STATE HIGHWAY SYSTEMS 



By John B. Phillips 



Until recent years tlie energy devoted to improving transporta- 

 tion facilities has been largely expended in building railroads and im- 

 proving waterways. The common roads have been neglected. This 

 is especially true in the United States. But the fall in the price of 

 agricultural products and the fact that these products must be hauled 

 for considerable distances over common roads before reaching the 

 market, has made the farmers clamorous for a better highway sys- 

 tem. This demand for road improvement has been intensified by 

 the establishment of rural mail service and the use of motor vehicles. 



In the United States the construction of highways has gen- 

 erally been left to the farmers owning lands adjoining the road. The 

 tax assessed for highway purposes is commuted to labor and worked 

 out. The roads are divided into strips of varying lengths called dis- 

 tricts. The residents of each district annually elect one of their 

 number to act as overseer. At a time when there is a slackness of 

 work on the farm the overseer assembles the farmers for work on the 

 road. The whole proceeding is in the nature of a social gathering, 

 the hours of labor are short and the allowance in highway tax paid 

 is large. 



The conspicuous failure of this system has recently led to new 

 legislation in the endeavor to settle the problem. Thus far the moat 

 successful method has been that in which the state undertakes the 

 work of road improvement, the contract being let and the construc- 

 tion supervised by a state officer. The expense is usually appor- 

 tioned among the state, county and local division. This system with 

 some modifications has recently been adopted in New York, Massa- 

 chusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey and Vermont. California, Maine 

 and North Carolina have rudimentary state road systems and in Cal- 



