Legislators Can Not
Get Together on the Question of the Way They Will Connect Up With the Federal Government
on the Federal Aid Proposition for the Building of Good Roads. . . Will Jointly
Talk it Over Tonight
By W.T. Bost
Raleigh, March 3—Chaotic conditions in the House regarding
road legislation today for the building of a system of state highways. Matters
came to a clash when Ray of Macon and Daughton of Alleghany exchanged some
words over the proposition. Ray defied what he thought was a steam roller
headed in his direction and charged that some of the advocates of the proposal
by Bryant of Durham to withdraw the Mull-McCoin bill from the committee from
action by the committee of the whole House with having broken an agreement.
Nearly every one had something to say and the upshot of the offensive was a
decision to spend an evening with the road bills in order to get together on
one of them. Probably time will tell. We dunno and refuse to prophesy.
The House by a vote of 37 to 39 killed a bill requiring
reports from wheat threshers and passed one forbidding the sale of a hog cholera
serum that was not recommended by the state or federal government.
The Senate passed a most discouraging bill to pistol toters,
requiring those who carried a deadly weapon to secure a license, and also a
license for those selling pistols and a record of the sales made like a
druggist who sells poisons. There was some inquiry about the constitutionality
of the act but the bill looked so good that it passed.
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From The Wilson Times, Tuesday, March 4, 1919
Great Road Building
Program. . . Largest Amount of Money Ever Set Aside by Any Nation in the World.
. . $574 Million for Roads
Washington, D.C., March 3—With full State cooperation
according to the terms of the Federal Aid Road Act, the United States will have
a total of at least $574 million for cooperative road building during the next
three years. The Federal part of this fund is assured by an extra appropriation
of $209 million in the Post Office appropriation bill just passed by Congress
and signed by the President.
Officials of the Bureau of Public Roads, U.S. Department of
Agriculture, which administers the provisions of the Federal Aid Road Act and
cooperates with the State governments in the expending of the money, point out
that this amount of funds is the largest ever appropriated for similar purposes
and for a similar period by any government in the history of the world, and
that “enables the federal and state governments to carry out a road-building
program of a magnitude never equaled.
In connection with the great Federal aid program, it is also
noted that expenditures for highway work in the United States this year are
likely to amount to a half billion or more. On reports received from State
highway departments, the Bureau of Public Roads estimates the 1919 expenditures
for roads and bridges at $385 million, or $110 million more than the average
expenditures for 1916 and 1917.
An important effect of the law containing the new
appropriation is that it broadens the definition of a rural post road, under
which class a highway had to qualify in order to receive the benefits of the
Federal aid act.
The new act also raises the government limit of contribution
from not to exceed $10,000 a mile, to not to exceed $20,000 a mile, taking
account of higher present costs of labor and materials.
The law also authorizes the Secretary of War to transfer to
the Secretary of Agriculture material, equipment and supplies suitable for
highway improvement and not need by the War Department.
Of the $209 million added to the funds available under the
Federal Aid Road Act, the law makes $9 million available for expenditure by the
Secretary of Agriculture for roads and trails within or partly within the
national forests. It also provides other measures which are expected to give
great impetus to the development of the road system in the national forests.
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