CHAPTER V

THE MODERN WAGON ROAD Gone are the long picturesque lines of emigrant and freight wagons, with their conestogas, their stage coaches, their oxen, their mules and horses; gone are the hospitable inns with their gay and social crowds of happy travelers; gone are the nightly wagon-formed corrals into which the freighter was wont to drive his animals to prevent their stampeding by the wily red-skin; gone are the complacent but slow-going canal barges so plentiful and popular that at the cry of “low bridge,” everybody ducked by reflex action; gone are the floating palaces on the vacillating and changeable waters of the interior river systems; these yesteryear implements of transportation have been all but superseded by more powerful or more speedy instruments. The canals are very frequently but weed-grown scum-covered channels through the soil, while many of the wagon roads are similarly weed-grown or dust-covered lanes on top of the soil. Perhaps a rejuvenation will come. Already the public road shows signs of a more vigorous growth than the world has ever witnessed even in the heyday of road building under the Roman Caesars. [Illustration: © _Underwood and Underwood_ TRANSPORTATION ACROSS DEATH VALLEY A Picturesque Method of Earlier Days.] Public highways began their desuetude (partial at least) about 1830, at the advent of the steam railway. To be sure, arrangements were made for the laying out and care of roads. There were, also, usually poll and property taxes levied for road and bridge purposes. But generally the old English custom of allowing such taxes to be worked out prevailed. In Iowa, for instance,[122] the county court was given “general supervision over the highways” which must be 66 feet wide unless otherwise specially directed. The manner of establishing roads is set forth and the county judge may if he wishes call in a competent surveyor and “cause the line of the road to be accurately surveyed and plainly marked out.” “Where crops have been sowed or planted before the road is finally established the opening thereof shall be delayed until the crop is harvested.” The county supervisor must appoint a deputy in each township, but the deputy “must regard himself as an actual laboring hand” and his compensation “shall not exceed one dollar and fifty cents for each day actually employed.” It is the duty of the supervisor “to place and preserve the roads in as good a condition as the funds at his disposal will permit, and to place guide boards at such points as he may think expedient or as the court may direct.” In the Eastern states and in the hilly districts the method of locating each individual road to follow a trail or stream or ridge usually prevailed, but in many of the prairie states roads were located by law on each section line and in some states on each half-section line as well. This made every man’s farm adjacent to a road, although it was certainly a waste of land. In nearly all the prairie states the legal right of way is now 66 feet,[123] in other states it is made 49¹⁄₂ and 33 feet. Massachusetts state-aid roads have a minimum of 50 feet. Texas divided her roads into three classes with widths of 60, 30 and 20 feet. New Jersey has some state roads 33 feet wide. On the whole 66 feet seems to be favored. This, if roads are made on every half-section mile, appropriates almost 5 per cent of the land, a quantity that by proper selection and location might be materially reduced. The section line method is liked by farmers because it leaves the fields rectangular, a convenient form for efficiency in cultivation. =The Influence of the Bicycle on Roads.=--Road construction remained in a lackadaisical state with here and there a spurt, with now and then an intelligent supervisor who appreciated the need of better wagon roads, until the coming of the bicycle. That machine may be considered a descendant of the old celeripede, which consisted of two wheels connected by a horizontal bar on which the rider sat and propelled himself by pushing with his feet alternately on the ground, through the velocipede, which had the front wheel pivoted to the framework for easy steering. The attachment of pedals is credited to a Scotchman, Kirkpatrick Macmillan, about 1840, who applied them to the rear wheel. In 1886 Lallement in the United States and Michaux in France, placed the pedals on the front wheels. The front wheel was gradually increased in diameter until in the ’eighties it sometimes measured as much as 60 inches. The rear wheel decreased as the front increased. The stability of the wheel was not very great; headers were common, and mounting was difficult. To overcome these defects of the “ordinary” there was developed, 1885, the “safety,” approximately the present bicycle, in which the pedals are carried on a separate shaft and the power transmitted by chain and sprocket to the rear wheel. With the invention of the Dunlop[124] pneumatic tire, and consequent overcoming of much of the jolting so objectionable in more solid tires, the adoption of the bicycle as a means of pleasure and business locomotion was extremely rapid. The cycling boom reached its height about 1896 or 1897, by which time a great many large manufactories of bicycles had been established over the country. A frenzy seized upon the people and men and women of all stations were riding wheels; ardent cyclists were found in every city, village, and hamlet. As a result of the cycling craze there were organized numerous “wheel clubs” and finally a national one known as the League of American Wheelmen, organized about 1887. Its object partly social and partly to popularize the new sport of cycling, became a few years later almost wholly a form of propaganda for “better roads.” Newspaper space was freely utilized; many papers making special and regular features of “good roads”; pamphlets were published and distributed broadly, and a magazine was established.[125] At first the wheelmen were met by the cry of selfishness, with the argument that the city folk wanted the farmers to build good roads for their pleasure; but men of foresight, men of affairs, saw the benefits accruing to all kinds of business and added their influence. Mr. Potter, a lawyer of New York City, who had graduated in civil engineering at Cornell University before turning to the law, became interested in the good roads movement, studied and made himself one of the best posted men on roads in the United States. When the League of American Wheelmen decided to start a magazine he was selected for its editor and manager. Under his direction the subscription list of _Good Roads_ soon reached more than 30,000.