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Show MILLIONS PLEDGED FOR BETTER ROADS New York Heads List With Fifty Millions; Federal Aid Expected. The year coming to a close has been a notablo ono from the viewpoint of good roads enthusiasts in many directions. direc-tions. It would bo notoworlhy if thoro wero nothing else to record than the action of many states in making liberal lib-eral roads appropriations. New York tops tho list with tho $50,000,000 bond issue, added to its proviou approprin-; I tions of an equal amount, Ponnayl-! vania follows with a proposed $50,000, 000 appropriation, which there la as surance will bo favorably acted upon by its stato loerislature. In California an $1S,000,000 bond issuo is now boing cxponded; in Main tho $2,000,000 bond issuo has been authorized, to b mot by tho automobile fees; smaller appropriations appropria-tions in other states all point to a vast betterment in road conditions in tho next few years. Tho defeat of the $50,000,000 bond issuo in Ohio is tho only discouraging featuro of tho year, and oven this, say Ohio good roada advocates, ad-vocates, is certain to bo reconsidered in tho near future. Of tho man' conventions hold during tho j'car, two arc especially noteworthy. Tho American Koad congress at Atlantic Atlan-tic Cit', N. J., brought togothor road builders and road users in enthusiastic co-oporation. Most important, however, was tho first federal aid good roads convention, called by tho American Automobilo association and hold in Washington, D. C, in January, and out of which havo already come results fpr reaching and which givo promiso of greater things at no distant da'. Federal Aid Plan. Tho federal aid convention formulated formu-lated tho proposal for tho appointment of a congressional committee to investigate inves-tigate and report upon tho whole subject sub-ject of federal participation in hiphwav construction. Tho resolution providing for such a commission was adopted by congress, tho commission was appointed and is now at work. Tho federal aid sontimont, already 6trong iij congress, found further expression in tho appropriation appro-priation of $500,000 for the improvo-mont improvo-mont of rural post roads, and the good roada enthusiasm, stimulated and crystallized crys-tallized I)- tho A. A. A., with tho agricultural, ag-ricultural, business and highway associations asso-ciations co-operating, has spread throughout tho United1 States, so that tho beginning of 1913 finds tho federal aid question to bo not ono of whether the govornmout should spend national funds upon roads, but aa to tho form which such appropriations should take. On this point another notoworlhy ovent of tho year was tho action of tho A. A. A. at its annual mooting in placing plac-ing itself squarely on rocord aa. favoring favor-ing tho "construction of a sj'stom of national na-tional roads, and opposed to tho scattering scat-tering and piecemeal distribution of government funds for pure!' local highways, which work proporly dn-volvcs dn-volvcs on tho states, with county and township co-oporation. Expect Congress to Act. Even though thoro is little likelihood of tho present congress taking any important, im-portant, action on tho subject of federal fed-eral aid, the joint committee is busily engaged covlccting data and information informa-tion upon which to baso its report. All but one of tho members of the joint committee havo cither been re-elected to tho house, or their continuance in tho sonato is assured. Tho govcrnorn of all tho stales have been called upon for detailed information as to highway conditions in their respotive states, and information is also being gathcrod from highwa' departments and other sources. As a result tho sixty-third congress, when it comes into existence on March 4, 1013, will havo boforo it a volume of information on tho subject of good roads never boforo available Tho second federal nid convention, to bo held in Washington simultancots-lj- with tho beginning of tho new congress, con-gress, will bring tho organized motorists, motor-ists, tho farmers and tho business men who will bo represented there into closer co-operation with congress on this matter, and undoubtedly will result re-sult in speed action along federal aid linos. This belief that 1913 will eeo tho beginning of a now national roads pol-ic- is strengthened by the fact that the new president of tho United States has placed himself convincingly on record rec-ord in favor of federal aid. |