The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1922-02-14
Frederick Haskin's Letter
tepeaA oosrsspoadase - Arzn.l -
Road Building a Big Industry

I passed by congress in 1915 Ia
CURED the creation of a hiss
department in all states as a.4
dition of the allotment of fas WI
aid. Seventeen states 80 &c
highway departments as the T fs,s4
of that act, and many Others ~
strengthened and given ls sS.e
funds. "a ger
The 1922 program Of the bp,..
of public roads calls for Gems ,e-a
| ton work in all of the A gu. 1e'
Under the system, where the -.
agrees on-a project and to the 80 ~
OF highway to be built. the fa8a. y
| government spends dollar for =. =
lar with the state. Some ~ - ~
states, such as New York NJ. ,-s
chusetts, Pennsylvania and Is.
nois, while taking federal aid ~ -
some projects, independently an ~
struct large stretches of biobT.--
This rapidly growing indnst.-
not only will furnish stable a.
ployment for hundreds of H.
sands OF men each year. bBt :.
addition is creating a demand "a a
young men Of technical traiair,
We need about 1000 train
young engineers a year in the 80
highways departments and in IL
bureau says III. $. Fairbank es ,-'s
Tor highway engineer OF the h.
reau. There viii be posf,i9-.
open each year for fully 600 mr.
erly trained young men. and +,
order to giYa them the proper a5-
ditional specialized training and =,
improve its character in the fecb
nfcai schools and colleges fbs-.
was formed in 1920 a committee ~
develop courses to fit engineers fss
road work. It is gathering and civ
ing to the technical schools and cor-
leges the information that is ~
quired by the practical road hniI5
ing agencies"
Results Shown by Figures.
To be exact, II $50 miles of fa3.
eral roads were completed durir,
1921, involving federal money n
the amount of $94,057,OS9. and \
total expenditure of S2SI .963 6S3
These figures represent $685. mills
of road in projects wholly com.
pleted and 1888 miles. the e1uiya-
lent of work done on projects wbi.h
are not completed
SeVenty-five hundred miles wore
completed after the first Of July
These are the statistics of federal
aid only. the bureau saws, and
doubled they will approximate the
whose amount of new work done IN
the United States during the year
According to the bureau, there
was grand total of $500 900 600
spent on highway construction and
repair in the United States in 1921
by the federal governments and she
states. An estimate OF the deriya-
ton of this sum shows that IS Der
cent of the total expenditure was
derived from local bonds and coun-
ty, township and district taxes, CO
preparations and assessments.
per cent was derived
from state and federal sources. anu
only 10 per cent was derived from
the taxation Of motor vehicles. OF
the $420,000,O00 which it is estimat-
ed was expended for construction,
the local subdivisions raised more
than one-haIf, and motor vehicles
were charged with but Z per cent
On Jan. l, the bureau OF public
roads had available Sl2777II2i
for work on the 1922 program, and
up to Feb. l, Is states had advised
the bureau that they planned 20
spend from $1,000,0 600 to SIS 100000
for new highways this year.
The country is divided into 3
engineering districts by the bureau
If public roads. each district being
N charge of an engineer Head
quarters are in Washington, and
he force here now numbers 10
persons.