164 



It may happen, however, that the difficulty in getting adequate 

 State aid does not lie with the farming community, but rather with 

 certain elements of the city population who oppose being taxed to 

 support country roads. Opposition of this kind was encountered in 

 Minnesota during the successful campaign for State aid in 1904. 

 This opposition was met in that State and may be met in other in- 

 stances by the farmers using such clear cut arguments as the fol- 

 lowing: The tax-paying property of most States consists chiefly 

 of farm and city property. The exact ratio of value between the two 

 is not known, but more than one-half of the taxable property in 

 many States is in the cities and villages, with a continual tendency, 

 as the State grows older, to increase the value of city property as 

 compared with the value of farm property. It is easy to see that the 

 burden of taxation to improve the streets of the cities must be very 

 light as compared with the burden of taxation which will be neces- 

 sary to make equally good roads in the country, provided the city 

 property is to be taxed for none but city roads and the farming prop- 

 erty must pay taxes for improving all the country roads. It is ab- 

 solutely impossible for the farmers to do it. With this state of af- 

 fairs, is it any wonder that the cities have better roads than the 

 country districts? With so much more money and with so much 

 less territory, the cities have a very unfair advantage over the coun- 

 try districts. The country roads never have been, ought not to be, 

 and never will be improved at the sole expense of the farming 

 property. 



Now the business men of the cities have learned that it is to 

 their interest to have better country roads, and they have been scold- 

 ing the farmers because they have not been building better roads. 

 The farmers very properly answer that they can not afford to im- 

 prove so many miles of road with their small means. As a result 

 the idea has occurred to some that, since the whole State is inter- 

 ested in the improvement of all the roads, and since the city people 

 are anxious to have the country roads improved and are insisting 

 that they shall be improved, it would be fair to levy a tax on city 

 property as well as country property for the improvement of country 

 roads. This is what is meant by State aid. In plain, blunt language, 

 State aid means to the city people, either put up or shut up. (P. R. 

 Cir. 33.) 



The agitation which has become so universal will surely result 

 in a well-defined public sentiment that will soon overcome all ob- 

 stacles. With the new century, the good-roads movement is likely 

 to receive valuable aid from the owners of horseless vehicles, already 

 not uncommon on our thoroughfares. The aid of these new allies, 

 added to that of the farmer, with his great pecuniary interest in the 

 question, promises well for a rapid spread of the movement through- 

 out the country. (Ag. Dept. Y. B. 1899.) 



(The following authorities have been consulted and extracts 

 taken from their writings in the preparation of this chapter: Ag. 

 Dept. Bs. 295, 321; Y. B. 1899, 1903, 1910; Of. Pub. Roads, B. 17; 