[126] “The articles strive to show the value of roads in a commercial sense and by a comparison with other countries demonstrate how far behind America is in this respect.” Pictures of good and bad roads were used freely, thus holding the attention where reading matter alone would have failed. European roads, the French especially, were described and played up through newspapers generally. Scarcely a journal that did not run leaders and other articles on the benefits of good roads and methods of building and maintaining the same. Our ordinary roads were decried on every hand. A lady voices her opinion thus:[127] I came to this country with the best prejudices, having enjoyed the privilege of meeting with some of its noblest representatives in my fatherland. I admired much the individual independence, the high standing of women, the gentle sway of the church, the liberal education of the children, and the unsurpassed charity that extends even to distant countries. I must confess that I was struck with the bad roads everywhere, in cities as well as in the country, and at the same time, amused at the compensation one gets when one meets with an accident. Why not spend the money in the improvements of the roads--make these roads perfect, and then let everybody look out for himself. In summer the worst road is good; but in winter schools have to be closed, the children are stopped in their regular pursuits, learning becomes desultory, and the strong feeling of duty that has to be developed from the very beginning of life by strict good habits gets slackened and slighted; and so also the attendance of the churches--for many people the only comfort in the struggle for existence--becomes an impossibility. And especially the painstaking farmer must find it hard to drive his team through the muddy, clayey road, in bringing the fruits of his labor to the market. I hear him, with many a suppressed oath on everything under the sun, dragging his cartload through the mud and standing pools, and in snowstorms he is sometimes totally lost. All communication stops. And so on for a column or more. She inserts by way of anecdote which shows that two of the greatest Germans who ever lived did not think the lowly road too insignificant to discuss: When Heinrich Heine for the first time met with the royal poet, Goethe, he was so impressed with the majesty of his personality that he could speak of nothing less than the plum trees on the chaussée, between Jena and Weimar. Also Bill Nye, the humorist, takes a rap at the roads in this manner.[128] Our wagon roads throughout the country are generally a disgrace to civilization and before we undertake to supply Jaeger underwear and sealskin covered bibles with flexible backs to the African it might be well to put a few dollars into the relief of galled and broken down horses that have lost their breath on our miserable highways. The country system, as I recall it, was in my boyhood about as poor and inefficient as it could well be. Each township was divided up into road districts, and each road district was presided over by an overseer of highways, whose duty it is to collect so many days’ work or so many dollars from each taxpayer in the district. Of course no taxpayer would pay a dollar when he could come and make mud pies on the road all day and visit and gossip with the neighbors and save his dollar too. The result seemed to be that the work was misdirected and generally an injury to the road. With all our respect to the farmer, I will state right here that he does not know how to make roads. An all wise Providence never intended that he should know. The professional roadbuilder, with the money used by the ignorant sapheads and self-made road architects, would in a few years make roads in the United States over which two or three times the present sized load could be easily drawn, and the dumb beasts of the Republic would rise up and call us blessed for doing it. This bit of doggerel appeared in _Good Roads_ about the same time: _They May Be Sinking Yet_ Old farmer John drove off to town All on a rainy day. The glistening highway up and down, With mire shone all the way. The gentle weeping raindrops fell And had fallen all the night; The bottom of that highway--well; ’Twas literally out of sight. But John had hitched his sturdy steeds. His sturdy steeds and true That often ’mid such urgent needs. Had boldly struggled through. And John had sworn a big round oath With deep and bated breath, He’d rather brave the deep, forsooth, Thrice o’er than starve to death. For visions of the flour bin, ’Twas empty he could see, And for a week no sugar in His coffee cup had he. And so amid the sea of mire. Those steeds right valiant reel, While turbid waves creep higher, higher, Upon the wagon wheel. Oh! help ye powers that rule the wave, Wherever ye may be; Reach down and this poor mortal save From out the turbid sea. They sink, now just the horses’ ears Still struggling through the flood; Now nothing but John’s hat appears Above that sea of mud. The rich black loam of Illinois Above that outfit met; And since our roads are bottomless, They may be sinking yet. Thus was the propaganda for better roads spread during the last decade of the nineteenth century. And this is not all the country owes to the enthusiastic wheelman of that period. Their efforts had resulted in a stirring of the whole populace. True, some were opposed to spending money for highfalutin highways, but many of the best thinkers of the country caught the true spirit of the wave and did all they could to continue the good work. In many states organizations were formed and good roads meetings called. In Des Moines, August 16, 1892,[129] more than 300 delegates representing boards of trade, boards of supervisors, county road conventions, 88 counties and 130 cities met in an enthusiastic convention of two days’ duration with Judge E. H. Thayer of Clinton as presiding officer. On the programme were such men as Horace Boies, Governor of the state, Judge Peter A. Day, Railway Commissioner, and Charles A. Schaeffer, President of the State University. The resolutions adopted among other things recommend that, until further legislation can be had, the following steps by county associations be taken: “(1) To set on foot a movement in every township in the respective counties looking to the consolidation of road districts...; (2) to impress on boards of supervisors the duty of levying the county fund tax...; (3) where it is apparent that the public interests will be best subserved by a larger immediate expenditure ... to urge ... the propriety of submitting to the people the voting of a higher levy or the issuance of bonds ... to agitate in cities and towns the question of the propriety of expending money beyond their limits in improving highways leading thereto....” [Illustration: © _Underwood and Underwood_ GOOD ROADS DAY IN JACKSON CO., MO.] While this convention was in session a similar one was meeting in Missouri; in fact practically all the states in the Union were getting “in the band wagon.” The League stopped not here, but were interesting the political men of the country in the issue. They visited the president of the United