The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-12-05
ASKS NATIONAL
 ROAD SYSTEM Congressman Warb.rtOn Has Plan to Link All State
 Capitals FOR 4 MILITARY HIGHWAY Bill Would Have Funds Raised by Restoring 1879 Tax
 on Tobacco
FOR A MILITARY HIGHWAY
Chicago Tribune.


 Commercial associations and similar organizations in Chicago have been asked to support bill to be intro duced by Congressman stanton War sion of congress. The bill provides for the creation of a national military highway, connecting the capital of ev- cry state in the union with the nations capital
 Though not a state capital, Chicago, according to the tentative plans, would be eastern terminus of a trunk line connecting this city with San Francisco, via Lincoln, Neb., Salt Lake City, Utah and Sacramento, Cal.
 The bill will provide for a sixteen base and hard surface, such as asphalt or vitriffed brick so as to make the roads as nearly as possible dustiess- The expense is estimated at from s2o,- 900 to $25, GOO a mile.
 In order to raise the large sum that will be required Congressman War burton proposes to restore the internal revenue tax of 1879 on tobacco and to set aside the additional income from this source as a. national road fund. The additional tax so provid- ed, he estimates, would amount to eighty million dollars year, and with this fund at the disposal of the govern ment he believes the contemplated 15,- 900 miles of roadway could be built and paid for within five years.
 The bill will also provide for the use of 1 1-2 per cent. of this income for the construction of like roads in the national parks, $200, 900 @ year to be spent for each park for a period of five years.
 Congressn1an warburton in his bill will urge the immediate construction of an Atlantic and Gulf line from Au- gusta, Me. to Baton Rouge. La, and Tallahassee Fla, and 9 Pacific coast line fror,n Olyrr->se W-sh tro cs Am geles. Cal Under his plan the va. vs. government the most feasible road ways, the exact locations of which will be made by federal engineers.
 There is no doub6," says congress man Warburton, about the amount of money that would be received under my proposed bill. A year ago I had occasion to request the internal reve- nue department at Washington to fig ure out for me the income that would have been iderived on tobacco the pre- ceding year if the law of 1879 had been in force
 .sIt Is a we'll settled rule that tax on luxuries does not decrease the amount consumed, though no great harm would occur if it did. Our tax on tobacco is small. It was reduc- ed in 1873 because the government was getting more revenue than it was us- ing It was decreased again in 1879 1883. Our tax on tobacco is not. a fourth of what it was during the war.
 While the proposed increase might seem heavy, 1t will not even be no the tax on a 10 cent cigar three-tenths of 1 cent. The manufacturer would decrease the weight of the tobacco one -tlirtieth, and the consumer could not tell the difference. The manufac- turer of smoking tobacco would reduce the size of the package about a twelfth. During the Spanish -Ameri- can war there was tax on tobacco, and not one smoker in a thousand knew it.
 '"rhe proposed scheme of roads, think, is a most important one from every point of view. It is not neces- sary to state the advantages of such B system; they will appeal to every one. I cannot imagine opposition to the proposed law from any source as 1t seems to me there will be a univer- sal demand for it by the people when 1uire the roads, and how little the public at large will feel the tax"