The Starkville news. (Starkville, Miss.) 1902-1960, 1903-01-16
wise economy demands.


avail itself Of the privileges
granted in this bill, any politica
subdivision Of the state could
take advantage of it. Some OF
the States have provided polit-
icaI machinery whereby they can
take charge Of, road making
others have not, but there is no
State that has not some political
subdivisions in it that are prOvid-
ed with the proper political ma
chinery for putting this work
into operation. and they may
thereby avail themselves OF all
the benefits provided for in the
bill. In order that no State may
receive an undue advantage in
the distribution Of this fund by
reason of propriety Of applica-
ton or greater ability to furnish
It's proportion Of the cost, it is
provided in section 13 that no
State shall receive in aid Of road
construction out Of any money
for that purpose
according to the provisions OF
this act a greater proportion OF
the total amount appropriated
than its population bears to the
total population Of the United
States
The change in the policy Of the
United States government, as in
d.cated above, has been adopted
by all of the states in the Union
that originally built state roads
or gave substantial aid in main
tanning them. Many of the older
states followed cOncurrently the
original policy Of the United
States in building and maintain
ing state roads within their limits
as the United States government
built and maintained the national
road system connecting state
with state. But ;tll these Vari-
Gus states abandoned that policy,
and followed the example set by
the general government Of with
drawing their support from the
movement, and the result has
been that the entire cost of build
ing good roads in the United
States during the last two gen
erations has fallen upon the
counties or the townships or the
districts in the immediate local
ity of the road improved. The
entire burden of road cOnStruc-
ton has therefore been thrown
upon the people and property of
the rural districts, which has
proven to be too heavy a burden
for most Of them to bear. The
is that it has been
dropped to a great extent, and
the roads remain unimprOved.
1t was perhaps not unnatural
when the great mass OF all the
people in the United States lived
IN the rural district, to require
each community to make such
improvements as it chose Of It's
own public roads; but at the
present time a very large pro
portion of the population and as
much larger proportion OF the
wealth is concentrated IN large
cities, and according to the gen
orally prevailing method they do
not contribute anything to the
improvement Of the highways.
1t is therefore desirable that some
new methods should be introduc-
ed whereby all the people shall
contribute to the Improvement
of all the roads. This is not only
desirable, but it is just and eqult-
able, because the public high
ways belong to all the people,
and their Improvement is bene-
ticial to those living in the great
cities as we'll as to those living
in rural districts. This is espec-
ally true when we consider the
newly invented vehicles that are
now in common use upon the
highways-that is to say, the
bicycle, the automobile, and the
suburban street car.
l.