No. 6. DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE. 413 



have applications, or as long stretches of road as possible, in order 

 to get up a pretty continuous line of road. It is true, however, 

 that in many localities, people who are not familiar with the road 

 question, who do not know what a good road means, are not willing 

 to go in it deeply enough to build more than the minimum length 

 of road allowed by the law. In such cases, it seems to me that it is 

 wise to build those little short pieces of road. The wisdom of that 

 has been shown wherever a short piece of road has been built, be- 

 cause it has stimulated the people to build more. 



I do not know that I can add anything further, excepting to cor- 

 rect a misapprehension which may exist in the minds of some, as 

 to the laws most recently enacted respecting road taxes. The State 

 aid measure, the one under which roads are rebuilt under the di- 

 rection of the State Highway Department, is the Sproul-Roberts 

 Road Law, originally passed in 1903, re-enacted, with some changes 

 and amendments, in 1905. The new law which controls the election 

 of supervisors is not the Sproul-Roberts law. I make this statement 

 because the newspapers of the State quite widely heralded the fact 

 that Judge Bouton, of McKean county had declared the Sproul- 

 Roberts law to be unconstitutional. 



I think, Mr. Chairman, that covers all I have to say, but I should 

 be glad to answer any question asked me. 



A Member: Mr. Chairman, I would like to ask a question in re- 

 gard to this road law. It appears that a law has been recently passed 

 that we are going to vote on this coming month; that is the one that 

 the gentleman has referred to. Now we have a law that is known 

 in the western part of the State as the Flinn Law and we have in 

 our county and adjoining counties three road laws in operation. 

 Now can we work under all three of those laws? 



MR. BEMAN: As to that, I will say that I think there is no ques- 

 tion but that you can work under all three of those laws, because, 

 as a matter of fact, when they are properly looked at, they are 

 complementary, the one to the other. State aid makes it possible for 

 roads to be constructed at less expense to local taxpayers, the 

 county paying one-eighth of the cost. Beyond a certain point, re- 

 construction by State aid cannot be carried out, because of the law's 

 restrictions, therefore, when applications from a given county have 

 been filed sufficient to consume the entire apportionment of any one 

 year, a halt is reached in the construction of roads by State aid. 

 If that county has funds at its hand, there is nothing tot prevent it 

 from going ahead with the work. 



MR, TAYLOR.: In Washington county they are putting up some of 

 that road in Mt. Pleasant township. We have different pieces under 

 the Flinn act going on at the same time. Now the point is this: 

 Mt. Tleasant township is paying a share of that under the Sproul act. 

 Now if the county puts up a part of the road under the Flinn act, they 

 must pay their proportionate share of that located in another part 

 of the county, and then under this recent act which we are going to 

 vote on, they put the money directly in their own road. Now the 

 question is with our people, is it right that we should pay so much 

 in road taxes in that way? 



