The silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1909-1925, 1913-10-04
HOUSTON ON FED
.ERAl AID FOR ROADS

Agriculture, delivered an address on
Federal cooperation in road building
/ before the Good Roads convention in
session in that city. Mr.. Houston said
in part:
| The suggestion of great national
transcontinental roads appeals to my
imagination, as does the suggestion of
interstate roads connecting capitals or
cities of commercial importance to my
logical faculty and to the sense of
pleasure that / experience in riding
about the country in my friends
automobiles. But that the essential
thing to be done is the providing of
good roads which shall get products
from the community farms to the
nearest station and make rural life
more profitable, comfortable and pleas
urable, L entertain no sort of doubt;
and it is obvious that the representa-
tives of the people in congress /. are
like minded. For in making their ap-
/ PiOPiiotioh thCy ctipuidtCQ tHdt III
should be used in improving the condi-
tion of post roads with a view to the
economy and efficiency of postal de-
livery and for the transportation of
farm products to the market. Such
roads are equally essential to the es-
tablishment and operation of decent
elementary and secondary schools for
the benefit of the country boys and
girls. j do not eliminate other things
for consideration and / do not under
estimate the rights and pleasures Of
the automobilists and the service they
have rendered in the propaganda for
road building.
There are complex problems to be
solved in many states before the most
efficient expenditures of money by
states and communities for roads can
be secured, and there are many more
TO be worked out before one. can
nationally expect the Federal govern
ment largely to participate. Who
shall say how aid should be apportion-
ed so that the states may receive
equitable treatmenta Shall it be ap-
portioned equally among the states on
the basis of total population, farm
population, areas, taxable valuations,
road mileage, or all these; and should
Federal money be expended exclusive
| ly through its own agencies for GER
tain system? What roads are to be
| improvedf There are approximately
two and a quarter million miles of
publicly owned roads in the nation.
Half of this mileage is utilized for
! of the total can be classed as improv-
ed in any large sense. Shall we un-
dertake to apply aid to all the roads or
shall we consider this task too
gigantief Shall we apply it to the
rural routes or shall we regard this
as equally beyond reason? Or shall we
single out certain directions in which
central roads shall run, and if so how2
Is it not clear that this opens up
field where petty politics, community
interest and individual selishness may
run riot! Assuming that we have
settled this, for what purpose shall the
aid be granted and in what proper
tions Shall it be exclusively for con-
struction, exclusively for maintenance,
or for boths Shall it be to pay the
entire cost of either or both of these
items, or shall it be dependent on the
equal or larger contribution by the
states and eommunitiesi Shall the
and come through votes of money out
of the treasury or from the sale of
bondsi
That the suggestion of Federal aid
to road building raises grave questions
and involves possible dangers, no
thoughtful citizen doubts. There are
proposals before the public mind
which would bankrupt the Federal
treasury and suggest possible abuses
before which those of the worst pork
barrel bills of the past would pale in
to insignifcance. No proposal which
does not carry with it the assurance of
safeguarding the treasury in this di
rection seems to me to stand the ghost
of a chance of favorable considera-
tion. 1t is not alone the fear that
there would be no stopping place
There is the question of precedent.
This is not the only proposal before
the American congress involving the
suggestion of huge appropriations.
There are others which, to their advo
Gates, are just as important and are
being just as insistently urged and
many of the veteran congressman have
4 49, A. - 4 l. 4. L n.