Milford chronicle., 1925-10-02
Questions Raised In Road Build
ing Answered Upon Basis Of
Basic Wealth.
REVENUE SOURCES TRACED
Highway Officials Speak For States
That Put Flour In Bins And
Flour On The Shelf.

DllAo - q Qu6SllOu WHICH, Ids D661
raised recently in connection will
the road building program of the
various states in cooperation witt
the Federal government.
In an effort to present a true ans.
wer to the public, and one devoid Oi
all trace of deceptive calculation
the American Association Of State
Highway Officials has gone into the
matter exhaustiYely.
Rich states, according to a state
ment just issued by the Association
point to their percentages of inter-
nal revenue payments and assert
that, they are paying more than
their due share of Federal highway
construction costs, considering the
amounts they get back.
Other states not so rich in nation
tai wealth but exceeding the social
ed rich states in basic value, assert
that since all national wealth is de-
rived from basic wealth, this latter
should be largely the standard by
which states are to be credited in
helping the Federal government
meets it's bills. 1t is their conten-
tion, in the main, that states which
put flour in the bin and bacon on
the shelf are entitled to equal con-
sideration with other states that
show on the surface the largest cash
payments to Uncle Sam, for the far
mers today are called upon to fur
nish food for 80 of our 110 million
people. By basic wealth is meant
the value of one years production of
wealth from minerals, forest, ami
mails, and agriculture.
Basic wealth gets the least return
for it's products. Many crops are
perishable and must take the mar
ket price offered.
In considering the matter, high
way officials contend that national
view point should be taken.
when the Federal government
wants funds to meet its obligations"
say the officials, Citizens are called
upon irrespective of residence to
pay according to their means.
States, as such, have no obligations,
and tabulation of receipts for the
Federal Treasury, by states, is mis-
leading, unfair and in many cases
far from the truth as to who meets
the assessments. Probably the ideal
way of considering the real busi-
ness affairs of the Nation as trans
acted by present day methods would
be to discard all state lines and con-
slider New York, Boston, Philadel-
phia, Baltimore, New Orleans, st.
Louis, Chicago, San Francisco, ETC.,
as clearing house centers. But we
have been in the habit of telling
what this state does and what that
state has accomplished, so long, that
certain results are tabulated as by
states, when in reality some states
would actually starve if it were not
for their neighbors. They have
plenty of gold in the till but no hills |
on which to Craze the cattle. Some |
of the richest states in the Union do |
not annually produce one half of
one per cent of the basic wealth so
necessary to our very National eX-
istence.
Some people are born in one
state, educated in another, and at
tain business success in another
always at home and proudly Ameri-
can. others are like one of the early
who, going twelve miles
west of Boston, celebrated the event
by erecting a stake on which he had
THUS far shall civiliza-
ion go and no farther"
For the purpose of making their
point that basic rather than nation
Il wealth should govern largely in
king the position of states in their
toward Federal eXpend-
lures, highway officials have select
ID the first fifteen ranking states in
,asic wealth, to show their basic
wealth percentages as compared to
heir percentages of the total ma
iOnal wealth, and their percentages
f total payments through internal
evenue and population. States
anking in basic wealth are given
1 the following order: Pennsylva-
ia, Texas, Illinois, California, To-
"a, Ohio, Oklahoma, Missouri, Min
esOta, New York, Kansas Indiana,
Michigan and West Vir- l
mia.
AS a group, these states, compris-
g less than one third of the nation
rovide, according to government S
GIG per cent of the ma
1n's basic wealth, 64.3 per cent Of d
5 national wealth and they pay 4
IA per cent of the total internal n
venue from a population repre-
nting 58.7 per cent of the whole. j
Among states that put flour in the p
n and baco non the shelf, Kansas
d Iowa afford excellent examples. 81
lie latter state, with % per cent of
e total population pays only .06 "
+ cent of the total internal reve- "
e but it produces 3.3 per cent of
e national wealth and gives the cl
tion 4.S per cent Of its basic "
,alth. al
Kansas gives the nation 80 per
ut of its basic wealth and is cred W
d with 20 per cent of the nation
wealth and yet it pays only .O7 81
r cent of the total internal reve- P
e because its basic products go
other states. h;
New York, from the standpoint Of e1
sic wealth, ranks tenth in the to-
value of basic products, whereas W
va ranks fifth and Kansas elev-
h. nj
From the foregoing it is claimed
1t the answer to the question Bl
-ho pays "Uncle Sans bills" if it M
to be answered in economic JUS
2, is found largely in basic wealth M
he source of all national wealth, en-
the initial source from which in
nal revenue funds start, no mat sp
in what geographical division the Nj
Il checks are written.
L.