Nc (). UEPAKTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 585 



hua readc'ied il inoperative — that $i,(JUU,OUO sLould lirst be ai>[jio- 

 piiated, before the act could go into ettect. fc50 we have on our 

 statute book, a law, which we believe is iu good form, and will give 

 us good roads in Tennsylvania, as soon as it can go into eliect. It 

 could not go into eliect at the time of its passage for the reason 1 

 have stated. At the sessioii of the legislature two years ago (we 

 have biennial sessions) the finances of the State were in such a condi- 

 tion that it was impossible to get the money, and at the last legisla- 

 ture, there were other interests involved, which prevented our get- 

 ting the money. 



But Pennsylvania is going to have State aid, and I believe it will 

 come at the next session of the legislature. We had to appropriate 

 |4,00U,000 for a State capitol, and we have been paying some debts 

 that were on the Commonwealth, and this has kept back the appro- 

 priation of money for State aid. We are putting money, by hundreds 

 of thousands of dollars into forests, and the purchase, by the State, 

 of waste lands. That is on our hands, so that at present the funds 

 of the State seem to be demanded for other purposes. We had also 

 to add to the $11,000,000 appropriated for public schools, another mil- 

 lion dollars, which was taken out of the last appropriation. Al- 

 together the State has been loaded down with appropriations that 

 had to be met, and the matter of roads has been left in obeyance. As 

 1 say, I believe it will come, at the next session of the legislature, 

 two years hence. When it comes, there will come with it, in the bill 

 to which I have referred, a feature that I believe must be the founda- 

 tion of any and every system of good roads, wherever goods roads 

 are to be secured, namely, competent supervision. Before State aid 

 and before anything else can be done, and paramount to all, there 

 must be competent supervision. [Applause.] It is the greatest folly 

 to appropriate money, to go to men, who are incapable of expending it 

 judiciously. Much as I am interested — I have said it repeatedly 

 to members of the legislature and to our citizens — much as I am in- 

 terested in good roads in Pennsylvania, if I were in the legislature, 

 and $1,000,000 or |5,000,000 were to be given for public roads, and 

 its appropriation depended on my vote, under our present system of 

 supervision, I would vote "No." [Applause.] 



What is the system of supervision? It is simply of such a char- 

 acter as exists in many of the States, in which the selection, not of 

 the fittest, but of the most unfit, are made. By it meti are 

 selected, who are willing to stand out on the public roads for a 

 dollar and a half a day, and watch two or three other men do noth- 

 ing. So the first thing is to select men of intelligence, and we have 

 in our Commonwealth, as in the other States, plenty of men who 

 have the information, or who have the capacity for the acquirement 

 of iuformalion. in regard (o this matter. Tf we should select our 



