COMMUNICATION AND TRANSPORTATION 261 



merit. Yet all these can at least be approximately ascertained, 

 and the public which pays the bill is entitled to the information. 



For this purpose we should lay out a road system for each 

 State. Such a system will include roads of all classes. If 

 national roads become a fact they will form a separate class. 

 There will also be the main lines of intra-State traffic, then roads 

 of secondary importance furnishing the principal feeder lines 

 for the State highways and connecting towns of secondary im- 

 portance, and, lastly, the lesser roads corresponding to the capil- 

 laries in the system of blood circulation. Each of these classes 

 will call for different features of design and for different types 

 of paving. For our greatest roads it would seem that the best 

 will be none too good, for the smallest our means will demand 

 that we adopt the most economical construction. Without 

 thorough preliminary study and planning we shall, beyond doubt, 

 build roads, some insufficient for their loads and others more 

 costly than their traffic will warrant. I may here point out that 

 the permanent investment in a road is made up of the cost of 

 the right of way and of grading. Drainage works and founda- 

 tion courses may be or may not be permanent ; the same is true 

 of bridges ; but surfaces are never permanent. If, however, we 

 secure enough land and grade it properly at the outset, our in- 

 vestment to that extent is secure. 



Our legislation should extend to all country roads. Streets 

 present another problem. Just as physically and commercially 

 all roads in a State form part of one system, so the State must 

 provide that they be administered under uniform laws and in 

 coordination. The public has a right to expect and the State 

 should provide that every road be so kept as to give the best 

 service of which it is capable. 



There must be a strict, uniform, and scientific system of ac- 

 counting and audit, including an accurate census of road traffic. 

 The resulting data must be carefully analyzed to enable those 

 in charge not only to make comparisons but also clearly to account 

 for the discharge of the trust imposed on them. 



We must, in all cases, have such elasticity in statutory provi- 

 sions as will cut the red tape down to a minimum. 



The importance of the work to be done will justify provisions 

 that will make highway engineering a career that will attract 



