REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR OF THE BUREAU OF PUBLIC 



ROADS. 



United States Departiment or Agriculture, 



Bureau or Public Roads, 

 Washington, D. 6'., October 11^, 1918. 



Sir: I have the honor to submit herewith the Report of the Office 

 of Public Roads and Rural Engineering^ for the fiscal j^ear ended 

 June 30, 1918. 



Respectfully, 



L. W. Page, Director. 

 Hon. D. F. Houston, 



Secretary of Agriculture. 



WAR WORK. 



At the time the United States entered the war there were on the 

 rolls of the Office of Public Roads and Rural Engineering 187 male 

 emploj'ees. Of this number 52, or 28 per cent, entered the military 

 service between that time and the close of the fiscal year 1918. It 

 may be added that the number of those entering the military service 

 from June 30 to September 30, inclusive, has brought the total to 

 72, or 35 per cent of the male employees who were in the Office on 

 April 6, 1917. 



Engineers to the number of 18 have been assigned to Army posts 

 and cantonments for the purpose of supervising and inspecting high- 

 way construction, involving several hundred miles of roads of vary- 

 ing types from sand-clay to concrete; at Quantico, Va., for the Ma- 

 rine corps, and at Gunpowder, Md., for the Edgewood Arsenal of 

 the Bureau of Orchiance. 



An engineer was assigned on March 5, 1918, to aid the United 

 States Shipping Board Housing Corporation in working out high- 

 w^ay and street problems in connection with the various housing 

 projects. This arrangement continued throughout the remainder of 

 the fiscal year. 



A similar arrangement was made with the United States Housing 

 Corporation of the Department of Labor. The engineer assigned 

 to that duty did not begin active cooperation, however, until July, 

 1918. 



I In the act making appropriations for the Department of Agrirulture for the fiscal 

 year ending June 30, 1919, the title of the Office of Public Roads and Rural Engineering 

 is changed to Bureau of Public Roads. 



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