Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-10-27
ILLUSIONS VEIL
ROAD LEGISLATION
"Farm-to- Market" Highways
Proves Deceptive Phrase.
Threatens to Come Up Again.
BY JAMES w. BROOKS,
Director, American Highway Educational
Bureau.


From the passage of the first highway
law at jamestown, in 1882, down to this
good hour the whole course of highway
progress Is strewn, in f1gurative sense,
with the debris Of impractical ideas.
No sooner was one illusion dispelled
than another showed up, until, by and
by, the first illusion was back again.
clothed in its customary habiliments OF
false logic. Experiments, legislative ana
otherwise, have cost taxpayers much,
and it, Is not amiss to be on guard
against the deceptive phrases in high
way educational work which tend to-
ward wasteful and altogether tmpracti-
cal highway investments.
One illusion which has been laid low
many times in State and National legls-
lative debate on highway matters dur
ing the past IL years again threatens
to show up and will result only in con-
fusion in the public mind as TO what
constitutes true highway progress.
Farmer Gets Benefit.
This illusion is cloaked, as before, IN
the misleading phrase Of farm to-nlar-
ket" roads and carries with 1t an I'M
plication that the farmers interests are
not being taken care of properly, that
he Is being left In the mud, while roads
are being built elsewhere, despite the
fact that every road Is a farm-to-Inar-
ket road, regardless of whether con-
struction starts at the farmers gate or
at the more logical point where tonnage
begins to converge and increase on tne
way to his trading point. 1t Is MS road
! and his neighbours road al tne way
The phrase is demagogic in the extreme,
| whether its aim be political or otner-
wise. That any plan which has Tor It's
main objective the securing OF Feoeral
| aid on back roads Is impossible OF prac-
| tical fulfillment at the present state IN
road building, may be seen Teaolly
| from a glance at the back-roao mileage
The impossibility OF the practical Im i..
fillment Of plan of this kind is reaalV
seen when the details are given SUM-
cient study. In the first place, there
are approximately 1,270,000 miles o!
mail route roads. If 1925, 000, 600 should
| be appropriated to cover a three-yeaE
period. as has been proposed in Congress
| with the aim of creating secondary
Federal aid zone In road building, the
amount which might thus be mace
available for back roads would not ap-
proximate over 1920 per mile per year,
| taking Federal aid and the States snare
together. The per mile fund so provided
| would be less than the annual per mile
maintenance cost on the type OF ROAD
which SO limited a fund would be able
| to buy. And this does not take into
consideration the fact that in appro--
priating Federal funds for highways II
Is required that the money must be
spent under Federal and State supervi-
| sion, which naturally would entail adoll-
tional expense on the part of Federal
| and State governments, so that the
money referred to could not all be ex-
pended on the highway.
Plan Held Impracticable.
The impracticability of the plan Is
readily apparent and would really defeat
the purpose which even its friends
contemplate. Besides, this proposed
plan would naturally take from the
Federal Treasury funds that should be
expended in completing the main sys-
tenn already under construction, every
mile of which is "farm-t market
road.
Altogether, such a step would lead
back to the very thing which caused
many States to embody in their respec-
tive constitutions the inhibition, as II
was usually termed, against pledgine
the States credit to SO perishable a
project as an earth road It required