonious spirit. The smaller local authorities cannot, perhaps, be expected to manifest any great enthusiasm for the care of highways, as, with the development of local government, they have become increasingly engaged upon matters which are more showy and attractive, if less useful. An interest, real or professed, in baths, washhouses, parks, and workmen's cottages is more calculated to win the suffrages of the working classes ! It is, unfortunately, not usual to hear a local candidate plead his interest in road upkeep as a qualification for office. So long as councils provide roads which will carry the present traffic somehow, they are generally satisfied, and the future is left to take care of itself, through traffic being voted a nuisance and often discouraged. To the unwise policy of the past is due much of the present outcry as fo the excessive extra expense supposed to be impending in order to provide for the wants of self-propelled traffic. Undoubtedly extra expense must be incurred, but if a forward policy is firmly followed, as, for instance, in Hampshire and Lancashire, there is no reason whatever for general alarm. Commercial motors and vehicles are not likely suddenly to become general, unless in special town and urban districts with particular local demands, and if in the past it has been found that sections of roads have had to be coated, say, once in five years, let them now be coated at shorter intervals. Total " reconstruction" will not often be needful if this system of "feeding up" be adopted, providing always that the coating of roadstone be scientifically applied. The latter condition is essential, for much rural road making at any rate consists of laying thick poultices of stone, mixed with organic and other matters, resulting in sodden roads in winter, with foul, dusty, and loose roads in summer. Such highways will go to pieces without much assistance from traffic. Side drainage, which is one of the first essentials of efficient upkeep, is greatly neglected, partly owing to the fact that as the Law new stands the owners of lands abutting upon the highways are liable for cleansing ditches, but are slow to carry out their duties and cannot be forced to do so unless by indictment.
Faced as we are by internal and external trade competition of the keenest type, it behoves us to bring into the consideration of questions of this kind as few prejudices as possible, and to study how we may reduce the cost of imports and exports. It must be remembered that our chief manufacturing centres are situated at a considerable distance• from the
seaboard ;* one of three means of communication must, therefore, be adopted—railways, roads, or canals. There has long been an outcry against the way in which railway companies appear to grant preferential rates in favour of our Continental competitors : striking figures have from time to time been placed before the public which seem to bear out these statements, both with regard to light market produce, as well as heavy goods such as steel plates and girders. The answer of the railway companies to the charge is that they are unable to lower their rates because of the heavy cost of construction imposed upon them by the Board of Trade. They speciously point out that the whole of our industrial towns are served by more than one line of railway, and that they have to adopt " cutting " rates, whatever the misguided public may think to the contrary. This statement is open to challenge because there seems to be a certain amount of agreement amongst the competing companies, at least as to minimum rates, and the practice seems to be to obtain as much more than the minimum as possible, and to squeeze the maximum from the consignor or consignee. If railways are carrying goods to any points at a loss (and it is believed that in some cases they are), they may be relied upon to make good that loss by charging the highest rates possible on goods delivered to towns where there is no effective competition : broadly speaking, the British Public has to pay heavily in the end.
The canal system of England has never been developed or maintained as it might have been. The total length of waterways is 3,936 miles, of which at least one quarter :s in the hands of railway companies, some being derelict and the balance almost useless for the purposes of competition. Further, the railway companies appear to have paralysed through traffic by a, for them, judicious selection of lengths. Of the remaining 3,000 miles, a considerable portion is in a state of semi-decay, whilst the usefulness of other sections is greatly impaired (as was well pointed out by Mr. Arthur Lee in his paper on" British Canals "at the Society of Arts, on November 30th, 1904) by the lack of uniformity in the navigable depth, involving either the breaking down and trans-shipment of large cargoes or the consignment of goods in barges which are insufficient in size to carry really profitable freights.
While the nation is casting about for some single specific to put its commercial interests on a firm footing, it seems patent that we are neglecting a number of means, small in themselves, but considerable in the aggregate, which would help the development of industries; if taken advantage of, not the least of these is the improvement of internal trans.. port. Derelict canals, and those which are of unequal and unprofitable carrying capacity, find their counterparts in weak roads, and in those which are intermittently and illogically strong and weak. What would be thought of a railway company which alternated solb., 7311)., and oolb. rails on its permanent way when the axle loads were the same throughout the system ? Reform will come—if not from within by consent, assuredly, from without by force—as self-propelled traffic must, by the law of the survival of the fittest, increase and multiply.
Although there are, comparatively, but very few motor wagons upon our roads toy, there are sufficient clearly to demonstrate the possibilities of this form of transport, and to justify the belief that it will prove a powerful factor in industrial enterprise if catered for properly. The cost of working motor vehicles for certain purposes is, admittedly higher at present than that incurred when horse haulage is used, but this is partially the result of some makers having vainly attempted to build machines in accordance with the old three-ton tare limit. The result of this is that wagons have been produced which suffer from a form of mechanical "rickets," and are continually undergoing repairs; it is, therefore, difficult to forecast future economies if compari sons are only made with some early types of vehicle. Natural and rapid evolution of types has been and will be the result of the somewhat hard lessons of the last few years. Substantial reductions in first cost, maintenance, and fuel consumption may therefore reasonably be expected.