| OCR Text |
Show s GOOD ROADS ISSUE LAN IS TO SECURE BUILDINO Of 4IQHWAYS FROM ONE STATE ' TO ANOTHER. "PORK BARREL BILL" DENIED Mambere Declare That Improvement Would Affect Farming Country Just as Much as It Will Cltlea Railroads Now Favor Idea. By GEORGE CLINTON. Washington. Now that the lower "house la certain to have a good roads committee with a large membership, all kinds of plans are being auggested by which to Improve the highways of Ihe country. There are evidences already al-ready that good roads to a considerable consider-able extent are to be what General Hancock culled the UrlfT, "A local Is-sue." Is-sue." . &kmbers say that of course It Is to he the main plan of the good roads propaganda to secure the building of highway from state to state, continuous continu-ous roadways which ran be uaed In Interstate commerce and thereby "clinch their constitutionality.' Borne senators and representatlvea say that the Intimation that a good roads appropriation ap-propriation bill will be a "pork barrel bill' ii h the public buildings bill for yoars has been called, Is a mistake. They add that good roads will affect farming country and small outlying communities Jusl as murh as tht-y will tht clth-s and country adjacent to the city, and that therefore the "general v distribution of the favors" will prevent pre-vent great optKJttltlon from any quarter quar-ter to good road building, provided It does not cost so much as to make the benefits of less value than the money expended. Movement Becomes Popular. The good roads movement In congress con-gress has taken on a more rapid gait recently than It ever atrode at before. Once on a time there was a strong feeling among the members of both houses that good roads legislation was unconstitutional unless It could be clearly proved that the benefits were to be nation-wide and to be of large service to Interstate commerce. Borne years ago a aouthern senator Introduced Intro-duced a bill appropriating tr00,000 for a start at good roads construction, lie maintained that If the highways constructed ran from one state to another, and were used for purposes of trade between statea, all question of the constitutionality of the measure meas-ure would be answered. This argument was combated by the strict constructionists, who declared de-clared that It was only another way of "beating the devil around the, atump." It la said that next to the biological survey the office of good roads became be-came the most popular bureau of the agricultural department. Letters by the thousands were written from all over the United States to senators and representatives asking that the appropriation for the office of good roads be Increased in order that the work of the specialists could be extended. ex-tended. Congress did vote more money for tne roads bureau and finally, under the spur of the letters from the people, members who bad doubted the constitutionality of general gen-eral roads building by the government began to study the question, and seemingly seem-ingly a good many of them have become be-come converted. Railways Are Won Over. The railroads recently have been taking an Interest In the good roads proposition, it might naturally be expected ex-pected that tha railroads would feel no particular Interest In good roads, because If they were to be used for Interstate commerce purposes. It would sem that they wpuld take away business from the rail carriers. The railroad men, however, seem to have come to the conclusion that If good roads are built the agriculturist will gt a lot of his products to the railroad station for shipment which otherwise he could not get there or would not like to try to deliver because be-cause of the bad road difficulties In the way. Members say It must not be taken for granted that large appropriations Immediately will be forthcoming for good roads proJcts. The senate la , still largely to be won over to the cause, and moreover an Immense amount of study will be necessary before a defiuite plan for beginning the work can be developed. It Is probable that when the fret, great i project Is utidr wsy there will be public hearings, and an attempt will be made to get the views on the sub- , ct from the country dwellers par- , tlcularly. , Patronage and Lobbying. The charges. If they can be call- j ed direct charges, which Senator Townscnd of Michigan made against President Wilson to the effect that i the chief executive was "the big- i gest lobbyist of them all." has brought i to the minds of a good many Washing- ( ton corespondents, and officials too. for that matter, the constant recur- ring charges of like nature which have been made against presldenta for ' years, generally la the heat of debate 1 and und-r the stress of partisan feel- ( tng. Sens tor Townsend said before the t euate committee which was Investl- i gating the lobby4 matter that the la- Buenee wielded by President Wilson I and toy the lmocratie scret caucus i anon the making of the tariff bill coo- itttutd the "nearest approach to an- i da Influence apoa members of eon- I grsa" I It U probe tie that Ue oldest sea- 4 ' . ' 1 tor or representors will hftvt no difficulty dif-ficulty In going back la his 1 mind through all the administrations under which ha haa served to find quickly recollections of chargea of this kind made against succeeding presidents and also against tha secret caucua. "Every president," said an old member, mem-ber, "haa