States, Benjamin Harrison, at Washington in July,[130] at which time he turned to Colonel Charles L. Burdet, head of the League, and said: “One thing; if wheelmen secure us good roads for which they are so zealously working, your body deserves a medal in recognition of its philanthropy.” The great World’s Fair was coming off at Chicago in 1893, and “good roads boosters” were extremely anxious that a suitable exhibition be made there. General Roy Stone framed a bill which was favorably reported by the Senate Committee July 23, 1892. It was a bill to create a National Highway Commission and prescribe its duties, “composed of two Senators and five members of the House of Representatives, and five citizens appointed by the president” for the purpose of a general inquiry into the condition of highways in the United States and means for their improvement, and especially the best method of securing a proper exhibit at the World’s Columbian Exhibition of approved appliances for road making, and of providing for public instruction in the art during the exhibition.[131] Colonel Albert A. Pope, of Boston, a zealous road worker, secured the opinions of hundreds of prominent men, which he presented to the members of congress. Only a few extracts can be made here.[132] A want of understanding and system has resulted in a nearly useless expenditure of enough labor and money to have furnished the settled portions of our country with good substantial roads. --_President Benjamin Harrison._ Looking at it from a postal standpoint enlarged free delivery or anything like universal free delivery will have to be postponed until there are better facilities of communication through the rural and sparsely settled districts. The experiments that we have made in the smaller towns and villages have proved the practicability of greater extended free delivery, but without good roads it must necessarily be limited to the small towns. --_John Wanamaker, Postmaster General._ There is no doubt that the diffusion of knowledge in regard to the good construction of roads will be of immense benefit to all the people. --_John A. Noble, Secretary of the Interior._ I think the people of the United States are taking more interest in the improvement of good roads than in any other non-political matter. --_O. H. Platt, Senator from Connecticut._ I have often thought that the people, speaking of them generally, have never yet understood the value of good roads. They are not only matters of convenience, but they are really matters of great economy in every community. The farmer with one team of two horses is able to move on a good road more than he could move with four horses and a wagon of much greater strength on a poor road. This I have tested personally many times. Farmers are constantly in need of the use of highways to transport their property and to move themselves from place to place. The average farmer is five miles distant from the nearest railway station and his surplus produce must be moved that distance year after year. If he were to compute the saving that he and his neighbors would have by reason of first-class roadways, they would discover that it would amount to more than the expense of putting the roads in good condition and keeping them so. Our road system is miserably deficient. --_William A. Peffer, Senator from Kansas (Populist)._ Aside from the benefits that good roads bring to the people in times of peace I do not know of a great city in this country that is provided with such highways as would admit of the expeditions marching of a great army in times of war. Washington City is a fair example in this regard. The highways leading to this city through Maryland and Virginia are both narrow and crooked. There is not a single public outlet or inlet that can be called a great national highway. --_H. C. Hansbrough, Senator from North Dakota._ In the old Roman days all roads led to Rome, and they were good roads. They built roads for military and commercial purposes, and the wisdom of their enterprise was apparent even in that early day. European nations to-day regard road-making as one of their economic questions, and it does seem that our Government in its honest endeavor to benefit the agricultural classes, should have thought of good roads long ago. We want and must have splendid highways, owned not by corporations but by the people. They will be an economical investment, and an untold comfort to the traveler. --_James H. Kyle, Senator from South Dakota._ The country could spend no money so economically and enlist no genius so usefully as in making better roads for communications between one neighborhood and another. --_John W. Daniel, Senator from Virginia._ I esteem good roads throughout the country to be as necessary as railroads. --_Francis E. Warren, Senator from Wyoming._ The prosperity of our country depends so largely on the prosperity of our farmers that everything possible should be done to render life in the rural districts agreeable as well as profitable and nothing could conduce more to the comfort and happiness of our people than the improvement of the roads. --_Joseph Wheeler, Representative from Alabama._ That good roads in good condition are always of great value in a military point of view is plain enough; for any section of active operations the prompt transportation of material and the moving of an army would demand it. --_Major General Oliver O. Howard, United States Army._ The importance of good roads has been brought to my attention most forcibly on many occasions when my wagon trains have been forced to move at a snail’s pace over almost impassable roads, and when every hour’s delay might mean untold disaster. The expenditure of animal force on such occasions was fearful. In times of peace good roads are no less important; the general condition of country roads is a very good index of the civilization and prosperity of the community. It is not difficult to show by mathematical deduction that money expended in constructing good roads is economy from a financial standpoint, while from a social standpoint the benefits are incalculable. We have splendid railroads traversing the whole country in every direction and we have in most cities very creditable means of rapid transit, but the country roads in most parts of the United States are really deplorable. This condition of affairs is something like putting a boy at work on Latin and Greek before he has mastered the alphabet of his own language. --_Brig. Gen. D. K. Stanley, United States Army._ The above are only a small portion of the letters from which they were extracted, but they serve to show that the League of American Wheelmen and such men as Colonel Pope were very active in spreading the gospel of good roads. The arguments in these and hundreds of other letters, from men of all classes and professions, of all political parties from all parts of the nation, cover a very wide range and the effect has been lasting. About this time, also, Senator Charles F. Manderson, of Nebraska, introduced a concurrent resolution in the Senate to print a lot of consular reports relating to streets and highways in foreign countries and distribute them in bulletin form. The edition consisted of 30,000 and served to show how the United States was lagging behind other countries in the matter of road building.