Show ave built MI miles les of roads lifear year record shows show federal aid speeds up whole country washington ashington ten years of federal federa lel pation in highway building un t the brov provisions islona of the alie 1010 federal act ended ende don on june BO 30 last and ir in I 1 period about two thirds of the ati eral aid ald system of miles e hard surfaced macadamized meled or otherwise improved an er de decade catle if the states continue to ow their policy of accepting fod fed I 1 I 1 funds and general supervision 1 see sec the system completed he e vast importance of tile the system acing as it does practically nil all forstate estate highways Is 13 evidenced by fact that its arteries reach caery 3 of more than inhabitants in country and if a zone of ten miles re marked off on each side bide of tit alie e ids ds in tile system that zone would lude the homes hemes of 00 per cent of count rys population miles built dai 11 may alay 31 the count rys in ament in highways of tile federal system built with government co ration rat lon reached n total of 1115 1145 11 15 of which or about per cent was contributed by the eral government to date ls eg of roads in the system have been it jointly by tile states und and the leral eral government meanwhile many the states have gone forward on idling programs without waiting r help front from the government and the suit alt Is that two thirds third of alib a i originally contemplated Is now in i 1010 when afie tl ie federal aid act os i passed only miles of 1825 miles ot of road in the alie coun y were surfaced today tile surd ced mileage slightly exceeds iles s and the construction problem ms ws increasingly important because ie increase in tile tho aniber iber of motor vehicles the de elopement elop ment of suburbs and the part lel itan on of motor trucks in in industry further extension of roads as well as length for malt mail service originally tile purpose of congress establishing tile federal aid system construction was to lin rov e highways for tile the promotion of lie rurel mall mail service but the policy as suase subsequently expanded expand pd to author ze the secretary of agriculture to ilow r preference to projects ta ex X ardite te the completion of an ado adequate vid connected system of highways ln in ate it in character the ie experience during the war in tile t endeavor to move muni Ions Alons and rials by ways us as well as by the railroad sy systems sterns brought out forcefully furce fully the duct that there had aven little unity or system in tile work ef road od beyond that exer dvd avd by private 0 organizations sueh BUC II 11 tile ic lincoln ly association tiep dixie highway association and illar ar groups discord arises states its and coudres comities comi ties were response bit for or such roads us as were built and 16 rd lirose in ill various communities as to routes sni aller cities and villa various sections exerting their efforts to have rond road improves ouch dimir own localities rhe t ans ns that nt at tile lie beginning of tie ti e mir ir few of the principal cities of all country were entirely antl rely connected good od roads rends passable ini all kinds of wept iler dor tile 1916 federal aid road act the old onico office of road rend inquiry created cren teil in 1893 to baudy lilg highway hWaY conditions wits convened into no the bureau of put public roads and was given tile the task of supervising federal nid aid road buil building dInk the net act the alio secretary 0 of f agriculture to help sta states tes with will their pi of improving post roads up tip to 60 50 per cent of ile alio cost of tile improvement provement pro provid prodding flig that tile the cost did not ex exceed led a mile sive elve of bridges more clinn 20 0 feet fcc long ten spates slates get more in such its s ArI aalona callao california r colorado idalio Moli montana tann nevada new ako oregon utah and wyoming containing large areas of public domain including national faiks und and indian reservations alio tit percentage of the lie cost of implement was fixed nt at n ante averaging pur per c for the ten states when thy the net act was passed there were still six states SOWS which had no highway departments and others whose del depart ments land only nominal authority tim the act of 1910 provided ded that to receive federal uld n Q state would have to create a highway department having sufficient clent authority to co cooperate with the lie government thus providing a stimulus to state control the act was amended in 1021 to nu an thorlie the designation of a system of niala iraln interstate and highways limited in enell cacti state to 7 per cent of tile the total mileage tal leage existing when tile lie act was passed and many states had biad not already lone done so BO adopted definite tilte construction programs another amendment to the net act in 1021 1921 provided that if n sante did not maintain roads when built the federal government would and the maintenance cost would be deducted from the states quota table of federal fedrial aid to the states in building roads will continue until 1030 1930 at least inasmuch as congress haa lia appropriated or authorized appropriations for the purpose pui pose the following table shows the amount ef cf money author laed by congress front from 1917 through t the I 1 i ascal year 1029 1929 1917 1924 1918 1925 1919 1926 1920 19 1927 7 0 lon 1321 1928 1322 1922 1929 1923 in ili some years ears more money was spent for federal old aid roads than shown for those years in the above table tills this apparent discrepancy Is explained by the fact that the road building program moved slowly for tile the finst three years after the passage of tile the act moneys appropriated held over and the unexpended balances bali 11 were added to the funds available I 1 in later years ond and were drawn upon as required coolidge favorable the policy of tile coolidge admI administration lils lias has been favorable to carrying out tile the pr program authorized authored although president coolidge has indicated in messages to congress that to the states in genial gendral do not have ills appio oval I 1 tile 11 federal subsidy tu to states Is that of assistance istance in rond bull building bulldis dim lit in 1021 1921 wore than 70 per cent of the total funds turned over to the lie states front from federal revenues were devoted to highway construction this percentage tins lias since 1924 with the decrease of federal aid in certain other directions and the increases in highway expenditure the chief arguments in opposition to the federal fedrial road uld aid work hits has been malle made by tile the populous eastern states object to being taxed by tile the federal government for the purpose of building roads or supporting other federal aid activities lu in tile the less populous states |