Good Roads

Good Roads

BY THE AMERICAN HIGHWAY ASSOCIATION

While encouraging progress has been made in the improve-ment of the public highways of the country, in the past five years,it is but a beginning. More than two million miles of roads overwhich the public business is conducted require attention. In thewinter, in many sections, they are impassable, and in the warmerseasons they are but clouds of dust. Compared with their materialwealth, the States, speaking generally, have been woefully neg-lectful of their interests. Speaking specifically, and calling names,the figures show how great this neglect has been. The immenseState of Texas, with property assessed for taxation at $2,500,-000,000, has 128,971 miles of public roads of which only 4,896miles have been improved. In other States a like condition existsas the following figures will show:

Nevada, assessed value of property, $107,794,729; miles of publicroads, 12,757; miles of "improved" roads, 62.

Iowa, assessed value, $3,365,930,064; miles of roads, 104,027; milesof "improved" roads, 2,505.

Montana, assessed value, $341,000,000; miles of roads, 23,319; milesof "improved" roads, 95.

Nebraska, assessed value, $325,974,928; miles of roads, 80,338; milesof "improved" roads, 249.

Colorado, assessed value, $422,439,525; miles of roads, 30,571; milesof "improved" roads, 304.

Illinois, assessed value, $2,422,361,952; miles of roads, 94,141; milesof "improved" roads, 9,000.

New York, assessed value, $11,385,137,127; miles of roads, 80,112;miles of "improved" roads, 22,398.

Wisconsin, assessed value, $2,998,187,705; miles of roads, 61,090;miles of "improved" roads, 11,163.

All of these are very wealthy states, and in some of them, atleast, there has been much talk by reformers and statesmen aboutefficiency in government, and the duty of sharing with the peoplein the benefits of wise and economical administration. There is noother matter that more nearly concerns all the people, the manwith the ox-cart creeping to market, and his more fortunateneighbor possessed of a motor car or prairie schooner alike, thanthe improvement of the public highways over which all musttravel; yet the "official" figures show that the upbuilding of publichighways has received, generally speaking again, scant attention.Tf the railroad systems were guilty of such neglect in the improve-

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ment and maintenance of their lines, not only would the businessof the country be paralyzed, but there would be instant and over-whelming demand for the revocation of their charters and thepenitentiary for their managers. Yet the public roads, which be-long in a special sense to the people, are fearfully, not to say crim-inally, neglected. Who are to blame? The people themselvesand their representatives in the state legislatures and in congress.Appropriations of millions of dollars are made for impossible har-bors on inacessible creeks; money is poured out like water for ex-perimentation in doubtful ventures of supposedly scientific value ;and old and wasteful methods of doing things in the name of thepeople which no prudent man would do for himself are followedbecause there are armies of political dependents for whom pro-vision must be made at the public expense, and who are providedfor without regard to the public interest, but at public cost. It isnot "The Crime of 1873" that should arouse the indignation of thepeople, but the crime of three centuries of neglect which showsthat, with wealth amounting to $150,000,000,000, there are in theUnited States today two million miles of unimproved public high-ways. It is the mission of the American Highway Association toremove this reproach from the American Republic, and in itscrusade it invites the co-operation of all who are interested in thepublic welfare.

Uniformity and efficiency are the two great factors in roadimprovement, each so related to the other that both are essentialto success. There must be uniformity of legislation and adminis-tration without which there can be no efficiency in the planning,building and maintenance of the public roads. The road that isbuilt for the benefit and convenience of a single community, andwithout regard to the benefit and convenience of other communi-ties, is at best nothing more than a single community road. Withthe public roads it is just as it used to be with the railroads, beforethey were brought together in great systems by which the remotestparts of the country were placed in the closest possible touch, anddistrict, state and sectional lines were obliterated to the incalcula-ble advantage of the whole people. Uniformity in rates, freedomin carriage, economy in administration, constant effort, at enor-mous expense in maintenance, have resulted in efficiency of ser-vice. Communities that were out of touch with the railroad sys-tems that were served by lines which began nowhere in particular,perished or found themselves fighting for existence when places onthe main lines flourished like the green bay tree. There wereabuses, of course, many of them, in the management of the rail-road systems; but these were in the main due to speculative con-trol, a condition which could not possibly obtain in the control ofthe public highways of the country which would remain under theimmediate direction of the people served by them. Continuity of

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public highway systems would not mean the centralization of man-agement and control in any body of directors, manifestly; butcontinuity of such systems would mean simply agreement amongthe townships, cities, districts and states as to routes, types of roa 1best suited to the traffic, construction, administration and main-tenance so that there would be uniformity in design and efficiencyin service.

In seventeen of the states the public roads are under thejurisdiction of boards of county commissioners elected by thepeople and without the least concern as to the fitness of the com-missioners so elected for the work entrusted to them. In otherstates the control of the roads is placed in the hands of countyboards of supervisors. In still other states the same importantservice is committed to county courts. Another group of stateshave both county and township systems of road management TnMissouri, where this system obtains, the county court, composedof three members none of whom, presumably, possesses the leastscientific or practical knowledge in road building, has full chargeof road affairs, divides the county into road districts, appoints ahighway engineer and overseers. This plan obtains in only 92counties in the state; in the remaining 20 counties the roads arecontrolled by township commissioners, so that in this state as inothers there is no uniformity of control, and the records show littleefficiency of service. In Alabama, the county probate judge, whois supposed to look especially after the estates of deceased per-sons, is one of the board of road commissioners. In Iowa, countyroad work is under the direction of county boards, and townshiproad work is under the control of township trustees. And so itgoes all over the country, there is division of authority, wheelswithin wheels, county against township and township againstcounty, and the states looking on without the courage to deal withthe road question as a purely business question divorced from localinfluences and political considerations. One of the purposes ofthe American Highway Association is to make possible efficientroad administration in the states and their subdivisions by theintroduction of skilled supervision and the elimination of politicsfrom the management of the public roads. Surely this is an endwhich all men will agree to be most desirable.

WASHINGTON, D. C.