The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-07-19
VAST REVENUE
 DERIVED FROM
 FORMATION
Greater Part of This Is Ex- pended Upon Maintenance
 of State Highways.

There were in 1905 48,OOO motor cars, including commercial vehicles, in the United States, according to the registration statistics assembled by the division of road economies of the United States office of public roads and rural engineering; in 1915 there were 2,445,664. This was an increase of 5000 per cent. Ten years ago of the expenditures on account of the building of rural roads and bridges in the United States less than three tenths of IT per cent. was derived from the tax on motor vehicles; last year nearly 2 per cent. of the money avail able for this purpose was derived from source. In 1901 the first revenue derived by any of the states from au- xomobile revenues was collected in New York State and amounted to only $954. Other states followed the example of New York, requiring the registration of motor cars, chauffeurs and opera tors, until in 1905 the total amount collected in all the states on this ac- count aggregated $62,500; last year the revenues from this source amounted to $1S,245,713.
 In nearly all the states practically 90 per cent. of the motor car revenues was applied in 1915 to road work and 70 tper cent. of this sum was ex- pended under the control and super vision of the State Highway Depart ments. In Az states all, or large part of the revenue from motor cars must be expended for the construction, improvement or maintenance of the public roads, or for the maintenance of the State Highway Departments. In six states this requirement. is not made.
 In 1915 the total number of motor vehicles registered in the United States was 2,445,664. The total road mileage in the United States outside of incorporated towns and cities is ap- proximately 2,275,00O miles. This would mean that there is slightly more than one motor car for each mile of rural road in the United States, if the distribution of the cars were uniform for all the states; but it is not, as in Nevada there is one motor car for every six miles of rural road, and in New Jersey six miles of rural road, and in New Jersey six motor cars for ev- cry mile of rural road. In the Unit ed States there is one motor car reg istration for every 43 persons. in Iowa there is one registration for every 10 persons and in Alabama only one reg istration for every 200 persons.
 There is no uniformity in the fees required of motor vehicles, and there are wide differences in the registration or licensing of schauffeurs, owners, dealers and operators. The tendency is growing to base the registration fees for pleasure cars on straight horsepower; for commercial vehicles the tendency is to require part of the fee on the horsepower of the car and the remainder of the fee either on the carrying capacity of the vehicle or on its weight. The average fee of the motor cars in the United States, taking them by small and large, is es- timated at $7.46.
 Reckoning on the same basis, Yer mont received in 1915 gross revenue of $1S.10 for each car, while Minne- sota received only about 50 cents an nual1y for each car, the registration in that state covering period of three years. In Texas and South Carolina no annual registration fees are collect ed, the only requirement being a coun- ty fee of 50 cents and $1, respectively, for what is called a perennial registra- ton. Many states make no distinc- tion so far as the registration records go, between pleasure and commercial cars A few states register all motor vehicles. including motorcycles. under a single class; in some states the reg istration of motorcycles is not required. The registrations and revenues in several typical states for the last three years show the steadily increasing growth of the motor car in the trans portation business of the country. Three years ago there were 28,200 mo- tor cars in Connecticut; last year there were 41,12l. In 1913 there were 62,-
 66O cars in Massachusetts; in 1915 there were 102,633. In 1913 there were IS, All cars in Nebraska; in 1915 there were 59,000. In 1913 there were 134,495 cars in New York State; in 1915 there were 255,242. In 1913 there were 5000 cars in Oklahoma; in 1915 there were 25,032. In 1913 there were 32,000 cars in Texas; in 1915 there 10000. In 1913 there were 34, ,34S cars in Wisconsin; in 1915 there were 79,741.
 The total gross revenues from mo- tor cars in these states increased in Connectfcut from $316,667 in 1913 to
 $536,970 in 1915; in Massachusetts from $764.154 to $1,235,724; in Ne braska from $26,000 to $1s3,00O; in New York from $1,275,727 to $1,991,- 1S1; in Texas from $16 1000 to 10000; in Wisconsin from $190,77O to $431,- SIT. One of the puzzling things about the matter is that the increased use of the motor car does not seem to be regulated by the conditions of the roads. For example, in the state of Nebraska in the three-year period cov- cred by the figures in the official re- port, the number of motor cars in- creased more than four times and the
 gross revenues eight times, while only
 PTS miles of the 80,338 miles of roads
 in that state are improved.
 In Massachusetts. where little
 more than one-half of the rural roads
 have been improved, the number of
 motor cars and the revenues from this
 source have not quite doubled. In |1913 there were in the United States
 1,258,062 motor cars; in 1914, 1.711,-
 339 motor cars, and in 1915, 2,445,6 ,664
 In 1913 the gross revenue from motor
 car taxes amounted to $S,192.253; in
 1914 to $12,381,951. and in 1915 to
 $1S,245,711. Of the revenues from this source available for road work $11,555,459 is under the control of the
 State Highway departments and $4,- 657,929 is under the direction of the To-
 cal authorities.
 The enormous increase in motor car
 traffic is bound to affect favorably the
 conditions of the public roads of the l IL IL