1 62 AGRICUI^TURE OF MAINE. 



I have believed it right to sound this warning, not becau ,e 

 Maine is at present indulging in any loose financiering for it is 

 not, but because there is a tendency among certain people in 

 this state not to be content with the plan already on its way 

 to execution, who will advocate strongly in the next session of 

 the legislature bonding schemes of many kinds that will then 

 justify this brief consideration of this matter, 



PROGRESS IN MAINE. 



So far as the good roads movement in our state is con- 

 cerned we have made already magnificent progress. We have 

 authorized the issuance of bonds to the extent of $2,000,000, 

 some of which have already been sold, and we ha-we made 

 substantial increase in the amount of money raised from direct 

 taxation to be devoted to other highway matters. I venture to 

 5-ay that no commonwealth in this country has worked out a 

 saner and more secure financial plan in connection with this 

 matter than Maine. When I first proposed the idea of cap- 

 italizing the automobile fees by using them to pay the interest 

 and the sinking fund upon the state of Maine bond issue of 

 $2,000,000 for highways, the amount of money from these re- 

 ceipts was slightly in excess of $100,000 per annum, and some 

 people to whom I talked concerning the bond issue believed 

 that the high-water mark had been reached, that the automobile 

 was largely a fa'd and that there was no certainty whatever of 

 the continuation of its use and therefore the continuation of the 

 fees received from its use: — but a year after this plan was 

 first proposed and before a single dollar's worth of bonds had 

 been sold, the automobile fees in this state had increased over 

 35%. Tlie result is that there is absolutely no room for doubt 

 that the amount of money derived from this source will posi- 

 tively and effectively take care of the $2,000,000 issue without, 

 a single penny of increased taxation upon anyone, and it will 

 go much farther than this and leave a substantial balance to be 

 devoted to the maintenance of the highways that this bond 

 issue shall build. 



The state of Maine has, therefore, taken a great step for- 

 ward in its treatment of the highway problem. It has amended 

 its constitution to permit the borrowing of a limited amount of 



