The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-08-05
NEW CUSTOMS LAW
 FOR SAN DOMINGO
LUMP SUM WILL BE SET ASIDE FOR MAINTENANCE OF GUS TOMS IN THE ISLAND AND RIGID SYSTEM ENFORCED.

Washington, August 1.-The President has made a set of regulations for the gov ernment of the customs receivership es- tablished in Santo Domingo under the terms of the convention of February 3, 1907 It is provided that the acts of the general receiver shall be rendered to the contaduria generate of the Dominican re- public, and the state department at Washington, and referred for verifcstlon to the bureau of insular affairs, which is given immediate supervision and cont ol of the receivership.
 Every precautlon Is taken to guard against irregular practices and heavy bonds are required while provision is made for the most rigid and systematic inspection of the machinery of collection, and for complete vouchers of expendi- lures.
 An important regulation Is No. l2, which provides that pending the eomple- ton Of the financial arrangement Tor the floating of loan to pay off the cred itors of Santo Domingo, the general re ceiver Is to continue in a new account to make the same disposition of the funds received by him heretofore Under the old arrangement whereby ffty-hYe per cent of the Dominican revenues were devoted in the National City bank of New York for the benefit of the foreign creditors, a fund of about S,ooO,OOo has been accumulated which cannot be dls- tributed until the new arrangement Is perfected.
 Under the new treaty the Dominican government Is to receive a lump sum CT s1O.oo0 monthly out of It's collection Tor its maintenance. It is stated that this IS so much more advantageous for that gov ernment than the old arrangement or 10 per cent of the collections, that the D9- minican government would be about S2OO,- GOO better off had it originally been placed upon the new basis.
 countries at a total cost of s150o mile. Nississinpi has at present over 3S'O0O miles of roadway of which only apout 15O miles have been improved, making her percentage of improved roads lowest ol all in the United States, except LOUIS iana which has only one mile Of mod ern roadway to every 10000 inhabitants This IS cnleHY uu6 III bplh VI the faot that the best known road making materials were not available and the supply of road money not enough 10 cover the great expense of importing gravel or stone
 Massachusetts has the greatest per centage of improved roads, 45 per cent of her thoroughfares being paved oy some modern process. This allows one mue of good road to every 357 inhabitants. Rhode Island is second with 43 per cent, and Indiana ranks next with 50 per cent, one mile for every 1O5 people within her borders In all, the United States has now about 130,000 miles of Improved road way in her many hundred million miles of highways that cross and recross the states and territories. The earliest were maintained by the private individuals through whose land they led Then the town the county and the state took LID the matter of their building and sup port The roads are usually supported by a property and labor tax and are under the Jurisdiction of county or town officers. In the south convict labor has been utilized to great extent in road building, North Carolina and Tennessee being especially able to prove the effi- ciency of such labor In several instances. It Is q generally accepted theory In that section that the best way fin which criminal may get his moral redemption is to build highways that will bring education and consequently morality, within the reach of the rest of the world. Charles Sumner is responsible for the assertion that "the road and the school master are the two most important agents in advancing civilization"
 As far back as 1794 the question of the wide tire was earnestly discussed. On the Lancaster turnpike the law was rigid in regard to the amount of freight q narrow tired wagon might take in bad weather and on other roads wagons with tires over six inches wide were allowed to go free of toll because 1t was con- sidered that they packed the road and were a great benefit When broached in various legislatures the matter of chang ing tires has produced many storms The cost to the farmer has been made a great reason for the killing of any meas ure requiring wider tires and the loss to the manufacturer has also been made a point. There are possibly 50000 wagons now in use In each agricultural state and 1t Is estimated that the cost of all tering the tires would be s20 each. Masa- chusetts has argued that this million placed in the building of roads that re- quired no special kind of tire on it's sur face. Thirteen states, the Philippines and Hawaii have legislation of some kind af- fecting the width of tires.
 Tomorrow: Street Making in Amer lea"
 
 NEGRO,c cIIIrInAI AFT