The commonwealth. (Greenwood, Miss.) 1896-1923, 1916-04-28
Mr.. WILLIAMS WANTS FEDERAL AID
FOR PUBLIC HIGHWAYS.

ably charnpioned in the Senate TODAY 4br Senator
Oscar. w. Underwood, of Alabama. and Senator
John Sharp Williams, of Mississippi. Senator Will
Jams. recalled that many years. ago: .Whenshe was a
member OF the House, he introduced a bill appro-
priating $25.0O0.OOO out of the Federal treasury to
aid the states in the construction of good roads.
THE time" he sale, was not then ripe for the
Legislation. At that time even a great many things
were said about the, consthutonahty of such as
this" So I
Continuing, Senator Williams said in part:
Here are two phases upon which federal juris-
diction may constitutiQnaly. rest in. building good
roads, One is the interstate commerce clause of
the constitution. Very early in our history the Con-
gress of'the United States, at that time containing
very many members ofcthe date constitutional con-
Cumberland Road, as it was called, which was in
tended to go from tideWafer on the Atlantic to- the
Ohio River, and~as strict d constructionist as John
c: Calhoun took the position that the federal gov
eminent had g right to. build that road.
James Madison, Jefferson and a great many
OF the early fathers Of. Democracy also took the
position that there was: a federal jurisdiction. Sub
seQuently the Democratic party, becoming some
what more strict inLits construction of the constitu-
ton, took the position. under Andrew 'Jackson's
presidency, | believe, that the constitutional right did
not exist, although Mr.. Monroe vetoed one good
roads bill, but upon grounds which were not at
variance with the position taken:by the earlier faith
ers. That IS ope of@tde two bases to rest the con-
stitutlonal authority upon., The other is upon the
pOStOiIlCc anu pOSt FOdUS clause or the constitution,
1T is a matter of curious political literature that
under the clause of the constitution which gives to
Congress the right to establish postoffices and post
roads, it was very early contended that the rioht to
construct a postoffice flowed necessarily from the
right to establish it; that It not merely meant that
the government could rent a house for the purpose
OF keeping a p%ostoffice init and putting a postmaster
there, but the federal government could build the
postofflce; and yet although the language of the con-
stitution was to establish postoffices and post roads
a great many people commended for the right to build
q 1lncfoffIaa vhi1a <ba1, l@c:-l d. ~ - 49,
post road. =
This bill, as far as l have been able to examine
1t, contains nothing except the provisions to improve
the post roads and post routes so that the %constitu-
tlonal power IS undoubted, undeniable, obvious, plain
From the dawn of time every nation that ever
reached anything like world Or which ever approx
was a country was signalized'at its time by the ex-
istence by: good roads within its area. In the very
cary Gays the Assyrlan empire and the Persian en-
comparatively good roads. BabylonIans and Assy.
rlans went so far as to raise their roads in the Meso-
potamlan valley and build them upon what we now
call !evees: Everybody knows: the history of good
ROADS IN the Roman empire and everybody knows
that a great part OF the weakness of the Grecian
empire and of the Macedonian empires in Asia arose.
from the fact that they did not have good roads.
Rome built good roads everywhere and it was an
old saying that every road lead to Rome.
might refer to the old Appian Way in Italy
and a great many other roads, in what was called
4 Ill EIdllCe OF ancient Gaul, modern Pro-
vence, Southern France. The Romans built splen-
did roads everywhereand very early in the history
OF their possession Of Southern: Gaul, even before
they had taken possession OF Middle and Northern
Gaul, so that wherever there has been any people
who ever proximated civilization, a. self-developed
and characteristic civilization of any sort, good roads
have accompanied that, civilization. |
Good roads are all the more connected with
civilization IN modern times because over them the
children go to good schools, but in the old time that
was one use for a good road that did not exist. In
the main in the old times the roads were construct
ed for the purpose OF enabling the armed forces in
the empire to have ready access to the provinces
and to be able to- meet enemies upon the border.
All the roads OF Rome were strategic roads and
grew up upon the roads so that the road
was the cause OF the mmer rather than the ex-
lstence OF the ommerc the cause of the c%onstruc-
ton OF of the road. But with us we have not only
the strategic military reason. which is national; the
international commerce. reason, which is %national;
the post road reason. which is national; but the
other reason which l have mentioned, which is edu-
.catlonal. In addition to that we have the economic
reason.~It is true that there can be no interstate
OF any great power unless there be a local
commerce forming in connecting links upon which
the interstate is founded, nor can there
be any great international except for the
m of the various countries which
form the family of nations !. ~, .. /
WILLIAMS WITHOUT OPPOSTTfON