[133] =Office of Public Roads Inquiry.=--A very few lines of the Congressional Record serves to introduce the beginning of a great instrumentality for good roads in America. On January 26, 1893, Representative Deborow introduced a resolution in the House of Representatives, “instructing the committee on agriculture to incorporate in the agricultural appropriation the sum of $15,000 to be expended for the purpose of making investigations for a better system of roads.”[134] On the same day Representative Lewis presented a similar resolution “instructing the committee on agriculture to incorporate in the bill making appropriations for the Agricultural Department a clause authorizing the Secretary to make inquiry regarding public roads.”[135] Both resolutions were referred to the committee on agriculture. As a final result a statute carrying an appropriation of $10,000 was approved March 3, 1893. Under this statute the Office of Public Roads Inquiries was instituted, October 3, 1893, with “General Roy Stone, of New York, recognized as a superior civil engineer, and thoroughly identified with the popular movement toward the improvement of the highways in the several states, in charge.”[136] The Letter of Instructions of the Secretary of Agriculture to General Stone upon his appointment summarizes the statute and defines the object and scope of the inquiry to be made. The last paragraph of the instructions shows that the old theory of “state sovereignty,” still had a place in the mind of the Secretary, and it was not for several years that this office did more than the mere collection of information relative to roads. The letter follows:[137] U. S. Department of Agriculture, Office of the Secretary, Washington, D. C., October 3, 1893. Sir: You have been this day appointed to supervise and carry out the investigations pursuant to the statute approved March 3, 1893, which has four branches: (1) To make inquiries in regard to the systems of road management throughout the United States. (2) To make investigations in regard to the best method of road-making. (3) To prepare didactic publications on this subject, suitable for distribution. (4) To assist the agricultural colleges and experiment stations in disseminating information on this subject. It will not be profitable to enter upon all of these points at first. The work under the appropriation will need to be of gradual growth, conducted at all times economically. Therefore, it is not expected that there will be any considerable force of clerical help, and aside from your salary, no considerable expenditure for the present. It is understood that you have at your command the data for a compilation of the laws of several of the states, upon which their road systems are based. It should be your first duty, therefore, to make such collection complete, and prepare a bulletin on that subject. Incidentally, while preparing this bulletin, you should charge yourself with collecting data relating to the different methods of road making, which, in the first instance, should be generic in their character; including-- (1) The best method of constructing a common highway, without gravel or stone. (2) Gravel highways. (3) Macadam and other stone roads. (4) Data upon which to base suggestions for the transportation of material within reasonable access, for the proper surfacing of the roadbed. These data should form the foundation for the second bulletin, or second series of bulletins. There are certain restrictions I wish specifically to bring to your attention. It must be borne in mind that the actual expense in the construction of these highways is to be borne by the localities and states in which they lie. Moreover, it is not the province of this Department to seek to control or influence said action, except in so far as advice and wise suggestion shall contribute toward it. This Department is to form no part of any plan, scheme, or organization, or to be a party to it in any way, which has for its object the concerted effort to secure and furnish labor to the unemployed persons or to convicts. These are matters to be carried on by states, localities, or charities. The Department is to furnish information, not to direct and formulate any system of organization, however efficient or desirable it may be. Any such effort on its part would soon make it subject to hostile criticism. You will publish this letter in the preface to your first bulletin. Yours truly, J. STERLING MORTON, Secretary. MR. ROY STONE, _Special Agent and Civil Engineer in charge of Good Roads Investigations_. The Office followed these instructions pretty closely for several years. General Stone and his successor General Dodge encouraged the formation of good roads organizations. In fact General Stone prior to the institution of the Office of Road Inquiries was instrumental in organizing at Chicago in connection with the dedication of the World’s Fair in 1893, the National League for Good Roads. General Stone himself attributed to the influence of this League the organization of the Office of Public Roads and the great work which it has since accomplished.[138] Other good roads organizations were springing up. The Office of Public Road Inquiries encouraged these to the extent of publishing addresses given at their conventions as bulletins upon the theory that the information relative to road improvements throughout the United States was in line with the object and scope of the Office. The organization known as the National Good Roads Association, with W. H. Moore of St. Louis, Missouri, as president, and R. W. Richardson, of Omaha, Nebraska, as secretary, seems to have been especially active. Colonel Moore was a man of impressive manner, suave and affable, and was able to interest and associate with him many very influential people. He was a born “good roads booster.” He always worked with the men in power. Directors Stone and Dodge not only had prominent places on his convention programmes, but recommended to the Secretary of Agriculture that the proceedings be printed as Departmental Bulletins. This was for a time helpful to the cause of good roads, for the conventions were addressed by able and influential men. Director Dodge in his letter of transmittal of the proceedings of the convention held at St. Louis, Missouri, April 27 to 29, 1903, to Hon. James Wilson, Secretary of Agriculture, says:[139] Among the distinguished speakers who delivered addresses were Hon. Theodore Roosevelt, President of the United States; Hon. William