The log cabin Democrat., 1916-08-24
U. s. FUNDS TO GO 10 THROUGH ROADS StCTY. OF AGRICULTURE Gives Out Plans of Federal Aid in Road Construction :0 High
 way Commissioners.

Little Rock, Aug. 24.-The secre- tary of agriculture will recommend the construction of through roads with funds provided by the new federal road act and will look with disfavor upon short road construction, accord ing to w. B. Owen, state highway commissioner, who returned yesterday from Washington, where he consulted with highway officials from other states regarding the disbursement of the funds provided by the new act. II. R. Carter, state highway engineer, accompanied Mr. Owen to Washing ton.
 Arkansas part of the federal ap- propriation will be $82,689 the first year, $163,39S the second year, S246,- O87 the third year, $33O, ,756 the fourth year, and $413,445 the fifth year, a total of $1,236,375 for the five years. The state will be expected to appropri- ate an equal amount. Part of the states share can be paid in convict labor, MT. Owen said. The state also will be required to furnish means for maintaining the roads.
 MT. Owen said it will be necessary to wait until the legislature meets before the road-building program can be made. The State Highway Commis- sion has not the authority to say where the roads shall be built, and the legislature must give this authority before plans can be submitted
 To raise the states part of the funds needed, Mir. Owen will ask the legislature to provide that all money received from auto licenses shall be paid into the highways fund. With the increasing number of automobiles each year, this will be sufficient to pay the states part, MT. Owen be- lieves, as there is enough money on hand to pay the first installment.
 In his address to the meeting of the state highway commissioners which MT. Owen attended, Secretary of Ag- riculture D. F. Houston said in part: |:
 'The federal-aid road act and an- other law-the cooperative agricul- tural extension act-that the depart ment is charged with the duty of en- forcing, establish a new principle in American government, the principle of cooperation between federal and state officers. They are the only laws l recall which recognize and insist upon this principle. They are there fore very significant. Heretofore federal and state officers have too frequently looked at one another across the line, sometimes with ap- prehension as to what the other was going to do or think, sometimes with jealousy, not infrequently with fric- tiOn. We serve the same people, They have right to the best service of the representatives of both puris- dictions. You represent the states. Together we are charged with the l represent the federal government execution of very difficult and very important law.
 'I need not emphasize before you the importance of good roads. Most intelligent people who think about good roads know that they are essen- tial to comfortable living, essential to proper community development, es- pecially to the development of rural life, to efficient production and order ly marketing of farm products, to good schools, and to the development of satisfactory rural life.
 Io preciate this, and I have occasionally met road officers who, when the inn portance of good roads was empha- sized, have said: Yes, but they cost SC much Apparently they have not thought how much more bad roads cost, not only in dollars and cents, but also iii all those indirect ways for which one can make no definite calculation.
 "This law appeals to me as of es- pecial importance, not so much be- cause it carries with it out of the federal treasury an appropriation of 85 millions of dollars, not because it will be met by an appropriation of 75 millions more out of state funds, if all the states accept the act, but because as great as is the aggregate, it is relatively insignificant in com parison with amounts the states are now annually expending and will spend during the period covered by the act.
 "The main question that I am i'm mediately concerned with, is whether we shall get dollars result for every dollar we expend for roads. am quite sure that if we do SO and we can convince the people that we have done so, they will be willing to put much more money into good roads where they are needed. Therefore, the matter of administarinp this law