Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1911-08-04
DUTY OF UNCLE SAM
BUILDING OF GOOD ROADS PROB
LEM FOR FEDERAL GOV
EMINENT.
WOULD HARDLY FEEL TAX
General Welfare Clause of Constitu-
ton Gives Congress Power to Build
Roads-FederaI Aid Would Give
Mighty Impetus to Road Building.
BY HOWARD II. GROSS

BY HOWARD II. GROSS.
About once a year the post office de-
partment sends word to the vari-
Gus postmasters throughout the coun-
try where the roads are bad, threat
ening to suspend rural mail delivery
unless the a are put in acceptable
condition. This is right and proper.
1t Is an outrage to expect the mail
carrier to wade through a sea OF mud
to carry the mail to the farm home,
1t 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
be abandoned for days at a time on
account of roa conditions.
Why the roads should be SO bad the
country over. when nearly everybody
wants good roads is a TRANCE
anomaly, and this unfortunate situa-
ton will probably continue until the
people approach the good roads prob
lem from the right angle.
It is a tremendous undertaking to
gravel and m~acadamize the principal
highways of the country-it
the building of 400, 900 or SOC, 900
miles of roads, and would cost be-
tween a billion and a half to two bill
ion dollars, or from SIS to $40 for
every man, woman and child in the
land. This seems like a colossal out
lay and it is, but the money could
not all be spent at once. 1t would
take probably twenty years to do it,
SO 1t would be at the rate of per
haps n dollar per year per capita.
The department of agriculture est1-
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 it 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 n 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. 1t 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 it. 1t hurts US more
to pay n 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.
1t also has specific authority to do so
for those roads used for rural deIiv-
cry, and these comprise nearly all
the main highways of the country.
Suppose, then, we estimate an ex-
penditure of $1,000, 0O0, 900 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 a joint basis of population and
road mileage. This would give a state
like Illinois between $685. 900 900 and
$27, OOO, 900. The funds to be pro-
vided for from time to time by long