J. Bryan, of Nebraska; General Miles, of the United States Army; Governor Dockery, of Missouri; Governor Cummins, of Iowa; Hon. A. C. Latimer, United States Senator from South Carolina; Hon. W. D. Vandiver, member of Congress from Missouri; Hon. D. R. Frances, president of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Committee; Hon. J. H. Brigham, Assistant Secretary of Agriculture; General Roy Stone, of New York; and Mr. Samuel Hill, of Washington. Addresses were also delivered by prominent men engaged in agriculture, railway transportation, commercial pursuits, and newspaper work. This organization, like many state good-roads organizations, had no permanent membership list. Any city that would “finance” a convention could get one. Invitations were sent to governors, mayors, county officers, city officers, commercial clubs urging them to appoint delegates to the conventions. As a result large conventions were promoted and held at Chicago, St. Louis, Buffalo, Portland, and elsewhere, usually in connection with some exposition or fair. There being no permanent membership the only way to finance such undertakings was by popular subscriptions and donations from social, commercial and political bodies. Colonel Moore[140] went to New York and talked to the president of the Illinois Central railroad, Mr. Stuyvesant Fish, and asked for a special “train of fifteen cars to carry modern road machinery.” “How much will this project cost?” asked Mr. Fish. Moore replied, “As near as we can figure it out, to furnish and operate this train for three months will cost you $40,000 to $50,000.” President Fish replied, “That is a large amount to throw in the mud, but we will consider it.” The train was granted. In the language of Colonel Moore, the “railroad company shouldered the burden.” The government through the Office of Public Roads furnished two expert engineers, other engineers and necessary employees were hired. This train made the trip from Chicago to New Orleans. Advance-agents were sent along the way to secure the coöperation of the various communities. They were asked to raise a sufficient amount of money to defray the local expenses. Moore states, “we did not visit a single city in the South where we laid the matter before the mayor, the city council, and the supervisors that they did not promptly respond in the affirmative.” Road machinery carried on the train was explained by men frequently sent along for this purpose by the manufacturers who had donated its use or by engineers and others in charge. Short sections of road were graded and stoned--“object lesson roads were built.” Similar trains were run over the Lake Shore Road, and later over the Southern Railway. The latter at a cost of about $80,000; the road equipped the train, fed the men and furnished Pullman cars for sleeping accommodations. The last such train was over the Northern Pacific. This particular organization (there were others) and its work has been thus fully mentioned to show how thoroughly the propaganda was carried on which resulted later in the greatest road-building campaign in the history of the world. The National Good Roads Association came to grief at the Portland Exposition in 1905, where strenuous opposition developed to the financing methods of Mr. Moore and an unsuccessful effort was made to oust him from the presidency of the association. James W. Abbott, Pacific Coast Agent for the Office of Public Roads in a newspaper interview among other things said:[141] “We feel that the wild, reckless and impossible things which Colonel Moore promises to do for communities must later produce a reaction positively disastrous. He has already promised that the construction train of the National Good Roads Association will do an amount of work gratuitously for communities, which, allowing for unavoidable delays, climatic and otherwise, would take more than ten years. The three good roads trains which have heretofore done object-lesson road work have been under the direct operation and executive management of Colonel Richardson. They were wonderfully well-equipped trains, but they demonstrated that the building of suitable object-lesson roads efficiently and economically was not and could not be made a circus proposition.” In addition to good roads associations, the agitation for better roads was taken up by governors who devoted a not inconsiderable portion of their messages to the legislatures to a discussion of the subject. Even presidents of the United States paid it attention in their messages to Congress. With the coming of the automobile the need of better highways and hard pavements was greatly emphasized. With lots of money for propaganda, with nearly everyone becoming a disciple of good roads, is it any wonder that Congress finally voted for federal aid? Participation in road conventions and coöperation with more or less spurious organizations was greatly curtailed when Logan Walter Page was promoted to the Directorship of the office. Still, speakers and experts were freely sent to address meetings for the purpose of educating the citizenry to the need of better roads, and how they should go about to obtain them and what such roads will cost. Speakers were, therefore, supposed to give definite and specific information on which local committees might act intelligently. Propaganda for the purpose of influencing legislation in any state or city was tabooed and bulletins took on a more scientific nature relating more to quality, availability, and cost of materials; methods and costs of construction; and efficiency of types of roads. Road associations have continued to increase and many have and are doing praiseworthy work for the cause of better roads. The Good Roads Year Book, 1914, published by the American Highway Association, of which Director Page was president, listed, giving the names of the principal officers, 1 international, 38 national and 617 state and county associations. =Object-Lesson Roads.