The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-04-26
SENATOR BANKHEAD
 URGES GOOD ROADS

- A A
 
 of automobiles will soon find plane upon which they can mutually press forward
 with the farmer in his efforts to obtain better roads. The time will come, during the lifetime of senators who do me the honor to listen, when the traction en- zine and the automobile will be utilized on the improved dirt road to hauling to the market farm and forest products at a minimum cost, supplying the place of millions of horses and mules now em- ployed in transportation.
 MT. President, it is sufficient to call attention to resolutions passed by the legislatures of Maine, Tennessee, Minne- sota, Missouri, Nebraska, Alabama, New York and other states, with reference to national aid to show how widespread is the sentiment among our state legisla-
 lures upon this subject When all these powers and factors unite their efforts there will be such ar era of internal im-
 pavement, of home building, of home beautifying, of wealth creation, that the waste places will be filled, squalid huts will give place to beautiful homes, the desert will blossom as the rose and all the shocks and crashes of frenzied finance will fall harmless from the bulwarks Of our splendid prosperity.
 Constitutionality of Law. The objection is made that such legis- lation would be unconstitutional. For tunately, for our guidance, the question of national aid is not new one. We have the precedent of national aid legis- lation by Congress while the founders of our government lived to know and ap- prove of it. The first appropriation made was in 1S06 when s30,0O0 was set aside for the purpose of commencing work on the famous old Cumberland road. These htf little interruption, until May 25, 1888, when the last appropriation of $1500 coo was made, which made the total amount expended on road construction during this period about $7,00O0O0.
 On Marchc IA, ISIS, the House of Rep resentatives passed the following resolu- tion:
 Resolved, that Congress has power under the constitution to appropriate money for the construction of postroads, military and other roads, and of canals, and for the improvement of waterways
 MT. President, what was the attitude of the leading statemen in the early days of the republc?' Thomas Jefferson ' said, in a letter to MT. Lieper, in 1908: Give us peace till our revenues are l liberated from debt, and then if war be necessary, it can be carried on with out a new tax or loan, and during peace l we may checker our whole country with canals, roads, etc. This is the object to which all our endeavors should be direct l ed"
 James Madison, in a message to Con- gress, said:
 ! T particularly invite the attention of 1 Congress to the expediency of exercising 1 their existing powers, and where nec- l essary of resorting to the prescribed mode | of enlarging them, in order to effectuate ! a comprehensive system of roads and ! f1o1e ciioh tpl1 drawing more closely together every part i of our country, by promoting intercourse
 and improvements and by increasing the l share of every part in the common stock | of national prosperity.'
 Henry clay's Plea. Henry Clay advocated the building of national roads in speech made in Con
 gress in ISIS, in which he said:
 "Of all the modes in which govern
 ment can employ it's surplus revnue, none
 is more permanently beneficial than that
 of internal improvement. Fixed to the
 soil it becomes a durable part of the l land itself diffusing comfort and activity l and animation on all sides. The first | direct effect is on the agricultural com- | munity into whose pockets comes the 1 difference in the expense of transporta- ! tion between the good and bad ways. Thus if the price of transporting bar
 rel of flour by the erection of the Cum ] berland turnpike should be lessened $2, ! the producer of the article would re- i ceive that $2 more now than formerly
 Daniel Webster, speaking in the United | States Senate in 1880, used the following | languages:
 Under this view of things I thought it necessary to settle, at least for myself,
 some definite notions with respect to
 the powers of the government in regard l to internal affairs, and l arrived at the 1 conclusion that government had power 1 to accomplish sundry objects or aid Tn
 their accomplishment, which are now
 commonly spoken of as internal improve | ment.''
 While it is true that Presidents Madison.
 Jackson and Monroe vetoed acts of Con
 gross relating to public roads, it is be-
 yond dispute that the veto of President
 Monroe was due to provision giving | to the general governmnt the right Of | eminent domain and of general superin- 1 tendence and this is practically true of 1 the other veto messages. President Jack 1 son held that the right of appropriation
 was not limited by the specified powers
 of the constitution. In his veto message he said:
 q have not been able to consider these
 declarations in any other point of view l than as a concession that the rights of the appropriation is not limited by the | power to carry into effect the measure ] for which the money is asked, as was {, formerly eontended.'
 | On May 4, 1902, President Monroe, in a veto message to Congress used the fol-
 lowing language:
 That in whatever sense the term es- | tablished is applied to postoffices it must
 be applied in the same sense to post
 roads,
 l Calhoun an Advocate.
 John c. Calhoun was staunch advo- | cate of state rights, and believed in ] strict construction of the constitution,
 but he was equally pronounced in his 1 belief that the federal government should
 take hand in building and improving our
 con.rnon highways, rivers and canals. In 1877 he Introduced a bill in Congress to
 provide a fund for the construction of
 roads and canals, and in support or this
 bill he spoke in part as follows: 1 Let it not be said that internal jr- l provements may be wholly left to the | enterprise of the state and of individuals. | l know that much nay justly be expected | to be done by them; but in country so
 new and so extensive as ours, there IS I room enough for all the general and l state governments and individuals to oS- | ert their resources. Many of the inl- | movements contemplated are on too great ! scale for the resources of states or or Individuals and many of such a nature | that the rival jealousy of the state If l let alone might prevent. They require the resources and general superintendence | of tho government to effect and complete