396 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



$10,000 per mile; and (3) by the amount of the appropriation car- 

 ried. 



These features of the hiw were handicapping practically all of the 

 States very seriously. Anyone who is familiar with the rural free- 

 delivery routes as now laid out knows that the mail carrier pursu- 

 ing his zigzag route .does not in many cases follow throughout their 

 length those roads on which traffic is concentrating more and more, 

 and which must therefore receive the first attention from the State 

 road authorities. Improved highways will become one of the great- 

 est possible advantages to the Postal Service, but this will require a 

 rearrangement of routes as the roads are improved. The logical and 

 systematic preparation of the eventual roads suited to rural mail 

 purposes, therefore, requires much flexibility in the law providing 

 Federal aid for road improvement. 



The limitation of $10,000 per mile for Federal participation was 

 reasonable when the law was conceived during 1915 and the early 

 part of 1916, but at the time of the passage of the act the cost of road 

 construction was mounting rapidly, and by the year 1918 the pro- 

 vision under which the Federal Government offered to pay 50 per 

 cent of the cost of the roads and the limitation of $10,000 per mile 

 could not both be applied in the construction of the higher type roads. 

 The amount of the funds carried by the original appropriation was 

 thought entirely sufficient to start the Federal aid cooperative pro- 

 gram. At the time these sums were fixed, however, it could not be 

 foreseen how enthusiastically the proposal of the Federal Govern- 

 ment would be received by the public generally. The States were 

 embarrassed by applications for Federal aid which the original allot- 

 ments could not supply, and by the appropriation of sums so much 

 greater than the amount necessary to meet the Federal aid appro- 

 priation that the whole plan in the fall of 1918 was in a most dis- 

 appointing status. All of these objections were met in an entirely 

 acceptable manner by the amendments to the original act carried in 

 the Post Office appropriation act of February 28, 1919 (H. E. 13308). 

 The definition of the term " rural post road " was so broadened as 

 to permit the improvement of roads which could not qualify under 

 the original definition. The maximum amount which can be paid by 

 the Federal Government was increased to $20,000 per mile, exclusive 

 of the cost of bridges of more than 20 feet clear span. The increase 

 in the share of the costs which may be paid by the Federal Govern- 

 ment meets fairly well the demands of the several States in that 

 respect. At the suggestion of the Secretary the original appropria- 

 tion of $75,000,000 for Federal aid roads available for the five-year 

 period, 1916-1921, was increased by $200,000,000, of which $50,000,000 

 was available at once, $75,000,000 on July 1, 1919, and $75,000,000 

 on July 1, 1920. 



NEW REGULATIONS. 



The Rules and Regulations for the administration of the Federal 

 aid road act as authorized by section 10 were originally issued by the 

 Secretary on September 1, 1916. While these were drawn after a 

 conference with the State highway officials, in which more or less 

 conflicting views were expressed, it required the light of actual ex- 

 perience to disclose the principal difliculties which existed and which 



