The Bemidji daily pioneer. [volume] (Bemidji, Minn.) 1904-1971, 1917-04-05
THE MEANING OF
federal HELP
lQuIts Recently Public Roads
Were q National Disgrace.
INFLUENCE of sMoT0RcARS

Road Associations, the Automobile, the
I Farmsrs' Demands and Other Influ-
enees Have All Contributed to the
Pressure Which Has Finally Brought
About Government Cooperation.
! Until the motOrcar until, indeed,
within the last ten years-the public
roads of the United States have been
national disgrace. They are so yet, not
quite II per cent Of our more than
2.273, 731 miles of roads deserving the
name, writes C. II. Claudy in the Scien-
tilc American.
But road associat lions, the motorcar,
IN insistent demand from the farmer
for help lit often costs him more to
haul q ton of wheat from farm to
market on a muddy rood than to ship
that ton from New York to Liverpooij,
the mounting cost of living, the in
crease of motor truck transportation,
have all contributed to the pressure
which has finally made the United
States as a whole do for itself what
forty-eight states have been trying to
do, in orty-eight degrees Of bewilder-
ment and incompetence for two dec
AIDES. --- .-----
Forty.eight road commissions. forty
eight ideas Of what a road is and is not.
some number less than forty-eight va
rieties of road graft, have not led us
anywhere in making a comprehensive
system Of roads. We have a few good
road states and lot of poor road
states. We have a few good road de-
partments and lot Of so called COM
missions of which the less said the
better. Now the nation has extended
federal aid to states IN building roads.
Whether federal aid to states as op-
posed to q system of national high
ways built, controlled, maintained and
repaired and owned by the nation is
the wise step only time can tell. Fed
eral aid became a fact July II of last
year, when legislation which will re-
suit in the spending Of $150,OOO' 900 for
roads was passed by congress and
signed by the president.
TO spend $15O,OOO,OOO in five years
time, spend it wisely, economically, ef-
6ciently, is not ain easy task. 1t Is not
one which could be begun instantly
upon the passage of the federal road
bill, hrst, because an organization had
to be perfected by the federal govern
ment under the direction of Logan
Waller Page, director office of public
roads, and, second, because only one
state, California, was in position to
submit 4 project and ask for some OF
its apportionment of money immedi-
ately on the passage Of the act.
Nor have the forty eight states as yet
all asked for any of their portion OF
federal aid, although practically all
have signif1ed their intention to do 80.
Some Of them have no highway COM
Missions and highway commission
or department state must have be-
fore It can get any federal money. In
diana, Texas and South Carolina, for
instance, must create and organize
highway departments or commissions.
Other states were in another sort OF
difficulty Kansas, Wyoming and
South Dakota were unable under their
constitutions to spend state money on
internal Improvements which were
considered strictly county matters.
The last two states altered this law at
the last election, but Kansas, as a
state, II still unable to negotiate with
tho government. TO get its proportion
Of federal aid Kansas must work
through I highway department created
by her counties rather than her state
legislature- she changes her or
ganic law.
The federal government has appro-
priatpd 100000 for road expendi-
lures IA 1917, SIC, 100000 for 1918, $751;
10000 for 1919, $2OyOOO.000 for 1920
and }25,OOO,0O0 for 1921, Of which 3
per cent Il for administrative purposes,
leaving 81, 10000 for roads. The law
provides that the federal government
shall not contribute more than 80 per
cent to the financing of any road prof.
ect ia any state. The money Is appor-
toned on q three factor basis-popula-
ton, area and mileage of rural star
routes, each factor having one-third
weight.
The state must submit its project, its
plans and specifications for a certain
road or roads which 1t believes will
serve It well and on which it is willing
to spend enough money. matching the
federal government dollar for dollar, to
produce the kind of road which will be
satisfactory to the secretary Of agricul-
ture.
II after consideration the project of
the state Is not considered one which
viii be Of material benefit not only to
the state as state, but to the state as
one OF forty-eight states, then federal
participation can be and will be denied.
Thus state planning a short piece OF
road interconnecting two central coun-
ties, which pieces of road formed no
part of any state system or possible ma
tional system, would doubtless be re-
fused federal participation in its build
ing.
Pennsylvania Active For Good Roads.
A bond issue totaling $4,000, 600 Is