=--The Office of Public Roads inquiry beginning, as has been shown, very simply, has by devoted service and extreme economy been able to do a remarkable amount of good for the public highways of this country. The men at its head and employed by it deserve much praise. Their salaries were small, yet they worked with missionary zeal. They were able to coöperate with scientific and professional organizations, such as the American Society for Testing Materials, The American Society of Civil Engineers, The Bureau of Standards, and a number of organizations employing reputable high-class scientific men in research work pertaining to road construction and road materials. The government’s appropriation beginning at $10,000 or excluding the Director’s salary $8000, was increased from time to time until it was in 1896, $37,660 and in 1911, $135,000. Since the adoption of the system of Federal Aid, there has naturally been greatly increased operation. The total appropriations for the Bureau of Public Roads are now approximately three quarters of a million dollars. [Illustration: Chart of the Organization of the U. S. Bureau of Public Roads and Rural Engineering, 1917 +--------+ |DIRECTOR| +---+----+ | +----------------------+------------------+ | | | +------------+-----------+ +--------+---------+ +------+-------+ |MANAGEMENT AND ECONOMICS| |GENERAL INSPECTION| | ENGINEERING | |Chief of Management | |General Inspectors| |Chief Engineer| +-----------+------------+ +------------------+ +------+-------+ | | +----+-----------+ +-------------+-------+ | | | | +-----+-------------+ | +-----------+-----------+ | | MANAGEMENT | | | ROAD MATERIALS | | | | | | TESTS AND | | |Correspondence | | | RESEARCH | | | and Files | | | | | |Cooperation with | | |Chemical and Physical | | | Solicitor | | | Tests | | |Accounts | | |Microscopic Examination| | |Editorial & Library| | | and Classification | | |Quarters & Stock | | | of Rocks | | +-------------------+ | |Standardization of | | +------------+ | Methods of Testing | | | |Investigations of | | +----------+---------------+ | Non-Bituminous | | | ENGINEERING | | Materials | | | ECONOMICS | |Research on Dust | | | | |Preventives and | | |Economic Investigations | | Road Binders | | | and Advice | |Concrete Investigations| | |Statistical Investigations| |Field Experiments | | |Legislative Investigations| |Inspection & Advice | | | and Advice | +-----------------------+ | |Lectures & Exhibits | +----------------------+ |Illustrations and | | | Models | | +--------------------------+ | +----------------------+----+------------------+-----------+ | | | | +-----------+----------+ +---------+-----------+ +---------+---------+ | | HIGHWAY CONSTRUCTION | | IRRIGATION | | DRAINAGE | | | AND | | | | | | | MAINTENANCE | |Utilization of Water | |Farm Drainage | | | | | Power and Appliance | |Drainage of Swamps | | |Post Road Construction| | Equipment | | and Wet Lands | | |Forest Road | |Flow of Water in | |Removal of Surplus | | | Construction and | | Ditches, Pipes, etc.| | Water | | | Maintenance | |Duty, Apportionment | |Field Experiments | | |Object Lesson Roads | | and Measurement | |Investigating and | | |Cooperative and | | of Water | | Developing | | | Experimental | |Customs, Regulations | | Equipment | | | Maintenance | | and Laws | |Inspection & Advice| | |Bridges & Culverts | |Drainage of Irri- | +-------------------+ | |Inspection & Advice | | gated Lands | | +---------+------------+ |Inspection & Advice | +-------------------+ | +---------------------+ | +---------+ +---------------+------+ | +-------------+ | RURAL | | |1st. District| | ENGINEERING | +-+ | | | | |Wash. | +-------------+ |Farm Water Supply | | |Ore., Idaho | |2nd District | |Drainage Disposal | | +-------------+ | | |Construction of Farm | +-----------------+Berkely, Cal.| | Buildings | | |Cal., Nev. | |Rural Engineering | | |Ariz., N. M. | | Problems Involving | | +-------------+ | Mechanical Principles| | | Traction Tests | | |Instrument Making | | | and Repairing | | |Inspection & Advice | | +----------------------+ | +-------------+ | |3rd. District| | | | +--------------------------------+Denver, Colo.| | |Mont., Wyo. | | +-------------+ |Utah, Colo. | | |4th. District| +-------------+ +-+ | | |N.D., S.D. | | |Minn., Wis. | +-------------+ | +-------------+ |5th. District| +-----------------+ | | |Nebr., Iowa | | |Kan., Mo. | +-------------+ | +-------------+ |6th. District| +---------------------------------+Texas., Okla.| | |Ark., La. | | +-------------+ | +-----------------+ | |7th. District | | | | +-+So. Chicago, Ill.| | |Mich., Ill. | +---------------+ | |Ind., Ky. | |8th. District | | +-----------------+ | | | |Tenn. | +---------------------+Miss., Ala. | +--------------------+ | |Ga., S.C., Fla.| |9th. District | | +---------------+ | | +---------------------------------------+Me., N.H., Vt., N.Y.| | |Mass., Conn., R.I. | | +-----------------+ |N.J., Del. | | |10th. District | +--------------------+ | | | +-+Washington, D.C. | |Ohio., Penn., Md.| |W.Va., Va., N.C. | +-----------------+] The duties and scope of the Office of Public Roads Inquiry was gradually widened and its name changed to the Office of Public Roads. In 1915 by reorganization of the Department of Agriculture it became the Office of Public Roads and Rural Engineering and took charge of all the Department’s work which partook in any way of an engineering nature. In 1916 the Secretary of Agriculture directed the Office to act for him in the routine administration of the Federal Roads Act. The work of the Office or Bureau of Public Roads, as it is now designated, was in 1916, carried on along three general lines:[142] (1) Educational; (2) Research, and (3) Administration of the Federal Road Act. By its educational or extension work the Office was endeavoring to reach the people by means of lectures, addresses, the publication of bulletins and the exhibit of models. Emphasizing the economic value of improved roads and the efficiency of various types. Special advice and assistance to communities was given by furnishing engineers and experts to confer with municipal officers on their particular problems. Actual demonstration by the construction of object-lesson roads was freely carried on. The community furnished the material and labor; the Office sent its engineers and experts to design and superintend the construction. These “seed miles” resulted in the construction of many other miles by the community itself. The Office tried to impress also the need of proper maintenance from the beginning. Fully as important as its educational work was the research or investigational work carried on. The Office was able to secure the services of several young men of scientific attainment and the bulletins put out by L. W. Page, Prévost Hubbard, A. S. Cushman and their successors have commanded world-wide recognition. Laboratories were erected to test road materials, and experimental roads were built to demonstrate the actual use of the same according to various methods. In this manner careful studies were made of a vast number of materials, including oils, asphalts, tars, concrete, brick, crushed stone and gravel. In connection with practical road men and research committees of such organizations as the American Society of Civil Engineers, and the American Society for Testing Materials many useful standards have been adopted for road materials and road construction. The effect of traffic on various types of roads has also been a profitable subject for study. The organization of the Bureau may be best shown by the chart. =Rural Free Delivery.