The Sentinel=record., 1914-07-19
s2O6,OO0,0O0 FOR
 GOOD ROAD WORK
THAT AMOUNT WAS PAID LAST YER FOR BUILDING AND IM-
 PROVING HIGHWWYS.
United States Experienced Quite an Awakening Along This Line During the Past Year.

proximately S20G, 100000 was spent last year on public roads in the Unit ed States, according to statistics pre- pared by the U. S. Department of Agriculture In 1904 the total was only $79,OOO,OOO. In nine years, there fore, the increase has been over 250 per cent.
 | This awakening on the part of the country to the importance of good roads has, experts say, been due in great measure to the principle of state aid to counties and other local communities New Jersey began the movement in 1891 when it passed it's state highway law. Massachusetts and Vermont followed a year later, but for the most part the other states Were slow to move. h 1904 only fif- teen had state highway departments; today there are only six that have not. In 1913 the individual states appropriated a total of $3S, 755,0SS, to supplement local expenditures.
 | The value of this state aid is. how ever, not to be measured by the figures alone, for the bulk of the money comes and always must come, from the counties and townships. Thus, in 1912, the cash outlay by counties, districts and townships, was sl37 .493,9S5. Complete figures for 1913 are not yet avai able, but it is safe to estimate the sum at ap- proximately $151 000000 TO this must be added some $15,000,000 to represent the value of the labor con- ltributed instead of cash in districts where this practice prevails Last Iyear. therefore, local communities Icontributed in round numbers, one hundred and sixty-six millions of dol lars, as against appropriations from state treasuries of $3S,755, ,0SS. The true importance of this thirty-eight millions lies in the fact that it means ieXpert supervision of the expenditure lof a considerable portion of the vast Isum of two hundred millions. When each county built as it chose and when it chose, the services of train ed engineers were usually out of the Iquestion. There was little opportun- ity to test innovations. little advance in the science of road-building, and there was also difficulty in arousing
 each county individually to do it's
 best to improve conditions within it's own limits. State aid has changed
 all this. The best engineering skill
 is available for all works of import ance, there is cooperation and a con
 stant stimulus to further improve
 ments. The money contributed by the
 states does not only build more roads, lit makes better those that other
 money builds.
 At the present time there are in
 the United States 20,741 miles of
 roads improved either wholly or in part by state aid This is nearly the
 mileage of the French routes na-
 tionales, the system of great national
 highways which is the envy of every
 civilized nation. The routes nation
 ales are, of course, only small part
 of the total mileage of France, where practically every road of any import
 ance is an improved road, and France
 is a vastly smaller country, both in
 area and in population than the
 United States, so that this compari-
 son is not, in itself, very flattering
 to our progressiveness. It shows, However, that we have at least made Ia beginning. Of the 2,226,S42 miles
 of roads in the United States, 223, TIA
 miles, or approximately 10 per cent,
 are classed as improved
 To improve the remaining 90 per
 cent may well seem big job. It is,
 in fact, only made possible because
 the work really pays for itself From
 material gathered by the U. S. de- lpartment of agriculture, it is now possible to prove not only that good Iroads are a profitable investment,
 but to determine exactly what divl- : dends they pay. An investigator as- signed to this problem in any given locality first ascertans the extent Of !. the territory that is tributary to any main road. much as one might ascer- tain the territory tributary to some
 river. The next step is an accurate
 estimate of the total products of this
 territory; so much grain, so much to-
 bacco, so much garden truck, etc., ] etc. Of this quantity certain DOT. tion is consumed on the farm; the l. rest is shipped over the road in f question. The whole celebration can . then be checked by investigators at
 the shipping point to which the road
 leads. In general it has been found r that the two methods yield much the + isame information-the total amount y Iof produce hauled over the road S Next, the length of the average haul @ is calculated. the size of the load per g lmitted by the character of the road e ascertained, and the cost of teams . land drivers figured. With these f facts before him, the investigator Is
 now able to state positively the cost If.f I.,,, ~P