No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 379 



tion of a man who, having in bank |10,000, has outstanding checks, 

 not yet presented, to the amount of $5,000, We had a bank account 

 of 114,000,000, but outstanding checks against it of |7,000,000— a 

 trifling amount, but a very importanl one. After the officers told 

 me that, I asked for the receipts of the next two years, including 

 the $7,000,000, and I found it was between $46,000,000 and $47,000,- 

 000, and I was to sign bills appropriating $71,000,000. Now, it is 

 only the exceptional business man who is allowed to overdraw his 

 bank account. It might be desirable, but it would be unwise for 

 the bank to allow it, and so, if I had the greatest inclination in the 

 world, I could not sign those bills api^ropriating almost double our 

 anticipated income for the next two years. I had to cut the ap- 

 propriations and one of the bills cut in this manner was the good 

 roads bill. Now, I believe that the road laws are one of the most 

 important things in the country. One of the things the Executive 

 has to consider in signing appropriations is the question of the 

 greatest good to the greatest number. Now, there is nothing of 

 more importance to agriculture than good roads, but you can't do 

 it all in one year, nor in two years, nor even in three or four years. 

 You go to England and Scotland, and you find good roads, but they 

 were not built in a year, nor even in a few years; but it is the 

 result of the effort of man}-, many years. It is the greatest interest 

 to the common people that we must look for. 



Now, as to the automobile, I don't own one, not because I don't 

 like it, but because I feel that I cannot afford to own one. I sup- 

 pose I am somewhat in the position of the young man of whom his 

 father said ''Mv bov has certainlv succeeded in the automobile 

 business." ''Why?" said the other man, "I didn't know he owned 

 an automobile." "Oh," said the father, "he don't, but he is the 

 town constable, and he sweeps them in," I don't want to say any- 

 thing against the automobile, but I do think they are very hard 

 on State roads. When they run fifty or sixty miles an hour, 

 usually the latter, they take a good deal of the road with them. 

 Now, in New Jersey they certainly have fine roads, but they started 

 fifteen or twenty years ago. And you must remember that Penn- 

 sylvania, in addition to building good roads, appropriates the larg- 

 est amount of money to the public schools of any State in the 

 Union. Now, when it came to a choice between the public roads and 

 the public schools, I decided to cut the appropriation to roads, and 

 let the schools stand, because the roads can wait until the boy is 

 educated, if necessary. 



The question of State matters is a new one to me, and while I 

 am constantly learning, I have perhaps to-day learned more than 

 1 have in a long time, and I am willing to help anything that I can, 

 not only in the matter of good roads, but in everything else. We 

 are doing great things in Pennsylvania to-day. In addition to being 

 the foremost State in the matter of appropriations to public schools, 

 we are waging, as you know, a strong fight against tuberculosis, 

 and that in itself is a great thing. It is not only the cause of 

 large mortality in the human family, but it is the one thing that 

 the farmers of our country have the most trouble Avith. To study 

 and to fight this scourge, the State has appropriated $1,000,000, and 

 if we can fight it. as I am informed by practical scientific men that 

 we can do, it will be a wonderful thing. 