=--A brief mention of this agency for better roads should not be omitted. Postmaster-General Wanamaker, in 1890, recommended the extension of free delivery to villages of less than 10,000 population and he inaugurated an experimental “village delivery.” After an existence of about two years this was ordered discontinued. However, free delivery on a broader basis was demanded by State Granges of the Patrons of Husbandry and other farmers. Congress made small appropriations for rural free delivery, but the Postmaster-General, W. S. Bissell, declined to make any use of them. When Hon. W. L. Wilson became Postmaster-General (1895) he agreed with his predecessor in believing the project impractical, but if Congress would make the money available he was willing to try it out. An appropriation of $40,000 was placed at his disposal.[143] The first Rural Free Delivery routes were established on October 1, 1896, at Halltown, Uvilla, and Charlestown, West Virginia. Others immediately followed. President McKinley in a message to Congress December 3, 1900, states that “by the close of the current fiscal year about 4000 routes will have been established, providing for the daily delivery of mails at the scattered homes of about three and a half million of rural population.”[144] So successful did it prove that it soon displaced nearly all the star routes and was well established in practically all rural districts of the United States. In 1919 out of a total expenditure by the Post Office Department of over $362,000,000, a little less than $51,000,000 was distributed to the rural delivery service.[145] The Department having adopted a rule to the effect that the rural delivery service would only be established along reasonably good roads, and that a carrier need not go out unless the roads were in fit condition spurred the inhabitants up to better attention of the roads for after a man once got in the habit of receiving his mail daily he wanted it regularly. “When a heavy snow blocks the way of the rural carrier it is customary for the farmers to turn out and break the roads, and this is done several days earlier than would be the case ordinarily. In this way communication throughout neighborhoods and with the outside world is opened up promptly. In consequence the farmer is able to take advantage of good markets and the townspeople are not cut off from the supply of fresh country produce, as often has happened in severe storms. Also cases of distress in isolated farm homes are sooner reached and relieved.”[146] The Department finding the rural delivery popular determined to make it not only more so but to make it pay also. So they took precautions to protect the mail in the farmer’s boxes by regulating the kind of boxes to be used and promptly prosecuting cases of thievery and molestation of mail; they established registration by rural carriers and allowed carriers to receipt for applications for money orders; carriers were also authorized to receive and deliver “drop” letters on their routes without passing them through the terminal post office. A little later when the parcel post was instituted the popularity of rural delivery was greatly enhanced. Like many other conveniences the rural inhabitants cannot now realize how they could get along without free delivery of the mails. Postmaster-General Charles Emory Smith in his report of 1900[147] says of the then quite new system: Rural delivery has now been sufficiently tried to measure its effects.... It stimulates social and business correspondence, and so swells the postal receipts. Its introduction is invariably followed by a large increase in the circulation of the press and of periodic literature. The farm is thus brought into direct daily contact with the currents and movements of the business world. A more accurate knowledge of ruling markets and varying prices is diffused, and the producer, with his quicker communication and larger information, is placed on a surer footing. The value of farms, as has been shown in many cases, is enhanced. Good roads become indispensable, and their improvement is the essential condition of the service. The material and measurable benefits are signal and unmistakable. But the movement exercises a wider and deeper influence. It becomes a factor in the social and economic tendencies of American life. The disposition to leave the farm for the town is a familiar effect of our past conditions. But this tendency is checked, and may be materially changed by an advance which conveys many of the advantages of the town to the farm. Rural free delivery brings the farm within the daily range of the intellectual and commercial activities of the world, and the isolation and monotony which have been the bane of agricultural life are sensibly mitigated. It proves to be one of the most effective and powerful of educational agencies. Wherever it is extended the schools improve and the civil spirit of the community feels a new pulsation; the standard of intelligence is raised, enlightened interest in public affairs is quickened, and better citizenship follows. With all these results clearly indicated by the experiment as thus far tried, rural free delivery is plainly here to stay. It cannot be abandoned where it has been established, and cannot be maintained without being extended. [Illustration: © _Underwood and Underwood_ HARD SURFACE HIGHWAY IN OREGON] [Illustration: © _Underwood and Underwood_ A FARMER’S WIFE MEETING THE POSTAL TRUCK] The law for federal aid is based upon the clause in the Constitution giving Congress power “to establish post offices and post roads.”[148] and the money made available may only be expended on post roads outside of towns “having a population of two thousand five hundred or more, except that portion of any such street or road along which the houses average more than two hundred feet apart.”[149] Thus may be seen the very great importance to better public highways of the “rural free delivery.” =State Aid.=--While the bicyclist and voluntary road organizations were creating sentiment favorable to improved highways, the states were not idle. It will not be possible to follow the progress in each of the states, but since some form of state aid has been adopted by all of them the development of that idea will be sketched. By state aid is meant a plan whereby a part of the expense of constructing roads is borne by the state and a part by the locality in which the road lies. New Jersey,[150] like many of the other Eastern states, had a few turnpike roads constructed and maintained by private corporations. These roads were much better than the public roads on which there were no toll gates. The public roads were administered under ordinary laws of overseers of highway districts. Charges of partiality had led to amendments, then other amendments until the laws were a maze of intricacies. To eliminate these, the state board of agriculture in 1887 called a mass meeting of farmers and others interested in good roads. The result of the conference, which was well attended, was the appointment of a committee, consisting of one member for each of the Congressional districts in the State, to examine the laws of New Jersey, of