The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-04-26

nostofece department about eighteen
 months ago. shows a moderate estimate
 of the original cost of horses and Vehleies
 to be about $275, and that an aVeIdse
 cost of maintaining an outfit was apout
 S25O making the average annual cost oi
 a carriers outfit from $500 to s5oo. They
 carry with them traveling fourtn-class
 postoffice, so to speak; they sell stamps
 register letters and packages, receive
 money orders, and in measure, perform
 all the duties of a postmaster. l believe
 when we come to increase the salaries of government employees these shoulo pc
 among the first to receive our considera- ton. Why should they not be as Well
 paid as the city carrier. who goes over
 paved streets, and is not required to sup ply any team or vehicle. I have intro duced an amendment to the pending post.
 office bill, increasing their salary to $looo per year, with thirty days leave or ap-
 sence, which l think should pass
 Generous To Railroads.
 iMr President the government has been
 generous in it's donations to railroads in and through many states There have been patented to the railroads A. 46f,1ly
 acres of public lands. Grants to rail- road of a much larger number of acres
 nave been forfeited The government has in this way aided in the construction Of 14930 miles of railroads, and the bonds of railroads, amounting to- S64, ,o12, have
 been guaranteed, both principal and in terest.
 The government has from time to time
 donated for wagon roads 2,014. .0S4 acres of public lands; for canals 4,5O0,72f acres,
 and for river improvement I9S0,as, acres; in all, 53,055.1 .121 acres The government has, in cooperation with the states on | o fafl s16, 1000 to aid in the construction Of levees and to prevent overfiows and the
 destruction of life and property. No well informed person would say that the build- ing of levees on the Mississlppl rlNei is to improve navigation.
 do not want any senator to suppose for one moment that I do not heartily approve all these appropriations. Trey | have my full sanction. 1 believe they
 were wise and prompted by the most ';n- frightened and constructive statesmansnip.
 These benefits, to degree, have been local in their application. What am ln- s:sting upon is a continuation or thls wise and beneficial legislation in such d
 way as to extend it's benefits to all the people in every section of our country. MT. President, upon the rural popula- 1 tion has fallen the entire cost and re- sponsibility of constructing and main l taining our public roads. It Is only to | q limited extent and locally, that there
 has been legislation which. at the pres l ent day, in any way shifts this burden l end it still rests upon the people of the
 rural districts This is negotiable, un-
 democratic, and in direct violation of the l express principles upon which we boast 1 our government was founded.
 r Government Roads.
 1 No country has good roads, except where the general government has shared 1 in the cost and responsibility of creating | and maintaining them. All the countries 1 of Europe which have improved roads i have a national system wherby the na- 1 tional government shares in the cost and 1 assists Tn the supervision of building and | maintaining them.
 l Our present system of road administra- l ton is largely modelel after that aban- l doned by other progressive nations more l than century ago. In England road au- l ninistration began, like our present sys- 1 tenn. with the smallest unit of govern 1 ment, which originated by an act of Par 1 liament in 1555 and provided for the elec- | tion of road surveyor for each parish | and for the working of the roads by com pulsory labor. The parish was found to I be too small an administrative unit. A history of highways appearing in the | Edinburgh Review, January-Aprll lSo4' l contains this statement:
 1 Prom the days of Elizabeth the in- l convenienees resulting from the manten- I ance of highways by single parishes nave l been constantly apparent, and accordingly l successive governments, without distinc- | ton of politics, made the attempt to com | bine parishes into highway districts and l to transfer the superintendence of ther roads to boards employing the services or professional engineers
 The decided trend of road administra- ton in England has continued away
 from localization. Subject to the forma- ton of road districts, it was provided that one-half of the expense of maintaining
 the roads should be borne by the county,
 and finally in 1882, Parliament provided that one -nalf of the expense of the county authorities should be refunded by Par
 liamentary grant This Is also true in it's essentials of the development of road l administration in the other nations of Europe but with us we have continued in vogue a system of penurious localization 1 We cannot escape responsibility for our l miserable highways by contending that our government Is young and that we | have not been nation long enough to | make the comparison with the nations of | the Old World possible, because road | building did not begin in France until the l great Napoleon inaugurated the system l of national highways, which is today l giving France the most superb roads Tn 1 all the world. England struggled vita 1 roads almost impossible until the latter | part of the eighteenth century, when the | teaching of Macadam, Tresauguet, and i Telford began to be effective, and We I may say that the present road system of l England is attributable to the direct aid
 granted by Parliament. The advocates of 1 national aid can have no stronger testi- | mony in support of this policy than the l following statement made by Commercial l Agent Luomis of St. Etenne, in 1891: Roads In France.
 | The roads of France are now practi- cally all built and they are substantial monuments to Napoleonic foresight and l shrewdness. The work of the engineers | in the department of publicc works in | France today is not to build new roads,
 except in rare instances, but to keep