The Miller press. [volume] (Miller, S.D.) 190?-current, 1910-11-10
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER, 10. 1910
ROAD BUILDING
BECOMES SCIENCE
Legislatures Yield To Demands
and Work Out

o'>hi si'oS iiISiCSto lilS SlillIC Souii-
try and great forward strides have
beer taken in the last decade to
make good roads in every state in
the union. The fact that the nation
al government owns no roads and
maintains none, save those, of
course, which lie within the domains
of the District of Columbia, and
Yellowstone park or some other
national reservations. makes it OBJ
ligatory upon the various states.
through their Legislative bodies, to
enact laws hat will bring to the
separate roads districts at least ad-
vice, if not substantial financial aid.
Formerly the road management
of nearly all the states was in the
hands of county boards or commits
sioners, supervisors, or other county
or township authorities. Until
within the last twenty years that
condition existed pretty generally
throughout the country. But the
awakening came and the people be-
gan to realize that. so long a they
permitted the work to be done here
and there at the will. if not the
within, of scattered groups of county
officials, good roads in the broad
! sense of the term would be a long
time coming. This bore home Upon
the people the economic necessity of
providing better means for primary
Transportation.
Roads For Feeders
The old theory that America needs
no roads. because her highways are
railroads, is not entirely gainsaid.
but it now has a new application.
1t is applied now that perhaps Am
erica does not need national high
ways, but that the good roads which
are building shall be the feeders for
the railroads which do, after all,
comprise the country's highways,
1t is seen by the rising generation
that upon the upbuilding Of the
country's roads depends, in great
measure. her prosperity and that
with more road building comes bet
ter times
The remarkable advancement of
the principle of cooperation in road
building between the states and the
local highway authorities during the
last three or four years." says an
editorial in a recent issue of Good
Roads," indicates more forcibly than
could and argument, the undeniable
fact that state aid in bodybuilding,
as a business principle. has met with
the approval of the leading econo-
mists of the present day. The unin-
terrupted advancement in road con-
struction, by the states which have
adopted the principle, demonstrates
the correctness of the premise that
as the roads belong to all the people.
all the people should contri-
butte, in some way, to their construc-
ton and maintenance.
While the growth has been rapid,
there has been much conservatism.
Two states have carried constitution
al amendments which will permit
state aid, by popular vote, and yet
the legislators, elected by the same
voters, have failed to agree upon
laws to carry into effect the plainly
expressed will of the people.
''In other states, in the absence of
legislation. the executive authorities
have arranged to furnish such mea-
sure of aid to the local highway
authorities as the charters of state
educational institutions permit. In
one state the law is so construed as to
allow the state board of engineers
to CO operate with local officials and
furnish the expert technical service
which is necessary.
And in several other states,
where the present laws place the
Management of highway affairs solely
in the hands of county or town Off
Gals, propaganda for widening the
good roads sentiment are carried
on with a view to securing the
enactment of state aid laws.
While possibly not the sole cause.
as is contended by some, it is with
out doubt, true that the enactment
of good road laws and the contruc-
ton of good roads in the different
states during the last decade and a
half, have been leading factors in
the prosperity which the country
has experienced. And with more
<oaA ~--z-z~- 1900, ~.A,a