Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 March 1894 — ROAD-MAKING IN THE COUNTRY [ARTICLE]

ROAD-MAKING IN THE COUNTRY

Efforts of the Agricultural Department Meeting with Success. The inquiry being made by the Agricultural Department into the system of road management and road-making methods in the United States is meeting with favorable results. Among otner things the co-operation of practically all of the principal railri ads in reducing freight rates on road materials has been secured. The edition, 3,000 copies, of bulletin No. 1 on “Recent Road Laws of the Various States" has been exhausted and a reprint has been ordered. Information is being gathered for further publications for which many applications are now on file. Concerning some of the results reached, General Roy Stone, who is in charge of the investigation, said: “It appears that while many short sections of good highways are being built in various parts of "the country, with a gratifying general cheapness in cost and freedom from burdensome taxation, yet in some of the States a Serious setback to the movement has occurred through the failure of legislation intended to advance it and rened upon for general results. The optional country road laws passed in 1893 have nowhere proved acceptable to the county boards, except with two counties in Michigan. It is clear, therefore, that these laws are either in advance of public education or at variance with the public iudgment in the States concerned, and that a new departure must be taken to insure any prompt and general advance in highway construction in those States. “Fortunately it has been able to point to the remarkable success of the State aid and local option law of New Jersey, and to commend it with certain modifications to the consideration of other States. That law proceeds upon the theory that while the country as a whole may be unwilling to embark in road building, those smaller communities which are themselves willing to contribute fairly toward the improvement of their highways may justly demand county and State aid in carrying on such improvements. ”