The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-06-12
ROUNTREE SPEAKS . OF ROAD MEETING ! HELD AT CAPITAL
Advocates Continuous High ways Which, He Says, Are Not Being Realized In
 Present Methods

J. A. Rountree, director general of the United States Good Roads asso- 1. citation, has returned to headquar- . ters in Birmingham, after a two . weeks stay in Washington, where hc has been with a committee of 25 z from that number of states that went to Washington as a Joint com mittee from the United States Good Roads association and Bankhead Na- tional Highway association. to urge !. Congress to continue federal aid to 1. build a system of highways through { out the nation, by appropriating |. $100.000,0o0 annually for the next five years.
 Mir. Rountree was spokesman for this committee, which appeared be- fore the Senate committee on post offices and post roads, of which Sen ator Charles E. Townsend of Mich igan Is chairman. and who is author of the Townsend highway bill.
 In speaking yesterday of the mat ters discussed in Washington, Mir. Rountree sad;
 May 26 I appeared before the Sen. ate committee on postoffices and T post roads as spokesman for a com smittee of 25 from as many states which had come to Washington as representatives of the United States Good Roads association and the Bankhead National Highway asso-, citation expressly for the purpose of advocating the continuance of fed eral aid in road building. This con,- mittee was assembled and proceeded to Washington on the invitation of .. of this committee.
 s Has No system *
 ssrn the course of my preliminary address and also the cross-examina- tfon conducted by Senator Heflin brought out the principal facts, that Alabama did not have system of highways. save on blue print map. that federal aid was being scattered in all parts of the state and littlo T dabs of roads were being built, that roads in Alabama were not main- tained and had not been maintained by the state.
 But the governor and state en- gineer wired denials of these state- n1ents, and the state highway en- gineer went to Washington and ap- peared before the Senate committee. In so doing he proved the very best witness that could have been secured for the abandonment of the present plan. In spite of his general denial of my statements, he, on cross ex- animation, substantiated every as- sertion. and there stands on the written records his testimony to the effect there are 43 federal aid prof ects scattered in all parts of the state, that the larger counties of the state had secured n major portion of federal aid funds because the smaller counties did not have the money to match federal aid, that Jefferson county alone had secured more than s500,O00 out of s800,000 that had been allotted to the state: that, using his own words, We have built in Alabama counties and under the old state aid plan number of sections of road, and there will be a missing link here and a missing link there.' that up until this year the state had not sufficient funds to maintain the roads that were con- structed and we have had to rely on counties to maintain the roads,
 Advocates Change
 "In advocating a change in tho present administration of federal aid I do so in the belief that 1t would have the approval sof the late the past several years had made u Senator Bankhead were he alive. He has told me that the experience oS evident that certain changes would be necessary and essential.
 "Without going into & detailed discussion of the Townsend bill. beg to state that 1t will continue federal aid as fought for by the late Senator Bankhead, but it stipulates that the fund must be placed on city -to-city, county -to-county and state to-state highways so as to pro- vide roads of economic importances and roads that lead somewhere. It provides that the burden of such construction be shifted from the counties to the state, thus relieving rthe counties of this burden and per- smitting them to use their money on tributary and lateral roads and pro- viding real channels of trade for the farmer and truck traffic"