COMMUNICATION AND TRANSPORTATION 265 



defects as soon as they appear. This cannot be done without 

 constant and competent inspection. The best way to provide this 

 service will vary with roads of different materials and subject to 

 different traffic intensities. Whatever method, however, is 

 adopted, the importance of accurate accounting for all mainten- 

 ance expenditures will remain undiminished. 



Our task is such a huge one that for success we must have team- 

 work. Our federal scheme of government is a hindrance in 

 securing the interstate cooperation that the situation demands. 

 It is not only in the planning of interstate lines of traffic and in 

 securing uniform laws as to classification of vehicles and regula- 

 tion of traffic that this need exists. We should have standardiza- 

 tion of nomenclature so that, for instance, "improved road" will 

 mean the same thing in Indiana and in New Jersey; standard 

 system of road signs, standard methods of accounting, standard 

 units of traffic and wear, and, in general, cooperation and co- 

 ordination between our forty-eight State-road forces and the 

 federal government. 



That this coordination and the leadership needed for any team- 

 work can be supplied only by the general government is, to my 

 mind, the unanswerable argument for federal aid. The gain by 

 united and concerted effort will be greater than that due to any 

 federal appropriation. 



The financial problem involved is by no means the least of the 

 many road questions that we must settle. 



While building and after having finished the work, we shall 

 have to keep up the roads already built. This will involve a 

 tremendous outlay. The present total road repair charge in this 

 country is unknown, but we do know that much of it is wasted 

 on unintelligent work. 



We must evidently look to our sources of revenue. Benefits 

 are conferred by road improvement on both the land-owner and 

 the user of the road. The former pays through the ordinary tax 

 levy. The latter pays a so-called license fee for his automobile 

 only and nothing for his horses. It seems rational to look to the 

 business on the roads for part of the cost of building and main- 

 taining them. 



Enough has been said to outline roughly, indeed, the many and 

 very serious problems suggested by a forecast of our road-work. 



