REPORT OF THE CHIEF OF THE BUREAU OF PUBLIC ROADS. 



United States Department of Agriculture, 



Bureau of Public Roads, 

 Washington, D. C, October, 15, 1922. 



Sir: I have the honor to submit herewith the report of the Bureau 

 of Pubhc Roads for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1922. 



Thos. H. MacDonald, 



Chief of Bureau. 

 Hon. Henry C. Wallace, 



Secretary of Agriculture. 



INTRODUCTION. 



Without overstatement it may be said that greater progress has 

 been made in providing the means of highway transportation during 

 the fiscal year 1922 than in any similar period in the history of the 

 country. Industrial and financial conditions were better, as a 

 whole, than they have been at any time since before the war, and as 

 a consequence remarkable progress has been made in highway 

 construction under the States and counties as well as under the 

 joint control of the Government and States. 



Ten thousand miles have been added to the Federal-aid roads 

 alone, and doubtless more than an equal mileage has been constructed 

 without Federal assistance. And there is now apparent a real 

 public appreciation of the importance of maintaining the roads 

 that are built, an appreciation developed in large measure by the 

 forceful words of the President in his message to Congress. 



More significant, however, than the progress in the physical work 

 of road construction, or any other accomplishments of the year, are 

 two developments the results of which are not immediately apparent, 

 and which can not be measured in miles or dollars and cents, but 

 which promise results for the future unequaled by any develop- 

 ments of the quarter century of highway activity. 



First of these is the passage of the Federal highway act with its 

 plan for a connected system of roads for the whole Nation; the second 

 is the extraordinary activity in economic and physical research in 

 connection with the financing, location, management, and design of 

 the highways. For more than two decades there has been in progress 

 a slow but certain development of highway construction from a 

 casual activity in the hands of unskilled local officials without plan 

 or program, other than to maintain an established minimum of 

 facility in highway transportation, toward a reasoned industry in 

 the hands of State"^and national officials, supplemented by intelligent 

 local aid, the aim of which is to provide complete and economical 

 highway transport service throughout the Nation. 



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