Page:America's Highways 1776–1976.djvu/50

 The Massachusetts plan was a tremendous improvement over the New Jersey State-aid law. First, it concentrated the limited State funds on a small mileage of the most important roads, thus, assuring that they could eventually be connected into a continuous network. The power to initiate projects remained with the local officials, but the Highway Commission had authority to approve or reject and also to make the surveys and plans and to award and inspect the construction contracts, thus, retaining control over standards. This control eventually led to establishing statewide standards for highways of various classes and also to setting standards for materials used in roads. Finally, the Massachusetts plan left the maintenance of the roads improved with State aid under the direct control of the Highway Commission, which could charge a part of the cost back to the local governments.

The State-aid principle, in various forms, spread slowly to other States after New Jersey and Massachusetts had shown the way. In some States the aid consisted only of advice, which might be accepted or rejected by the local authorities ; but in New York the State Highway Commission was given direct or indirect supervision over every public highway in the State. Four States helped only to the extent of putting convicts from the State penitentiary to work on the roads, while others authorized the employment of State and county convicts for road work and gave cash grants in addition. Illinois conducted a large stone-crushing operation with convicts and gave the stone to the counties free, except for the cost of hauling. Maryland, New Hampshire, New York, Washington and California required all State aid to be spent on trunkline road systems. The last States to enact some form of State aid were South Carolina, Texas and Indiana, all in 1917.

As the Good Roads Movement gained momentum, its supporters began to put pressure on Congress to provide some kind of Federal assistance to highways. The proposed Chicago World’s Fair, planned for 1893, seemed an auspicious occasion for a demonstration of Federal interest.

In July 1892, a Senate bill was introduced to create a National Highway Commission “for the purpose of 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 Exposition of approved appliances for road making, and of providing for public instruction in the art during the Exposition.” Although introduced by Senator Charles F. Manderson of Nebraska, this bill was written by General Roy Stone, a prominent New York civil engineer and good roads booster.

The Senate passed the National Highway Commission bill, but it was lost by adjournment of Congress and failed to become law. However, in the next session, Representatives Allan C. Durburow of Illinois and Clarke Lewis of Mississippi introduced resolutions instructing the House Committee on Agriculture to incorporate a clause in the pending agricultural appropriation bill to authorize the Secretary of Agriculture to “make inquiry regarding public roads,” and to “make investigations for a better system of roads.”

The Agricultural Appropriation Act of 1893, as finally approved on March 3, appropriated $10,000 to enable the Secretary “to make inquiries in regard to the systems of road management throughout the United States. . . to make investigations in regard to the best method of road-making. . . and to enable him to assist the agricultural college and experiment stations in disseminating information on this subject. . . .” Secretary J. Sterling Morton implemented this statute on October 3, 1893, by setting up the Office of Road Inquiry (ORI) within the Department of Agriculture. To head this office he appointed General Roy Stone as Special Agent and Engineer for Road Inquiry, but was careful to limit Stone’s authority to investigating and disseminating information. He was specifically forbidden to seek to influence or control road policy in the States or counties or to promote or encourage schemes to furnish work to the unemployed or to convicts. “The Department is to furnish information, not to direct and formulate any system of organization, however efficient or desirable it may be.”

With characteristic energy, Stone, whose entire staff consisted of himself and one clerk, sent letters of inquiry to the governors of the States and Territories, and their secretaries of state, the members of Congress, the State geologists and all the railroad presidents, soliciting information on highway laws, the locations of materials suitable for roadbuilding, and rail rates for hauling such materials. By the end of June 1894, the Office of Road Inquiry had issued nine bulletins on these subjects, some of which were already in their second printing!

In the following year the ORI produced nine more bulletins, three of which were the proceedings of national good roads conventions. The promoters of these meetings had no trouble getting able and influential men on their programs as speakers, including General Stone, and publication of their speeches at Government expense was an easy and cheap way to spread the gospel of good roads throughout the country.

Another major ORI project begun in 1894 was a large-scale Good Roads National Map of all the macadamized and gravel roads in the United States. For this, Stone sent a map of each county to the clerk or surveyor of that county, asking that it be returned with the existing roads laid down upon it. By June 1895, he was able to compile statewide road maps for Pennsylvania, Indiana and New Jersey from these county maps, with those of other States in various stages of compilation.

To round out a year of extraordinary activity, the ORI, with the help of the Division of Statistics of the Agriculture Department, compiled information on the cost of hauling farm products to market in 1,160 counties in the United States. These statistics showed that a farmer’s average haul to market or shipping 44