The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1916-09-07
FEDERAL R0llyACT
ABLY DISCUSSED
SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE
OUTLINED ATTITUDE OF DE.
PARTMENT ON OUTLAY
DOLLARS RESUuFORO DOLLAR EXPENDED
Outcome of Law Rests With the
States-Distribution to States
That Cooperate

At a meeting of the state highway
Officials held August Is, 1916, in Wash
ington, to discuss tentative rules and
regulations for carrying out the Fed
eral-aid road act, the secretary Of agri-
culture made the following statement:
The Federal-aid road act and an
other law-the cooperative agricul-
tural extension act-that the depart
mcnt is charged with the duty of en-
forcing establish a rev principle in
American government-the principle
of cooperation between federal and
state officers. They are the only laws
| recall which recognize and insist
upon this principle. They are there
fore very significant. Heretofore fed
eral and state officers have too fire.
quently looked at one another across
the line, sometimes with apprehension
as to what the other was going to do
or think, sometimes with jealousy, not
infreQuently with friction. We serve
the same people. They have a right
to the best service Of the representa-
tives of both jurisdictions. You repre-
sent the states. | represent the fed
cral government. Together we are
charged with the execution of a very
difficult and very important law.
81 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 rurau
life, to efficient production and orderly
marketing of fam products, to good
schools, and to the development of a
satisfactory rural life.
MANY people, however, do not APP
preciate this; and | have occasionally
met road officers who, when the i'm
pcrtance of good roads was emphasiz-
ed, have said: Yes; but they cost so
much Apparently they have not
thought how much more bad roads
cost, not only in dollars and cents,
but also in all those Indirect ways for
which one can make rc definite calcu-
lation.
Large Expenditures for Roads
This law appeals t. me as of es-
pecial importance, not SO much be-
cause it carries with it out of the
federal treasury an appropriation of
IS millions of dollars, not because it
will be met by an appropriation of rs
million or more out of state funds, if
all the states accept the act, but be-
cause, as great as is the aggregate, it
is relatively insignificant in compari-
son with amounts the states are now
annually expanding and will spend
during the period covered by the act.
81 remember that, on one occasion,
when l was speaking to a public Off
cial about the road bill and suggested
that we ought to begin with a modest
initial appropriation of three, four, or
five millions of dollars, he expressed
surprise and said that such an amount
would not get us anywhere; that the
expenditure by the nation of a few mil
lions of dollars for roads would be
merely trifing with the matter. l ask
ed him if he knew what the people Of
the nation were contributing annually
for road building; that the nation vas
already expanding the equivalent of
nearly half of what the Panama Canal
has cost. OF course he did not. And
the majority of people do not realize
that the nation is ~expending approx
mately $3.50. 900 900 a year for roads.
a Dollars Result for Each Dollar, Ex.
pended
THE main question that | am I'M
mediately concerned with, that the
people of the union are Immediately
concerned with, is whether we shall
get a dollars result for every dollar
We e..end for roads. I am quite sure
that ii 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 ad-
ministering this law, of devising good
read systems, of careful selection of
roads, of formulating projects, of de-
veloping plans and specifications, Of
having all matters considered on their
merit by competent men, seem to me
to lie at the root of this business. If,
as the result of this act, the people are