The Prescott daily news., 1914-07-21
GOOD ROADS IN
 DOLLARS AND CENTS
What It is Costing the United States to Improve Its Highways, and What It Gets in Return.
 Explains Rise.

States, according to statistics pre- pared by the U. s. Department of Agriculture. In 1904 the total was only $79,000,000. 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 year later, but for the most part the other States were slow to move. In 1904 only if teen had state highway departments; to-day there are only six that have not. In 1913 the individual States appropriated a total of $3S, S,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, dis tricts and townships, was $137, ,493,- 9S5. Complete figures for 1913 are not yet available, but it is safe to es- innate the sum at approximately $151 000, 900. To this must be added some $15000,000 to represent the value of the labor contributed in- stead of cash in districts where this practice prevails. Last year, there fore, local communities contributed, in round numbers, one hundred and siXty-six millions of dollars, as against appropriations from state treasuries of $38,755,0SS. The true importance of this thirty eight mil lions lies in the fact that it means expert supervision of the expenditure of considerable portion of the vast sum of two hundred millions. When ecah each county built as it chose and when it chose the services of trained engineers were usually out of the question, There was littl opportunity to test innovations, little advance in the science of road building, and there was also difficulty in arousing each county individually to do its best to improve conditions within it's own li- mits. State aid has changed all this The best engineering skill is avail able for all works of importance. there is cooperation and a constant stimulus to further improvements. The money contributed by the states does not only build more roads, it 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 nation ales, 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 impor- tance is an improved road, and France is vastly smaller country, both in area and in population than the Unit ed States, so that this comparison is not, in itself, very fattering to our .progressiveness It shows, however, that we have at least made a beginn- ing. Of the 2,226,S42 miles of roads in the United States, 223,774 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 partment of Agriculture, it is now possible to prove not only that good roads are a profitable investment, but to determine exactly what dividends they pay. An investigator assigned to this problem in any given locality first ascertains the extent of the terri tory that is tributory to any main road, much as one might ascertain the territory tributory to some river The next step is an accurate estimate of the total products of this territory; so much grain, so much tobacco, so much garden truck, etc, etc Of this quantity certain nortinn is consumed