The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-02-27
HIGHWAY COMM SSION FALTERS

It is rather disappointing to those who have watched highway developments in Ala bama, and who had expected a more en- lightened policy from the present highway commission, to discover that almost the first highway approved by the commission, under the new program of so;ng ahead with state money without waiting for federal funds, is not part of the seven per cent. system ap- proved by the federal government, and there f6re cannot nope to be matched later by secleral funos. Although the state highway amer ilnent does not make it obligatory on tte, commission to follow the federal routes, ytt be people If Alabama approved the bond isua on the understanding that it would be use,' ie connection with federal funds. Tie sta:e highwa! connecting Livingston and Eutaw has 5een scheduled around by way of Gainesville, instead of by way of Boligee. although the Boligee route is seven and Q half miles shorter and is approved by the federal , government, as part of the seven per cent" system.
 Chairman Rogers appears impressed by the argument that the longer route is already partly constructed and would therefore mean less cost. It is such logic as this which has kept Alabama from enjoying good roads ere this. If Chairman Rogers believes that a road is local affair, or that the first cost Is the total cost, his conclusion is in harmony with his own ideas, but not with the actual facts. State highways are not local affairs. To impose upon all future travellers an ad- ditional journey of seven and a half miles between Livingston and Eutaw is to impose upon them unjust and unnecessary tax Of not less than twenty cents per vehicle per trip. The shOrtsighted saving on first cost would thus i'll years to come be offset by an unnecessary tax on travellers many times as great Furthermore, that seven and half miles will be seven and half miles addi- tienal in perpetuity for the state to construct and maintain, unless wiser commission in ' the near future shall cause the route to bu altered It is noted that Commissioner Scruggs. who has shown himself to be pos sessed of unusual intelligence in these matt ters differed with his colleagues and voted for the more direct and in the long run, the more economical and publicly beneficial route.
 If this were to be the only departure from the policy of most direct routes, doubtless there would be no serious ground for appre- hension. but the dangerous fact is that the board has fOrsaken defensible principle in this its first test. Having departed from principle based on the greatest and widest , public service, the commission may now be expected to drift about on the seas of uncer- tain destination, blown by the various and conflicting winds of community disagree ments. It is remembered that the Chairman Rogers of the old political commission is also the Chairman Rogers of the new commission. and that apparently he has not vet discovered why it was that there was great public ex- Dression of disapproval of the old commis- sion, Il disapproval that impelled the legisla- ture to abolish the old commission. The new commission, with q great opportunity of con structive achievement before it, is being mis- ted III the same manner as the Olil commS- eAon. It is unfortunate.