The Wagner post. (Wagner, Charles Mix County, S.D.) 1912-current, 1912-06-21
GOVERNMENT AID
FOR GOOD ROADS.


George G. Diehf. Chairman OF the National
Good Roads Board of the American
Automobile Association, In
Harper's Weekly.
"A The United States government has
given zoe, 900, 600 acres OF the public
domain to railroads for the purpose OF
encouraging the construction of these
modern steel highways. II has appro-
priated for the Improvement of rivefs
and harbors since 1875, the sum 81
$685.. 1916, 160, which does not include
~&t6,5S0.e14 appropriated for levees
along the Mississippi river. 1t is spend
ing $500, 600. 900 in the 4. struction o.
the Panama canal. 1t has a~ppropriated
$1,000. 900 for building roads | Porto
Rico and the Philippines and more
than s3.080,0 900 for roads in Alaska and
the canal zone.
For building roads outside OF mill
tary reservations and national ceme~
teries I'm the United states the appro-
priations made by the federal govern
ment since 1888 are represented by q
row OF ciphers.
Every purpose mentioned above for
which federal funds and property have
been expended relates to transporta-
ton. In ali, considerably more than
81, 900. 000. 900 h1vo been spent in YER.
recent years to facilitate mea 81
communication between parts ut this
country by railroad and by water. But
for every person who travels by raj
there are 100 who use the highway
Every pound of freight transported BY
rail or water ~ at some stage Of its
journey hauled owe q wagon road
Tributary to every mile OF railroad arr
scores or hundreds of M IS Of high
ways. Every shipping poMt ON a nav
'igable stream lis the focus to which the
wagon roads converge.
OF what avail Is IL to deepen the
channels and strengthen the banks OF
rivers. to dig canals and open the pub
lie lands to the railroads. If the routes
by which the freight that is to be carr
ried through these channels are i'm
passable?
If the federal government is justified
In giving any financial aid whatever to
privately owned transportation sys-
tens, II II Ia warranted in dredging
rivers and improving harbors for the
benefit OF commerce, if sound public
policy demands the construction of the
Panama cana In order to make the
exchange of merchandise between u
coasts less expensive. why is 1t not
tenfold more important for the federal
government to awaken to the necessity
for highway Improvement in order that
~ VIZ 3 VIA it pew
plc.s money has been and is being
spent shall not utterly fail of their
prime purpose?
These are the questions the men who
have been conducting the national good
roads campaign, and the road users OF
the country generally are asking. They
have been asking these questions for
some tme-asking senators and mem-
bers of congress, governors and farm
ers, motorists and truck drivers every
one who uses the roads and every one
who beenfits by the greater use of the
roads. and there is only one answer.
Nobody has yet advanced q single ten
able argument why the governments
activities should stop with railroad
subsidies and aides to navigation.
II may be argued that the states
ought to do this work-that 1t is the
state and the county and the township
that are most concerned. There are
two nswer to this contention. One
is that the states, with few exceptions
are already doing all that they can,
within a reasonable exercise of the tax
ing power, to improve their own high
ways, The second and conclusive an
swer is that every mile of improved
road anywhere In the United States
benefits all the people of the United
States In almost equal degree. To inn
prove the road over which the apple
grower OF the Kakima valley hauls his
fruit to the packing sheds of the grow
ers' association, means cheaper apples
for the people Of Philadelphia, New
Orleans or Boston. A better road from
Palmyra to Sodus Village means that
the rural mail carriers can make their
trips from these postofices to the
farms along the route more regularly
and eventually more frequently and
that by thus bringing the farmer into
closer contact with the world mark ct
not only is his selling power Increased
but his buying power also.
II there were no other justifiable
ground for federal aid In highway i'm
provement than h necessity for bet
ter post roads. that alone should be a
convincing reason. Nearly 4 1900 rural
mail carriers are now making daily or