 | University of Virginia record October 1, 1915 |  |
Good Roads Is a Saving to the Government.
Another consideration which strongly presents itself to my mind
as to why the Government should extend national aid to road improvement
is that it would result in the saving of a great deal of
money to the Government. The Government now expends $42,000,000
annually for rural delivery. The average route of a rural-delivery
carrier is about 24 miles. The carrier is unable to make a greater
distance than this on account of the bad condition of the public roads.
If these roads were properly improved, a carrier could easily and
if the roads of the country were properly improved that in the
reduced expenses incurred in its star-route service, in its present Rural
Delivery Service, and in the extensions which will certainly come in
the future, the Government would save $8,000,000 or $9,000,000 annually.
Patriotism and wisdom alike demand that the Government
should make this great saving and at the same time add materially
in the advancement and prosperity of our country by generously aiding
road improvement.
Mr. President, I am unable to see any strong reasons why the
Federal Government should further hesitate in the extension of a
proper and liberal appropriation for the construction and improvement
of public highways. To contend that it has no constitutional power
to do so is absurd. No one has ever disputed that the Government
has not power to establish, maintain, and repair post roads. It has
established through its star-route and Rural Delivery Service more
than 1,000,000 miles of post roads, which it daily uses; hence it not
only has the power under the Constitution, but aso has imposed
upon it the imperative duty to bear its fair share of the burden of
improving these roads and keeping them in proper repair.
Webster, Clay, Jefferson, and even Calhoun, who was very strict
in his construction of the Constitution, all advocated national aid for
the construction of public highways.
Prior to the Civil War the Federal Government had appropriated
$14,000,000 to aid in the construction of public highways.
The 1,000,000 miles of public roads now made post roads by the
uses of the Federal Government are the main roads traveled and the
ones most needing betterment; hence no objection on constitutional
grounds can be found for the Government undertaking to bear its
fair share of the burden of improving the roads that it daily uses.
Besides, this Government has spent large sums of money in the
betterment of the public roads of Porto Rico and the Philippine Islands,
and also Alaska. If it has the authority to expend the public
money there for these purposes, it has equal authority to expend the
public money for these purposes in this country.
I believe that the American people have greater demands upon the
Public Treasury, filled with their contributions, than have the people
of Porto Rico, the Phillippine Islands, and Alaska.
| University of Virginia record October 1, 1915 | |