The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-04-04

| about a month ago, there Is available
 something like s2s1, ,0Oo, 900 to be distributed
 among the states in proportion to popula- | tion. mail routes and other considera- tions, upon condition that the states ap
 propriate sums equal to the amount set aside by the government. Under the ap- portionment Alabama is entitled to about 1 S6,Oo0 900, which the state must match dol | lar for dollar.
 PERMANENT ROADS
 The bill provides that the roads are to
 be built at such places as the states may designate and of the materials selected
 by the states, he said, but 1t must be ot
 a lasting kind and meet the approval of the engineering bureau of the department of roads. Under this provision there will be two checks, one by the state and one by the government, so that good and last ing roads are assured.
 The legislature meets again in July, he stated, and as it will not ineet again for four years it is necessary that action be taken at that time in order that Alabama may get her share of the federal money. The federal appropriation extends over a period of three years and at the end of that time it will be too late for the state to act he said: the money will have gone to other states that have accepted the | Alabama will have lost what was of- ;fered them and paid for what the other fellow got.
 He declared,t that Alabama is foremost in many things, that it was foremost in the matter of legislation on this subject as it was an Alabama senator who blazed the way for the federal appropriation that Alabama boys were foremost in , the army He here related converse | prh WI h0 | commanded the army to which rhe '167th regiment, the old Fourth Alabama l was attached at the battle of Chateau Thierry where they distinguished them
 selves.
 { He said:-"while the 167th was on Long
 Island awaiting transport to France they and the 69th, New York regiment guyed each other. the New Workers telling the Alabama boys that they would fight well If they ever got up. but that they were too slow to ever get into battle. When 1 he New Workers gained their objective at Chateau Thierry, the general said, they | inquired about the Alabama boys who I were supposed to. be at their right. Somebody went down the line to find out about them and found that the Ala bamians had not only taken their ob- jectives but had dug in. The New Workers didn't guy the Alabama boys about being slow after that
 1 Senator Underwood suggested that no greater monument to the boys who fought 1 in France could be erected than perma- nent road and urged the building of the greatest highway system in the world | right here in Alabama.
 THE AUTO TAX
 w. F. Wilcox of Birmingham, ] temporary secretary of the asso-
 citation, reading from data in his
 hands, stated that in 1914 the auto
 mobile license tax collected in Ala
 bama was $10O,OOO; in 1916, &le7.-
 900; in 1917, $308, ,OO0, in 1918, e45O.-
 GOO, and in 1919 he lestiated it would 1 be &8OO,OOO, and by the time the
 roads are built under the provisions l of the federal aid bill they will
 amount to $1,OO0.OGO a year.
 1 He made calculations showing that out of this tax the interest on the bond issue to meet the federal appropriation l could be paid, 8 sinking fund provided and several hundred thousand dollars Annually left to maintain the roads. ] J. T. Bullen, district engineer of the | federal department of roads. in charge
 of Alabama, Georgia and one or two other states, stated that Alabama leads all the states in his district in good roads projects, but in order to avail it. | self of the federal appropriation she must act at once. Not only will delay | cause the loss of the appropriation, but also the engineers and contractors who will be in great demand within short l time. A..a l He said the day of the narrow road | is passed, that with the increased traf- l fic and the heavy trucks roadways at l least 20 feet wide are essential.
 | Senator John Craft of Mobile, one of I the oldest good roads advocates in the state, declared that as a taxpayer he | favored good roads and that he wanted Alabama to build and maintin the best roads of all the states. He said the au- 1 tomobile owners sustain an annual loss l of $7,000,00 because of bad roads. that cotton growers lose $2,500,000 year in 1 the haulage of their cotton. cotton seed and fertilizers, and that the invisi- l ble mud tax had cost the people of Alabama $100, 900. Declaring that the I 4S0O miles of railway in Alabama can not serve all the people in the state, l he insisted that they must have good highways over which to haul their prod l ucts and communicate with their neigh | bors. He advocated bond issue, the 1 interest and sinking fund for which to | be paid out of the automobile license tax
 SOME LIVE DISCUSSION Judge J. H. Nathan of Sheffield stated that the good roadS movement began ! in Colbert county 29 years ago, but 1t had been a difficult matter to get the people to agree to taxing themselves to build them. He said the people want ! them now, however, and he advocated | constitutional amendment that would enable the state to issue bonds to build | roads.
 l Senator John A. Rogers of Sumter
 county said the old county plan of
 building roads must go. that the rich
 counties building good roads to their /! boundrfes would run up against bad
 roads in the adjoining poor counties. | and that it must be state and a na- tional proposition. He suggested an i amendment to the federal constitution l that would require the government to | build bridges across navigable streams, l and he also advocated an increase of 25 per cent in the automobile license tax, 1 and the application of every cent raised | from that tax to the roads. He also
 said he favored the passage of an act | submitting to a vote of the people the question of a $20,000,000 bond issue for road construction, to be issued as the roads are built and not all at one time.