40 ANNUAL EEPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OE AGRICULTURE. 



of nation-wide utility. The Federal Government, under the present 

 law, is aiding the State highway departments in the classification 

 of their roads on the basis of importance and needs, and Federal aid 

 is rapidly being extended for their improvement, on projects sub- 

 mitted b}^ the States and approved by this department. 



The present machinery for supervising road construction is the 

 Federal Bureau of Public Roads, one of the two most efficient 

 agencies of the kind in the world, and the 48 State highway com- 

 missions. These, in effect, constitute an expert national commis- 

 sion, intimately in touch through its various parts with all sections 

 of the Union, having no other purpose than that of serving the public 

 interest. It is difficult to see what need there can be for additional 

 or new machinery. Certainly, there is no necessity of creating a 

 separate Federal highway commission or of substituting for the 

 present cooperative program a plan which would commit or limit 

 expenditure to a federally owned and maintained highway systen). 

 Such a plan would not meet present needs. There is as yet too 

 much pioneer work required to trust the working out of proper high- 

 way policies to a small Federal commission. 



Very properly the Federal aid road act places on the highway 

 authorities of the several States responsibility, in large measure, 

 for selecting the roads to be constructed. Obviously the local 

 authorities are in a better position to judge what roads would serve 

 the largest economic needs than any group of men sitting in Wash- 

 ington would be. It is the duty of the Federal Bureau of Roads, 

 with its district engineers, to see that the provisions of the law are 

 complied with. It is giving, and will continue to give, all possible 

 assistance to the State authorities in all their technical problems, 

 as well as in the planning of State systems and in the classification 

 of roads. It has been the policy of the department from the out- 

 set, in order to prevent haphazard action, to have the State high- 

 way authorities prepare and present tentative State systems of loads. 

 It was apparent that rigid systems not subject to modifications as 

 conditions might require would be inadvisable. Each State has 

 worked out a system and, in general, it is being followed in the 

 development of projects and the construction of roads. In a num- 

 ber of instances systems in general terms have been adopted by the 

 legislatures. In formulating these systems, the engineers are giving 

 due regard to interstate connections, that is, to roads connecting the 



