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Show FINANCING FUTURE HIGHWAYS Make Plans Now and Place Transportation Trans-portation on Firm Foundation, Says Chief McDonald. (Prepared by the United States Department of Agriculture.) "Plan now the financing of highways for the future and place highway transportation, which has come to be an Indispensable part of our national life, on a firm foundation." This is the advice given by Thoinas H. MacDon-ald, MacDon-ald, chief of the bureau of public roads, United States Department of Agriculture, for the consideration of every voter, taxpayer and legislator. "We are starting out to construct a system of highways such as no nation na-tion ever constructed before. The nearest near-est approach to It Is found in France and Germany, and the area of neither Is as large as Texas. This great undertaking un-dertaking Is being entered into because be-cause highways are not a luxury but furnish a real service, have a real earning capacity, and have become a national necessity. For such an undertaking to be successful, suc-cessful, financing to care for maintenance, mainte-nance, reconstruction, and new construction con-struction should be planned for a long period of years in advance. Changes In methods of raising funds every few years, uncertainty as to whether funds will be provided, and periods in which funds are not provided all Increase the final cost of highways. Such a policy would soon bring any private business to disaster. "Development and increase in numbers num-bers of motor vehicles and the coincident coinci-dent need and demand for good roads have come so rapidly that methods of raising funds have often been expedients expedi-ents for the time being. Consideration Considera-tion has been given not so much to the Just distribution of the cost as to how the funds can be raised with the least controversy and the utmost ease. "All this leads to the conclusion that the whole situation should be gone A Concrete Road in Wayne County, New York. over very carefully, traffic studies made, and the cost distributed In proportion pro-portion to the service rendered. "The bureau of public roads estimates esti-mates that of the $000,000,000 spent for highways last year 33 per cent was federal aid and motor-vehicle revenue. The remaining 67 per cent comes either directly or will eventually be paid from state and local taxes. It Is believed that a very considerable readjustment re-adjustment of the source of revenues must be made so that a larger percentage percent-age will be paid by the road user and a lesser percentage from state or local taxes." |