554 ANNl'AL KKI'OKl OK IIIL: Utt. Doc. 



PENNSYLVANIA'S ROAD SYSTEM. 



By HON. JOHN HAMILTON, State Secretary of Agriculture, Barrisbunj, Pa. Delivered before the 

 Iiitfrnational Good Roads Congress, Buffalo, Sept. 16, 1901. 



Ill i't'Uiisylvauia wc have beeu eiideavoriug to get State aid, and we 

 have reached the point where the people of the State, as a rule, be- 

 lieve that State aid is the only solution of the road question. 



I think that in the discussion of this subject, we ought to take into 

 account, the dilference that exists in the several States, as to the 

 methods of taxation. I understand that in the State of New York 

 real estate is taxed for State purposes, so that when the State makes 

 an appropriation for a road, it simply returns to those who own real 

 estate, some of the money that they have already contributed. In 

 Pennsylvania it is diiferent. We have no tax on real estate for 

 State purposes, and the appropriation that is made by the State leg- 

 islature comes from corporations and other sources of income that 

 are geoeral, and does not fall upon real estate owners at all, but on 

 personal property-, money at interest, etc. Thus in Pennsylvania, 

 State aid to the townships, the agricultural districts, means receiv- 

 ing money from the State by country peop]e,'?oA?rA they did not con- 

 tribute^ but which came from other sources. Now, I believe that 

 these other interests, which are taxed, are just as much interested 

 and just as much benefited, by the improvement of the roads through 

 the country districts, as the country people themselves, and that it 

 is not a bonus or a gift to the country people to provide this State aid 

 from this fund, but it is simply an investment, on the part of the 

 State, for the improvement of all of the interests of the Common- 

 wealth. State aid, has now come to be regarded in Pennsylvania, 

 as an essential feature of any system of road improvement. There 

 is oo difference of opinion on that point, and we should have had it 

 before this. In the legislature of lSi)7 there would have been no 

 difficulty in obtaining an appropriation of .f 1,000,000 for the construc- 

 tion of iinblic roads, had it not been that our capitol had just been 

 destroyed, and immediate provision had to be made for its recon- 

 struction; therefore it was impossible to secure the money, at that 

 time, for good roads. I speak of that time, because at that particu- 

 lar session of the legislature, the good roads law of Pennsylvania 

 was enacted, and there was attached to the bill, a proviso, which 



