Governor Horner Vetoes 

 LA. A. Road Bills 



President Earl Smith Comments on Veto Message ' / 



THE I. A. A. drafted and sponsored 

 a series of five bills which were 

 popularly known as the farm-to- 

 market road bills. The bills were intro- 

 duced in the Senate by Senators Low- 

 man and Lantz and were entered in the 

 House by Representatives Sinnett and 

 Hunter. 



Briefly these bills provided that one- 

 half the amounts apportioned to Illi- 

 nois for roads and streets from the Fed- 

 eral Public Works fund should be used 

 for the construction of farm-to-market 

 roads. The money would be apportioned 

 among the several counties, one-half in 

 proportion to their total mileage of roads 

 and the other one-half in proportion to 

 their mileage of unimproved roads. The 

 bills provided that the specifications for 

 these roads should require not more than 

 a reasonable width of right of way, with 

 natural grades and surfacing with low 

 cost materials. These provisions were 

 included in order that the cost of these 

 roads might be held down and a greater 

 number of miles constructed with the 

 money available. 



It was contemplated that persons now 

 on relief would be used in constructing 

 these roads and also that in some cases 

 the materials and equipment might be 

 furnished by the highway authorities 

 and the labor by the relief authorities. 

 The bills permitted counties and town- 

 ship road districts to use their road ma- 

 chinery in the construction of these 

 roads. The bills passed the Senate by a 

 vote of 39 to nothing and the House by 

 a vote of 125 to nothing. With the ex- 

 ception of the bill permitting counties, 

 townships and road districts to use their 

 machinery for road construction with 

 relief labor, the bills were vetoed by 

 the Governor. 



The Governor's veto message upon 

 Senate bill 371, the key bill, is as follows: 



Horner's Veto Message 



To the Honorable, the Secretary of State: 

 I herewith file in your office Senate Bill 

 37X, entitled "An Act in relation to the con- 

 struction, improvement and maintenance of 

 secondary and feeder roads to provide work 

 relief, and the apportionment of funds 

 therefor." 



I veto and withhold my approval of this 

 Bill. The General Assembly by its adjourn- 

 ment having prevented the return of this 

 Bill to the House in which it originated 

 within ten days (Sundays excepted) after 



its presentation to me, the same is filed in 

 your office with my objections, which are 

 as follows: 



The Bill relates to the improvement and 

 construction of secondary roads with funds 

 apportioned to the State of Illinois by the 

 Federal Govemme'nt under the provisions of 

 House Joint Resolution 117 of the first ses- 

 sion of the 74th Congress of the United 

 States, making appropriations for relief 

 purposes. None of the provisions in this 

 Bill are of value or importance since they 

 in no wise extend the powers already pos- 

 sessed by the Department of Public Works 

 and Buildings. 

 The two principal provisions are: 

 (a) That unless otherwise required by the 

 Secretary of Agriculture or other agency 

 of the United States not less than 50% of 

 all sums apportioned by the Federal Gov- 

 ernment to the State for highway work 

 other than amounts allocated for grade 

 crossing elimination shall be use,d for sec- 

 ondary or feeder roads, and 



<b) That unless otherwise required by 

 the Secretary of Agriculture or other 

 agency, apportionment among the Counties 

 shall be one-half in the ratio which the 

 total mileage of roads outside municipalities 

 in each County bears to the total mileage 

 of such roads in the State, and one-half 

 in the ratio which the total mileage of un- 

 improved roads in each county bears to the 

 total mileage of unimproved roads in the 

 State, as shown by the latest records of the 

 Department of Public Works and Buildings. 



Inasmuch as neither of these require- 

 ments in Senate Bill 371 is in harmony with 

 the preliminary instructions already issued 

 by the Secretary of Agriculture, only 

 greater difficulties could come to the De- 

 partment by the adoption of this Bill, 



In regard to the first provision (a), it is 

 the intent of the Department, and its plans 

 now contemplate that a very substantial 

 proportion of the funds allotted by the Fed- 

 eral Government shall be devoted to the 

 improvement of secondary roads in Illinois, 

 insofar as the rules issued by the Secretary 

 of Agriculture will permit; while with re- 

 gard to the second provision (b) the Secre- 

 tary of Agriculture has already indicated 

 that the distribution of the work under this 

 fund shall be made not in accordance with 

 road mileage improved or unimproved, but 

 wholly in accordance with the number of 

 persons on relief. Furthermore, were the 

 Department bound by the provisions of 

 House Bill 371, those counties which by 

 their own enterprise have heretofore im- 

 proved large mileages of rural highways 

 might be penalized were the Department to 

 allot to them funds for secondary and 

 feeder roads, on the basis of total mileage 

 of road, and total mileage of unimproved 

 roads. 



Inasmuch as Senate Bill 371 can in no 

 way have any effect upon the rules issued 

 by the Secretary of Agriculture, and inas- 

 much as the State Department of Public 

 Works and Buildings is obliged to follow 

 the rules of the Secretary of Agriculture in 

 the expenditure of Federal monies regard- 



WHO KNOWS? RURAL ELECTRIFICA- 

 tion using windpower, just coming in, may yet 

 prove to be the thing. TTiis wind-propeller on 

 the farm of John Wagonseller, Livingston 

 county Farm Bureau member, charges his light 

 plant in a mild breeie. John is enthusiastic 

 about it. He bought the new plant with hit 

 corn-hog money and increased income made 

 possible by the AAA program. A lot of fel- 

 lows probably went off reLaf making this 

 equipment. 



less of what provisions may appear in Sen- 

 ate Bill 371. this Bill appears to me to be 

 wholly unnecessary and of no assistance to 

 the Department in carrying forward my 

 avowed plan to develop a secondary road 

 system in Illinois with the current allot- 

 ment of Federal funds where both the work 

 and the "Farm-to-Market" roads are most 

 needed. 



Respectfully submitted, 

 HENRY HORNER. 

 July 10, 1935. Governor. 



When this veto became known, the 

 Board of Directors of the I. A. A. di- 

 rected President Smith to prepare, in 

 the form of a letter, a review of the 

 I. A. A.'s effort to secure enactment of 

 this legislation, to forward same to the 

 Governor at an early date, and to pub- 

 lish a copy of the letter in the I. A. A. 

 Record as a report to the membership 

 of the Association's efforts along these 

 lines. This instruction has been carried 

 out and a copy of the letter addressed 

 to Governor Horner appears below: 



lAA's Letter to Governor 



Hon. Henry Homer. July 18- 1935. 



Governor of Illinois. / 



Springfield. Illinois. . 



Dear Governor: 



To say we were amazed is to lightly ex- 

 press the feelings of my associates and my- 

 (Continued on page 12) 



AUGUST. 193.5 



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