The Cordova daily times., 1921-03-16
GOOD ROADS TO BE SUBJECT BY
 NEW CONGRESS
BY COL. WINFIELD JONES

l COrreSpondence). - The special ses- sion of congress which President
 Harding will call early in April is expected to pass the federal good roads bill. This measure has the i support of the department of agricul- ture and authorizes the expenditure by the federal government of $100,- ! 100000 for good roads during the coming fiscal year, which begins next July 1. The $100,000,000 fund is to be distributed on a fifty-fifty basis, 1 in cooperation with the states, on a proportionate basis of population, area and mileage of government mail routes. The money will be expended by the bureau of good roads of the 1 department of agriculture, and by the state highway departments of the | forty eight states.
 The benefits of good toads are too well known to describe in a news paper article. One benefit, however, i has been generally overlooked at this time. That is the continued ment in good road building will mean the employment of many persons 1 who are now out of work, and any thing at this time that gives employ ment to the millions who are now 1 seeking work is certain to be of bene- fit to the country at large. The principal benefit of good roads is the improvement in the avenues of quick ly getting perishable food supplies from the farms to the Centers of population. Good roads also improve the morale, as it were, of the whole farm population, as it enables the people who live in the country to get i into easier touch with centers of trade, to say nothing of the better accessibility of places of worship and amusement. Improvemed roads Cl"a.@ly Jlo Ike for greater content ment on the farms. as well as in- crease the productivity and profits of agriculture.
 In the last five years the federal government has expended $275,O0O,- 1 900 for improving roads, and the various states an equal sum. Accord | ing to the good roads bureau of the department of agriculture there is now under contract but $77,O0O,OOO of road improvement The last ap- propriation will run out on July 1 next. Ten of the states, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois Florida, Delaware
 Maryland, Rhode sland, Washington, Kentucky and West Virginia have exhausted all of their road build. ing funds. Twenty-Five other states f will have used up all of their road funds before or by July 1 next. If congress should fail to make the big | appropriation for good roads thirty five of the states, therefore, would have to cease improving their roads, ! cerned.
 Officials of the good roads bu-
 reau said today there will be spent
 ia the next fiscal year, including in dependent state aid, more than one
 billion dollars for improving the roads of the country. The program, looked at as whole, includes the linking up throughout the whole country of the 1 principal market centers, interstate and intrastate
 1 Bureau officials and congressman
 explained that the primary import ance of improving the nations high
 ways lies in and directly contributes
 to the prosperity and contentment of the entire population, and that noth-
 ing congress can do would be more beneficial than continued and per
 sistent good road improvement. The
 importance of having good roads stretching over the whole country is seen in one statement of Herbert
 Hoover, during the World war, in
 which MT. Hoover said that at least
 50 per cent of the perishable food products raised in the United States did not reach the market because of lack of suitable roads.
 There is another angie to the good roads problem, and that is national defense. With fine highways all over
 the country. particularly on the At lantic, Pacific and Gull coast sea
 boards, it would be possible to rapid ly shift American armies who might
 be called upon to repel an invading enemy, should our shores be open to
 attack in event the American fleets
 should be defeated at sea ore bottled up in our harbors by superior force
 Some congressman have made ex- haustive studies of this angle of the
 good roads movement, going back