Evening star., 1921-02-20
BY WILL p. KENNEDY.

EFINITE action by Congress
giving assurance that the
pledge of both of the major
political parties for contin-
uance of federal aid in road building
is going to be fulfilled has brought
relief to all of the forty-eight states,
and especially to thirty-five states
which would have to suspend their
road construction program at the be-
ginning of the new fiscal year.
The House has passed the Sells bill,
supported by the Secretary of Agri-
culture, by the chief of the bureau
| of public roads and by the state high
way departments of the forty-eight
states. 1t authorizes the expendi-
ture by the federal government of
| $100.000,000 during the fiscal year be-
ginning July 1. in fifty-fifty co-opera-
tion with the several states. the fed
| eral funds being apportioned among
| the states on a composite basis of
| population, area and mileage of mail
| routes.
/ To expedite action in the Senate so
| that the states may, know at the ear
! Hest possible moment whether they
can continue their ad-building pro-
gram, Senator Swanson of Virginia
has offered an amendment to the post
office appropriation bill carrying this
same amount. Senator Swanson was
| most active in putting through the
original act for federal aid in con-
struction of better highways in 1912.
The benefits of good roads -construc-
tion generally throughout the coun-
try are too well known to require re-
counting here, but briefly it may be
pointed out that the assurance of con-
tinued federal cooperation now
means that employment on the high
ways will be given to many persons
in practically every state in the
Union. they will furnish an avenue
for getting perishable food products
to market. they will work for greater
contentment on the farms by making
them nearer to the pleasures and en-
tertainments of the cities, and in these
days of universal automobiling they
stretch out in great interlocking high
ways for tourists from every state in
the Union.
Reason for Federal Participation.
Federal participation in this building
program is justified. Congress feels. not
only on the ground that the central gov
ernment should aid in development of
the outlying territory. but because the
federal government itself uses those
| highways. For example. during the war
| the great highways of Pennsylvania,
| New York and Maryland, which were
the best in the entire country We're
| torn to pieces by the heavy Army trucks.
No state can tax the government for
use of these roads. even though the
government trucks do more damage to
them than other traffic. Uncle Sam also
uses all the roads throughout the coun-
| try for delivery of the mails. BY help
ing to build these roads the federal gov
f, ernment proposes to do it's share fairly
towards the several states.
The national government has appropri-
ated s275.000,0O0 on this good roads
program during the last five years, and
| these funds run out on July l. They
! are now all under contract but $77,
600.
There are now ten states. Delaware,
Florida, Georgia. Idaho. Illinois, Louis
vile, Maryland. Rhode Island, Washing
ton and West Virginia. which have en-
tirely exhausted their road-building
funds. There are twenty-five other
states that will have all of their funds
under contract before July. when the
present appropriation expires. These
thirty-fve out of the forty-eight states
could not go ahead with their road build
ing program if Congress failed to pass
the federal aid appropriation.
While the act provides that the fed
eral aid cannot be spent for more than
so per cent of the construction, in reality
the states have been putting up their
funds on an average proportion of 60
to 40. Thomas H. Mcdonald, chief of
the federal bureau of public roads, at a
meeting of roadbuilders in Chicago re-
Gently, stated that the federal aid pro-
gram during the next year will have
more than a billion dollars worth of
road construction under contract This
program contemplates continuous roads
connecting the leading market centers,
both intrastate and interstate.
In reply to some opposition on the