DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
In any attempt to ascertain the total annual highway income the 
principal difficulties are those which attend the decision as to what 
part of the funds derived from the sale of bonds should be considered 
as the income of each year. The general practice of the States and 
other units is to authorize at one time sufficient bonds to pay for 
highway improvements which may require from two to five years 
for their completion. The bonds may then be issued and sold as 
the funds are actually needed or as the market conditions dictate. 
Sometimes the contractor agrees to accept the bonds at a stipulated 
price, usually at par, as progress payment on the work. For the pur- 
pose of the present investigation the term " income from bonds or 
from the sale of securities" includes not only the actual receipts from 
the sale of such bonds during the year 1921, but also all cash balances 
from previous bond sales on hand at the beginning of 1921, since 
approximately the same conditions would obtain, so far as funds are 
concerned, if these bonds had been held until after the beginning of 
1921 and then sold. 
In every State except North Dakota some of the road moneys 
were secured from the sale of bonds. Arkansas, West Virginia, and 
Louisiana secured, respectively, 70.2, 69.1, and 68.1 per cent of their 
total road income from bonds, while, on the other hand, New Hamp- 
shire and Connecticut secured only 2.8 and 3 per cent of their respec- 
tive total highway revenues from bonds. Certain groups of States 
also relied largely on bonds for their road moneys. Thus the four 
States of Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas, comprising the 
west-south-central group, secured 59.3 per cent of their total highway 
funds from this source. On the other hand, the six States forming 
the New England group secured only 12.7 per cent of their total road 
funds from the sale of bonds. 
Practically all of the registration and license fees paid during 1921 
by the owners or users of motor vehicles found their wa}~ into the 
various road funds. The gross motor vehicles fees, licenses, etc.. 
collected during the registration year 1921 amounted to $122,478,654 
while $118,942,706 was reported as received from this source by the 
various road funds. The remainder was, no doubt, largely or en- 
tirely devoted to the purchase of tags and administration of the pro- 
visions of the law. The taxes on gasoline also yielded to the road 
funds a total of $3,683,460 during the year 1921. The owners or 
users of the motor vehicles, therefore, paid a total of $122,626,166 
directly to the road funds, or 10.6 per cent of the total highway 
income, including bonds. 
If bonds are excluded, the portion of the road revenues secured 
directly from the motor vehicle registration fees, licenses, and gaso- 
line taxes amounted during 1921 to 17.2 per cent of the total. Reve- 
nues secured from these sources are increasing very rapidly. During 
the fiscal year 1921 only eight States reported receipts to their high- 
way funds secured from taxes on gasoline. By October, 1923, 36 
States had written gasoline taxes into their statutes, although in one 
State, Massachusetts, the law was inoperative until after the next 
General election. In all these States, with the single exception of 
forth Dakota, at least a portion of this revenue is devoted directly 
to the highways, and in 27 States all the net yield of the gasoline tax 
is directly applicable to road work or the funding of highway bond 
issues. 
