The Daytona daily news. [volume] (Daytona, Fla.) 1903-1926, 1912-03-19
GOOD ROADS
MOVEMENT IS
ON INCREASE
CONGRESS MAY TAKE ACTION
WITH NEEDED APPROPRIATION
SENTIMENT FOR IMPROVED
HIGHWAYS is GROWING ALL
OVER THE COUNTRY AND THE
GOVERNMENT REALIZES 1T.

movement for government aid TO.
good roads building is this coanery
viii not down. For a time perhaps
the agitation for federal appropria, ion
subsidies, but inevitably the issue
hobs up in congress and the older
statesmen realize that sooner or kaberI
the people VIII demand road improve
mnets.
The other day Senator Swanson of
Virginia voiced this sentiment He
said that the country had spent hun
dreds of millions of dollars improving
forests, retaining arid lands ard
draining swamps. but not a doAa.
had ever been spent IN Improving the
wagon roads of the country.
There are millions of farmers
throughout the country, the senator
pointed out, who pay year by year
Fart of the enormous Z" mud tax =
They continue to haul the products
they raise on quilted, and in some
cases, almost impossible roads TO
the market, paying more for the
transportation of these products five,
ten or fifteen miles than 1T costs to
ship them hundreds of miles by rail
But the pioneer advocate of govern
ment road building was the late Rep
resentatve Brownlow of Tennessee
lie was foremost among the modern
champions Of the federal appropria-
ton idea
H 1t is true that during the admins
trations of Washington and jefferson
road building by the government was
advocated and started. The old
Cumberland road running from Cum
berland, Maryland, to the Ohio river
at Wheeling was built by the govern
ment during the last term Of Jeffer-
son.
This ruadwa was so spJeadidly
except for occasional repairs, nothing
has been done to it in a century. The
masonry along the road, that is, the
stone bridges, are even fTmer now
|
inaly built
But this policy of internal improve
ment was abandoned when Andrew
Jackson became president of tn,
United States He refused to allow
any more money to be expended TO
highways. The Lexington road, I,
run from Wheeling TO Lexington, Ky.
had been surveyed and money au
President Jackson put his foot dow
and the money supply was cut off,
This was the last attempt OF III
government to go into the work Q
building public highways. Since the
untold millions of dollars IN publ
lands and bonds have been donate
by the government to enoOurag
building and even more miliocs hay
gone into canals rivers and harbou~
But the public roads have been let
the states, counties and cities, an
these units of government have stTuj
gled along trying to make the
|
The effort in congress now is
appropriate money for the rural ma
route improv ements- This makes
possible for congress to so into thi
scheme of Improvements without tn
likelihood of violating the const
tuition. Otherwise the roads woul
have to be interstate in character
Another interesting feature of tn
proposed plan is the participation {
the states and counties IN the IL
provements. If the government, Il
instance, appropriated 100000 #
any particular state, it can requil
the state or the counties in the sta
to appropriate an equal sum beto'
the government money IS expende
This means that the farmers and a
ers using the public highways ".
get the benefit of twice as MAJ
miles of road.
The people i'm congress who wa
to see some of the peoples mon'
spent ON public highways as we'll
upon irrigation, reclamat ion, conse
walton and rivers and harbors, a
persistent They declare that III
will continue fighting for their eau
until it triumphs, and from I
growth of the sentiment on the 81
jet it looks now as if the day
government improved roads is not
distant.