Federal Co-operation for Good Roads 
ECRETARY HOUSTON of the department of agri- 
culture says that the state and federal governments 
should work together for highway improvement in order 
that a large proportion of the money annually spent for 
road construction may not be wasted. 
In his own department the office of public roads has 
been demonstrating the value of proper road building by 
the construction of certain object-lesson roads, and the 
forest service is carrying out his idea of national and 
state co-operation in road building. ‘The law requires 
that ten per cent. of the gross receipts from the national 
forests shall be spent in the states in which the forests 
are situated. This money is expended for road im- 
provement under direct control of the secretary of agri- 
culture. 
The amount appropriated urder this act, based on 
the receipts of the national forests for the fiscal year 
ending June 30, 1913, is $234,038.68. From the 1912 re- 
ceipts for this ten per cent, road item, there is an addi- 
tional $134,831.10, which is still available. 
In administering the ten per cent. road fund, forest 
officers charged with the actual plans and expenditures 
in the neighborhood of their forests have, in almost all 
Good ‘Business Roads’? Would Lower Cost of Living, Says Missouri Congressman 
Congressman Shackelford of Missouri, speaking at 
the American Road congress at Detroit the past week, 
made a plea for “business” rather than touring roads. He 
said the country needs not 50,000 miles of expensive 
touring roads, but a million miles of business and post 
roads. 
This calls to mind the experience of Pike county, 
Alabama, which borrowed money to build a few ribbons 
of stone road. Before spending it they called in a gov- 
ernment expert. He said their proposition would cost 
$5,000 per mile, while the county could not afford more 
than $800 to $1000. They altered their plans and secured 
115 miles of practical sand clay road costing $868 per 
mile. They found their material along the way, while 
stone would have had to be carried over the railroad at 
big expense. 
Improvements in highways were recently made in 
Spottsylvania county, Va. Since $40,000 was’ spent, ship- 
ments of produce from the country increased 50 per cent. 
Boston Herald Opposed to Road-Building by National Government 
One scheme after another, vicious in principle and 
visionary in accomplishment, comes forward to lure the 
national government into the work of road building, es- 
pecially the building of great highways across the conti- 
nent, The importance of good roads to the country can 
hardly be overestimated and the cause is worthy of en- 
thusiastic support, but it will be the blunder of the cen- 
tury if the national government embarks in the work— 
and not only a stupendous financial blunder, but a rank 
injustice to the states and communities that have already 
spent millions on their own roads. 
There is sanity and honesty in the movement that has 
resulted from the investigation by the Minneapolis com- 
mercial bodies into the effects of bad roads on the prob- 
lem of feeding that city. There is the same problem in 
every city which has a good agricultural region near it. 
The Minneapolis investigators found that the farmers 
who supply the city with garden truck, dairy products, 
etc., lose half a million a year through the bad roads which 
NORTH SHORE BREEZE 
cases, secured an equal or a larger co-operative fund from 
state authorities for the building of certain pieces of. 
road, 
With the money thus expended many important 
roads are being built or put in repair. One on the Wyom- 
ing national forest, six miles long, makes accessible to 
farmers a large body of timber and opens up a region of 
great scenic beauty. In northwestern Arizona, part of 
the fund will be used in connection with the LeFevre- 
Bright Angel road, important because it makes accessible 
to tourists the Grand Canyon of the Colorado. In one — 
place, the Ocean to Ocean Highway crosses the Apache 
national forest, Arizona, and on this project the forest — 
service and the local authorities co-operated enthusiasti- 
cally. On the Florida national forest in western Florida 
steel bridges and graded roads have, under the stimulus 
of this fund, taken the place of corduroy, bog, and sand. 
This federal road fund is now available in all na- 
tional forest states of the West. Just as fast as returns 
come in, the forestry officials say, a similar fund will be- 
come available in states in which eastern national forests 
are being secured. 
The improvement of the road from Spottsylvania to — 
Fredericksburg cost $28,000, and costs of cartage had — 
been reduced from 20 cents a ton a mile to 12, thus sav- 
ing $14,000 in one year on that highway. 
A man recently bought a place for $950 on a bad 
road near Federalsburg, Md. He put out $1800 in im- 
provements, and when a state road was built past the 
place, he refused $5,000 for it. 
Much good highway work has been done, but much 
money has been burned up for nothing. Many stone roads 
have become rock heaps for lack of maintenance, others 
because the materal originally lacked the adhesive qual- 
ity that created a surface binder. There is too much 
disposition to regard the sta#e and national government 
as rich uncles who will pay all bills. 4 
Congressman Shackelford’s million miles of good — 
business roads would save an enormous share of the cost 
of getting food supplies to market. 
compel them to haul lighter loads, to go by longer routes — 
or to give up trips altogether at certain seasons. They 
pay more for bad roads than for farm help and twenty- 
five times as much as for fertilizer for their fields. Their 
bad road tax is $14.30 per $1000 on their total invest- — 
ment. But the farmer does not bear all this loss. The 
Minneapolis people help pay it in higher prices for table 
supplies, and the merchants of the city pay it in lost busi-— 
ness. The experts who made a thorough study of the 
situation figured that the city and the farmers just out- 
side of it pay a million and a half a year for the poor 
highways that a relatively few thousands would perma- 
nently improve. ‘The result is a local good roads move- 
ment that means business. 
The discovery of Minneapolis is not new. ‘The — 
much smaller city of Augusta, Me., for example, made 
it a few years ago. Mayor Plaisted, later Governor, 
thought it over and set the city to thinking it over. As 
a result Augusta spent $40,000 on the four main roads 
