Builders of Roadtown Take Minimum Risk.
The wonderful economies of the Roadtown construction, such as cheap building material, principally rock and sand from the farm, steam shovel excavation instead of hand shovel, work train instead of cart hauling and poured cement construction instead of hand labor, the economies of open piping and wiring, and the valuable patents that are being donated because of the humanitarian bases of promotion, will give a better building for the money than can possibly be made under present conditions anywhere and make the first mortgage on Roadtown, including as it does transportation, telephone, water, gas, electric, sewage and other franchises, real estate mortgage and a mortgage on a permanent fireproof house, will make it the best possible form of security known, and no inflated land values. Don’t forget that feature. Such a bond will be virtually a municipal bond as the people living in Roadtown can be taxed in the form of rent to meet the interest. No one who has fully grasped the principle of Roadtown will doubt for a minute that it can be built, for it is not a complicated mechanism which must fail if one part proves faulty, but simply the grouping together of inventions already in use. And even if some of these should prove to be unfeasible they would hardly be missed in the total.
The whole question of the value of the Roadtown bonds depends upon the question as to whether or not people will live in the Roadtown after it has been built. I have spent a hundred pages telling of the comforts, conveniences, social and industrial advantages of Roadtown life. Heretofore I might have fallen into minor errors, but no sane and fair mind can reason away the fact that Roadtown life will be wonderfully attractive to the vast majority of mankind. As proof of this, over a hundred high class families have spoken for apartments in the first section, if it happens to be built near New York. But suppose we admit for the sake of argument that the Roadtown house was no better and no worse to live in than a typical suburban house of to-day. Clearly then the worth of the Roadtown bonds will depend wholly upon the price of Roadtown rent which in turn will depend upon the original cost and the cost of operation.
The Cost of the First Mile of Roadtown.
With a view of answering this question I submit the following letters and figures from Frank L. Sutton, a consulting engineer of 80 Broadway, New York City. These figures are based upon the cost of the first mile of Roadtown. These figures show that it will not be necessary to build a long section of the Roadtown before it can underbid the rental of the isolated house or city apartment and thus secure population and begin business.
It goes without saying that as the length of the Roadtown increases the cost per mile and the cost per house both in construction and operation will decrease.
FRANK SUTTON,
CONSULTING ENGINEER,80 Broadway,
New York, November 12, 1909.
Mr. Edgar Chambless,
150 Nassau Street, New York City.
Dear Sir: Referring to the report hereto attached giving a general description and the estimated cost of the mechanical and electrical equipments for the Roadtown, as well as the cost of construction of the building and equipment, and further the cost of operation, would say that these results have been carefully computed and there is no doubt but that the Roadtowns can be built and operated for the figures given in the report.
On account of the arrangement of the building and the convenience by which raw material can be transported, the proposition is without doubt the most economical and efficient form of good construction that can be devised.
Very truly yours,
REPORT
ON
CONSTRUCTION WORK AND POWER
EQUIPMENT FOR PROPOSED
ROADTOWN
BY
FRANK SUTTON, CONSULTING ENGINEER,
80 BROADWAY, NEW YORK CITY.
The following calculations are based on the construction of two hundred and fifty (250) two-story houses in a continuous row. This also includes a continuous glass enclosed roof promenade 10 ft. wide and 8 ft. high. The estimate gives the complete construction of these buildings, including the tunnel for the proposed monorail road, also a central power plant, including kitchen, laundry and such other equipments as may be necessary for the proper maintenance of such an establishment. It further includes all mains, pipes, wires, so that when the plant is completed it would be ready to turn over to the occupant in a completely finished condition.