other states and of foreign countries and report methods for bettering the New Jersey system. After careful consideration they drafted a law abolishing the overseers and conferring the powers and duties of caring for the public highways on the township committee. This was presented to the State Board of Agriculture and received unanimous approval. But when it came before the State Legislature, of 1888, for adoption the opposition of the road overseers succeeded in defeating it. In 1889 it was again presented and defeated; and met a similar fate in 1890. But in 1891 with the coöperation of the governor its passage was secured. Mr. Clayton Conrow of New Jersey[151] claims the honor of proposing the first state aid road law in the United States. He asserts that he learned from actual observation of the travelers on a section of highway that it was used not only by “teams of the local township but also from the adjoining township and the township beyond, and so on and on they came until a score of townships were represented on this section of the road.” He therefore concluded that the county and the state by rights should assist in building the main traveled roads, and that “every citizen of the state is entitled to the free use thereof.” This, he says, was in 1890, just the time the state board of agriculture was pushing its law to discontinue the overseers. Conrow says he consulted with Hon. Edward Burrough, president of the state board of agriculture, and outlined his plan for a State Aid Road Law. Burrough was highly pleased, but there was an obstacle in the way, namely the turnpike corporations. They were creatures of the law and had rights that should be respected. Mr. Burrough advocated the adoption of the law having faith that the people would buy the turnpike roads so that no citizen would be the loser. Judge William M. Lanning put the draft of the bill in legal form. It was then submitted to Governor Abbett for his approval as they did not care to encounter a veto if a slight change of form would reconcile him to its provisions. Mr. Conrow claims his original draft was changed only slightly by the board and again by the governor, then submitted to the legislature by a Mr. Davidson of Gloucester county. This is the act that was passed in 1891. =Salient Features of the State Aid Law.=--The essential points of the law are set forth in the following extract being the preamble and parts of the seventh and fourth sections: _An Act to provide for the more permanent improvement of the public roads of this State._ Whereas public roads in this State have heretofore been built and maintained solely at the expense of the respective townships in which they are located; and Whereas such roads are for the convenience of the citizens of the counties in which they are located, and of the entire State as well as of said townships; and Whereas the expense of constructing permanently improved roads may be reasonably imposed in due proportions, upon the State and upon the counties in which they are located: Therefore, ... _And be it enacted_, That whenever there shall be presented to the board of chosen freeholders of any county a petition signed by the owners of at least two-thirds of the lands and real estate fronting or bordering on any public road ... praying the board to cause such road ... to be improved under this act, and setting forth that they are willing that the peculiar benefits conferred on the lands fronting or bordering on said road ... shall be assessed thereon, in amount not exceeding ten per centum of the entire cost of the improvement, it shall be the duty of the board to cause such improvements to be made: Provided, that the estimated cost of all improvements ... in any county in any one year shall not exceed one-half of one per centum of the ratables of such county for the last preceding year.... And be it enacted, That one-third of the cost of all roads constructed ... shall be paid for out of the State treasury: Provided, That the amount so paid shall not in any one year exceed the sum of seventy-five thousand dollars.... It will be seen that under this law the property owners pay one-tenth, the State one-third and the county the remaining 56²⁄₃ per cent. Except for the 10 per cent paid by the abutting property holders the burden borne by all citizens of the county is the same. The friends of the movement demanded its enforcement; the opponents were equally determined which resulted in an appeal to the courts and the mandatory features were sustained. As it was first enacted the total expenditure was $20,000 and a Commissioner of Agriculture was to supervise its disbursement. But as there was no such officer the next legislature, at the suggestion of the governor, authorized the president of the State Board of Agriculture to perform these duties; this he did until the office of the Commissioner of Public Roads was created. The first money paid out under the act was December 27, 1892, $20,661.85, and this was the first money paid in the United States for state aid for the construction of roads. With slight amendments the law remains to the present and has been emulated by nearly all the states in the Union. In Massachusetts advocates of better roads attempted legislation looking toward a system of state highways in 1887 and annually thereafter until 1892.[152] In 1892 the demand became so great that the legislature enacted a law providing for a commission of three to inquire into the entire subject and report to the legislature of 1893, with suitable appropriation for the purpose. The commission made a thorough investigation, held public hearings, and made inquiries among all classes. Their findings were brought before the legislature and a general road law was enacted providing for a commission of three competent persons who should give advice to those having charge of the public highways; it further contemplated the building and care for by this commission of a system of state highways connecting the several municipalities. At first the counties were supposed to grade the roads and the Commonwealth to surface them but the law was changed (1894) so that the Commonwealth through the highway commission does the entire work of construction and maintenance then charges back to the counties 25 per cent of the cost, so that finally the State pays 75 per cent and the county 25 per cent. In 1913 an amendment was made to relieve small communities from the payment of the entire amount thus the State, in reality, pays more than 75 per cent of the expense. The state aid principle has been adopted by all states in the union; many before federal aid came, the remainder since. Connecticut was third in 1895 and New York fourth in 1898. In order to raise money to meet the demands for state aid roads many of the states bonded themselves for large amounts. New York voted a bond issue of $50,000,000 in 1906 and another of the same amount in