508 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



railroads and the promotion of education. In the latter case it has 

 been successful in making available education to the hulividual vary- 

 ing from the most practical applications of agricultural science to 

 the highest collegiate instruction. 



Although the inauguration of the Federal-aid road program came 

 at the most diflicult period the country has faced in recent years, the 

 results of the past year indicate a most successful application of this 

 same Federal-aid principle to highway construction. When it is 

 remembered that for the year ending June 30, 1920, project agree- 

 ments were entered into between the Secretary of Agriculture and 

 the State highway departments providing for the construction of 

 5,790 miles of road at an estimated cost of $197,571,626, for which 

 the amount of Federal aid allotted is approximately S86,000,000, it 

 is apparent that the States are meeting the Federal Government 

 more than halfway in the program of highway construction which 

 is now well started. The States have been more than generous in 

 their support of the program. Wliere limitations on the cost per 

 mile now carried by the Federal-aid law threatened to prevent neces- 

 sary highway construction because of the prevailing high prices, the 

 States have disregarded the 50 per cent participation which the law 

 proposed and are largely meeting the advanced costs. In some cases 

 the participation of the Federal Government may be less than half 

 that contemplated in the original act. 



The State highway departments have, in general, evidenced a 

 spirit of cooperation with the Federal authorities that has placed the 

 whole administration of the act upon a most satisfactory basis. 

 There is every evidence that the Federal-aid plan of encouraging 

 highway building is fuKilling its purposes to an even greater degree 

 than might have been expected. Certainly the conditions which 

 have prevailed since 1916 would have prevented the successful opera- 

 tion of any plan that was not fundamentally sound. Considering 

 the Federal-aid act as it now stands as a partnership agreement 

 between the Federal Government and the States, the recommenda- 

 tions of the State highway departments should be given the greatest 

 weight in considering new legislation or modification of the law as it 

 now stands. It must be remembered that roads are first of all local 

 institutions, and that the greatest use made of the roads is by the 

 people who are served directly by them. There are interstate and 

 national uses which must also be considered, but these are so small a 

 percentage of the total use that they are not entitled to preferential 

 treatment except in very special cases. At the December meeting 

 of the American Association of State Highway Officials, which is 

 composed of the administrative and executive officers of all of the 

 State highway departments, resolutions were passed embodying the 

 following modifications and additions to the P^ederal-aid acts: 



First. Additional appropriations continuing at the rate of $100,- 

 000,000 per year for the building of post roads withhi the States. 



Second. A modification of the present equal ratio of cooperation 

 between the Federal Government and the States, whereby the portion 

 of the total cost of the road projects borne by the Federal Govern- 

 ment is increased in proportion to the amount of publicly owned land 

 within those States more than 10 per cent of whose area is such 

 public lands. In fixing the ratio of cooperation required frorn these 

 public-land States the area of forest lands is considered as privately 