believed that any proper Influence In-fluence which he could bring to bear on congresa to pass legislation waa all right provided he felt that the legislation leg-islation waa demanded by the country coun-try or by the party platform. This may be lobbying In one sense but If It Is, I guess all tha presidents since George Washington have been guilty of It, and I am quite convinced that the shame haa been made against presldenta In every congress since tha country was founded." Believes In Majority Rule. Here's the way that another member mem-ber put his estimate on this so-called lobbying by President Wilson and by other presidents before him: "You see every president naturally thinks thst he represents the entire country while a trustor represents only a state and a representative only a district Now the president believes that where four or five senatora hold out against a bill they do It for local reasons and that they are holding up legislation which perhaps nine tenths of the country coun-try wants. Helievlng In the rule of the majority, all presidents have felt that they ought to use such Influence as they can to make the few get the view of the many." There have been Intimations In Washington from some quarters that President Wilson has been using patronage pa-tronage to further his legislative ends. This charge Is one also that has beep aimed at every president since Washington's Wash-ington's time, according to the views 6f fflWi who have piade a jitudy of political po-litical history. It Is remembered by the old timers how President Garfield refused to appoint a collector of the port of New York who was demanded by Koscoe Conklln, In buhalf of his prerogative as a senator from the state of New York. Patronage matters and patronsge chargea were prominent during the Cleveland, the Harrison and the Mc-Klnley Mc-Klnley administrations and were not at all unknown during the Roosevelt and Taft administration. During some of the administrations they were more scattered than during the others, but It Is not bard to recall how Theodore Theo-dore Roosevelt changed his mind In a patronage matter In order that be might be certain to get the support of two senators for his railroad rate legislation. leg-islation. Mr. Roosevelt argued that the legislation waa for the good of the whole country and that be might properly prop-erly yield In a amall patronage matter lo secure for the country what ha thought was a blessing. Hundreds of Cadets Graduated. There has been an outpouring from Washington for some dsys of army officers and their wives and families fam-ilies en route to West Point to sea "our boy" or some other family's boy graduate. The Naval academy's graduating exercises came first, to be followed closely by those of West Point Something like one hundred new officers have just been added to the United States army through the exercises of graduation at the old Military academy. At West Point Cadt Francis K. Newcomer of thla cltytas Just graduated. grad-uated. Moreover, his father. Col. Henry C. Newcomer, waa present to see the boy take first honors, and the colonel's thoughts went back about a quarter of a century to the day when be, like bis son, grsduated and was given the laurel of first place. The chances are that young Newcomer New-comer will enter the engineer corps. Its can If be wants to, because the boy who graduates at the head of his class Is given the light to take any vacancy which exists In tba lowest commissioned rank In the United States army. There are always 'some vacancies in the engineering branch at the time that a class graduates. In the army today there are many cases of "fathers and sons." The president of the United States has ten cadet appointments a year at his command, and almost invariably he 1 electa to name the sons of officers of the service. It does not always fol- 1 low that a boy graduates as high or 1 as low as his father did. Colonel 1 Goethala, who Is building the Panama 1 canal, however, baa a son In the service serv-ice who graduated pretty nearly as 1 high as his father! The boy Is now 1 on the Isthmus doing the work of a 1 lieutenant, while his father looks down on him paternally from the ' height of a colonel's place. 1 Fathers and Sons. 1 Ulysses 8. Grant, the third. Is a 1 first lieutenant of the engineer corps. ' This Grsnt graduated way up at the ' top of hla class, and went Into the engineering branch. His father, Fred- ' ertrk D. Grant, gradusted way down 1 at the foot of his class, taking five years to complete bis course, and be- 1 Ing lucky to find a vacancy left for 1 him In the cavalry. Ulysses 8. Grant, the first, graduated squarely In the ' middle of bis class, and so with the 1 son and the grandson graduating at ' tha top and at the bottom, the aver- 1 age of academy accomplishment for 1 the family Is lltvrally what might be 1 called "middle class." Wtlllam T. Sherman graduated No. 7 In his class. Phillip II. Sheridan held a atandlng consistently near tha root of hla class during all the time of hla cadet career. You can't always 1 tell what a man Is going to do In the ' world by the place his nam occupies ' on tha graduating Hat. George E J Pickett, whose soldierly qualities, and whose tremendous charge at Gettys- ! burg will be commemorated soon, was ' something of a laggard la hla atadlea. I ' Robert E. Lee graduated high, and fee I kept high placs ra the aervVs and I 1 keeps It la history. I ' a |
