Jasper County Democrat, Volume 20, Number 96, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 March 1918 — PLANS TO SAVE ROAD FUNDS [ARTICLE]

PLANS TO SAVE ROAD FUNDS

Nearly a Million Dollars Now Due Indiana for Road Building. Indianapolis, February 28. —To learn how Indiana highway projects stand under the fifty-fifty plan of the federal law since the United States government has adopted a policy of restricting large expenditures to improvements regarded necessary for winning the war, L. H. Wright, chairman of the Indiana state highway commission, will soon go to Washington; He regards prompt action necessary to save for the use of the state the $812,000 of federal funds that have accumulated in the last three years, and he fears that the policy of the federal government may put a serious limitation on highway improvements; except on a relatively few roads that would be of special value in the promotion of the war. Mr. Wright says the policy of the state highway commission will be to get projects approved by the federal authorities as soon as possible so that even if construction should be postponed, the federal funds would not be lost to the state, but would be available for use after the exigencies of the war had passed. A number of the proposed roads, it is believed, will readily be approved on the ground that they would aid in winning the war. “Contractors will not bid,” says Mr. Wright, “unless they have assurance from Secretary McAdoo, director of railroads, that he will release cars to haul the materials used in road construction. So while I am in Washington I shall try to get the whole matter straightened out." Under the fifty-fifty plan by which the federal government supplies as road project should be carried on

much money as the state, or rather counties o<f the state, the federal government must approve a project before a contract can be let. The active work of investigation and approval is done by Logan Page, head of the road bureau of the department of agriculture. Mr. Page has approved some of the project statements forwarded to Washington by the state highway commission, but this approval is of a preliminary nature, and it does not authorize the state highway commission to go ahead. It is presumed that the secretary of the treasury and the secretary of agriculture will agree on a policy, if they have not already done so. Eight projects under the fifty- fifty plan are how in. They are in StJoseph county, Elkhart, Johnson, Putnam and Hendricks, Wayne, Vigo and Clay, Marion and Hamilton. Proposed projects are in Jackson county, Henry, Hancock, Howard, Lake and Porter, Miami, Fulton and Allen.

Federal funds began to be available in 1916, the year the fiftyfifty law was enacted by congress. But at that time Indiana did not have a state highway commission, and the use of the federal money was conditional on states having highway commissions to supervise road construction. The 1917 legislature created a highway commission and provided for a state highway engineer in order to come within the provisions of the federal law. So, including 1918, there is an accumulation of three years of federal funds or a total of about $812,000, which the state highway commission is eager to save for Indiana. Mr. Wright says the state must act within three years of the passage of the federal law, but he believes that if Indiana gets projects approved, the federal part of the money will be available later even if some road construction is postponed because of the war. The federal law provides that 70 per cent of any road improved shall be a post road. The policy of the state highway commission, in drawing up projects has been to choose main market and post highways. Chairman Wright fears many men will be made idle should the federal government decide against most of the road construction projects. The question of whether a certain

- might ease heSsre■ tfce fefcraf gwvernment in lh ocher wiy. A few days ago it was bonJ issues of >lo*,*** ®r maze should not be* mafe wftxoTi She approval of federal ainhirrSass. Some of the counties may bar* isue more than in bast fa order to carry out th-eiT past the fiftyfifty plan..