The enterprise. [volume] (Harlem, Mont.) 1899-1926, 1911-07-27
DUTY Of UNCLE SAM
BUILDING OF GOOD ROADS PROB.
LEM FOR FEDERAL GOV.
EMINENT.
WOULD HARDLY FEEL TAX
General Welfare Clause Of Constltt,.
ton Gives Congress Power to Build
Roads-Federal Aid Would Give
Mighty Impetus to Road Building.
BY HOWARD II, GROSS.

BY HOWARD H. GROSS.
About once year the post office de-
partment sends out word to the vari-
GUS postmasters throughout the coun-
try where the roads are bad, threat
ening to suspend rural mail delivery
unless the roads are put in acceptable
condition. This is right and proper.
It Is an outrage to expect the mail
carrier to wade through sea of mud
to carry the mail to the farm home.
It ought not to be necessary for him
to do so. At times the roads get SO
bad that the mail wagon must be
abandoned, and the trip is then made
on horseback, carrying only the let
ters. Sometimes the delivery has to
account Of road conditions.
Why the roads should be so bad the
country over when nearly everybody
wants good roads is a strange
anomaly, and this unfortunate situa-
ton will probably continue until the
people approach the good roads prob
lem from the right angle.
gravel and macadam1ze the principal
highways of the country-it means
the building of 100000 or 100000
miles of roads, and would cost be-
tween a billion and half to two bill
lion dollars, or from SIS to $40 for
every man, woman and child in the
land. This seems like colossal out
nd fo 1v,+ +hn
not all be spent at once. 1t would
take probably twenty years to do 1t,
so It would be at the rate of per-
haps one dollar per year per capita.
The department of agriculture esti-
mates that the actual saving to the
people by good roads would be at
lease $3.50 per person per year. II
this estimate Is anywhere nearly cor
rect, and 1t probably is approximately
so, then the saving to the people alone
by good roads would pay for them in
five years time.
There is no fact better demonstrate
ed in economics than that the build
ing of good roads adds to property
values many times the cost and
brings social, educational and eco
nomic benefits that make the building
of roads the best paying investment
that any community or state can
make.
The question is, how ought this mat
ter to be handled? In the writer's
opinion the first duty Is to the fed
eral government. It is high time for
1t to get, busy on this problem. The
money Uncle Sam raises Is by indi-
rect taxation and this tax the people
scarcely feel and there is very little
complaint about 1t. 1t hurts us more
to pay one dollar as a tax through
the tax collectors office than it does
to pay five times the amount by indi-
rect taxation. Under the general well
fare clause of the constitution, con-
gress has the power to build roads.
It also has specific authority to do so
for those roads used for rural deliv-
cry, and these comprise nearly all
the main highways of the country.
Suppose, then, we estimate an ex-
penditure of $1,500,000,000 to be made
upon highways, Jointly by the nation,
the state and the township or county,
letting the federal government con-
tribute one-third the amount, and pro-
rating the money between the states
on joint basis of population and
road mileage. This would give state
like Illinois between $2G,000,000 and
$27,000,000. The funds to be pro-
vided for from time to time by long,
time, low interest bonds. The tax
per capita to carry these bonds at
:, three per cent, when all are issued,
would be about Is cents per year
three car fares! Then let the state
pay one-third from a general tax levy,
or, better still, by bond issue, and
one-third paid locally by the township.
1t is common practice for the state to
contribute to road building under
what is popularity known as the state
aid plan-the townships have been
doing the little that has been done
and doing 1t without help for many
years. The new feature of the prop
osition is the federal contribution,
for which there is ample authority
and for which there is a precedent
and paramount need.
Within the last few years there has
been a, great hue and cry throughout
the land for waterway Improvement;
conventions have been held and the
demand made that the federal gov
eminent contribute $5o0,o00,000 to
that end, at the rate of $50,000,000 a
year for ten years. The point the
writer desires to make is that where
1t is possible for one ton of freight
or produce to be carried by water
there would be thousands of tons
moved by wagon over the public high
ways, and that If the amount OF
money demanded for waterway i'm
provement were applied to highways
it would be hundreds of times more
beneficial, and the benefits would
reach all Of the neODln