Community Civics and Rural Life Part 35

The law of Virginia provided that all highway construction in the state must be supervised by the STATE HIGHWAY COMMISSIONER. He accordingly appointed an engineer to supervise the work in Spotsylvania County, the engineer's salary being paid by the state. The work of construction, however, was under the direction of a COUNTY BOARD OF PUBLIC ROADS. The board appointed a superintendent who hired all labor and teams and purchased all equipment and materials. Three main highways in Courtland and Chancellor districts, and leading into Fredericksburg, were chosen for improvement. Within two years more than forty miles of road were completed, or about 10 per cent of all the roads in the entire county.

MONEY FOR REPAIRS

Roads have to be kept in repair after they are constructed. By 1914 money was needed for this purpose. The farmers objected to further increase of the tax rate, so it was decided to charge TOLLS for the use of the improved highways--5 cents for a single horse and vehicle, 10 cents for two horses and a buggy, 15 cents for two horses and a wagon, 25 cents for four horses and a wagon, and from 20 cents to 35 cents for automobiles. More money than was needed was raised in this way in the first month, and the tolls were therefore reduced one half. One advantage to the county of the toll system was that automobilists and others from other districts, counties, and states would contribute to the upkeep of the roads.

EFFECT OF IMPROVEMENTS ON LAND VALUES

On the roads selected for improvement there were 35 farms including 5518 acres. In 1910, the average value of these farms, including buildings, was $14 per acre, and seldom did any one want to buy land in the neighborhood. But within two years after the road improvement seven of the 35 farms had been sold, and a large part of another, as shown in the following:

In the next two or three years a number of other farms were sold at similar increased prices, and some farms that had been abandoned were reoccupied. Large areas of land were cultivated for the first time since the Civil War. The farmers were, however, most interested for the time being in their timber wealth, and between 1909 and 1913 the s.h.i.+pments of forest products from Fredericksburg increased 78.2 per cent.

THE AVERAGE HAUL

Before the improvement of the roads, the average weight of load for a two-horse team in the winter and spring, when the roads were bad, was about 1200 pounds; when the roads were dry, about 2400 pounds. The cost for hauling at this rate averaged, for the year round, about 30 cents per ton per mile. After the roads were improved, the average load the year round was 4000 pounds, and the cost for hauling only 15 cents per ton per mile.

Investigate and report on:

Results of road improvement in others of the eight counties referred to on page 248 (see Bulletin 393, 1916, Department of Agriculture).

Procure or make a map of your county showing road improvement. Is your county well provided with improved roads?

Do the cities and towns in your county contribute to the improvement of the country roads?

Do the people of the rural districts of your county contribute to the improvement of the streets of the cities and towns?

Bond issues in your county for road improvement. Meaning of "bond issues."

Tax rate in your county for road improvement.

How is road improvement managed in your county?

What help does your county get from your state for road improvement?

What supervision does your state exercise over road improvement?

Are there toll roads in your county or state?

Toll roads were once common in this country. Why have tolls been generally abandoned?

Who has charge of bridge construction in your county?

From what sources does the money come for road repair in your county?

What is the cost of hauling on the roads of your county? How does this cost compare with the cost in neighboring counties and states?

Relation of land values in your county to the character of the roads.

MONEY VALUE OF GOOD ROADS

Good roads pay, in dollars and cents, provided they are made of suitable materials and with due regard to the kind and amount of traffic they are to carry. They permit of larger loads, and more loads in a given time; they save wear and tear on horses, harness, wagons, and automobiles; in the case of automobiles they save gasoline; they save the time of the farmer; they make possible a more varied agriculture by making marketing easier; they add to the value of the land.

GOOD ROADS AND COMMUNITY LIFE

But good roads pay in many other ways than in dollars and cents.

In Spotsylvania County, as in other counties investigated at the same time, the improvement of the roads was followed by a decided improvement in school attendance. In more than one case it led to the improvement of the quality of the schools by the consolidation of a number of poor, one-room schoolhouses into a single larger school with better equipment and better teachers (see Chapter XIX). The relation between good roads and good schools is clearly suggested in one of the ill.u.s.trations in this chapter. So, also, good roads increase the ease with which the people of the community may a.s.sociate with one another, attend church or community meetings at the schoolhouse, and enjoy the social life and entertainment of the neighboring city or village. When the road is improved, the farmers along the way are more likely to keep the weeds cut, to repair broken fences or build new ones, and otherwise to beautify the adjoining premises, which adds both to the money value of property and to the enjoyment of life.

ROAD MAKING A COOPERATIVE ENTERPRISE

Road making is necessarily a cooperative enterprise. In the first place, a public road serves the common interest of the entire community. The community may, through its government, exercise the RIGHT OF EMINENT DOMAIN, taking land from adjacent farms for the purpose of laying out a new road, provided, of course, that the farmers are paid for it. In the second place, the making of a road is far too costly and difficult for an individual farmer to undertake for the benefit he himself would derive from it. It requires a great deal of labor and a high degree of technical skill.

ROAD MAKING A JOB FOR EXPERTS

It has been quite common for farmers themselves to work on the roads of their locality--"working out" their road taxes. But roads so made are seldom very good, unless the work is supervised by someone trained in the business. Whether a farmer works on the roads himself or merely pays for having it done, it is to his advantage to know something about road making. The Department of Agriculture and the state agricultural colleges now give extension courses in road making for the benefit of the farmers. It is reported that in one county of Oklahoma the pupils of forty different school districts have built more than forty miles of good roads, of course working under supervision.

VALUE OF COUNTRY ROADS TO CITIES

Good country roads are of the greatest importance, not only to the farmers and rural communities, but also to the people of cities.

The road improvement in Spotsylvania County, Virginia, was of as much benefit to the people and the business of Fredericksburg as to the farmers. An excellent ill.u.s.tration of the recognition of the common interest of city and country in the public roads, and of effective cooperation in improving them, was given in Chapter III, page 32, in the case of Christian County, Kentucky. The wide use of the automobile has done a great deal to awaken the people of cities to their interest in country roads, and a.s.sociations and journals devoted to the interests of automobilists have been active in advocating the improvement of the public highways.

GOOD ROADS NOT MERELY OF LOCAL CONCERN

In Spotsylvania County we saw, also, that the improvement of roads in two districts was a direct advantage to the farmers of the other two districts. Carrying this idea further, we shall see that the roads of one county may be of the greatest importance to other counties in the state; and those of one state of importance to other states. The crossties produced from the timber of Spotsylvania County may be wanted for railroad building in a distant state. The cotton from the plantations of Tennessee or Texas is needed at the mills in New England. The wheat of the great farms of the northwest supplies the whole nation. Most of the freight carried on the railroads and steams.h.i.+ps has at some time and in some form been hauled in wagons and trucks over country roads. It is clear, then, that the character of the highways in any locality is a matter of national interest, and even of world-wide interest.

EARLY NATIONAL INTEREST IN ROAD BUILDING

When our nation was created, the question of highways at once became very important. The states needed to be bound together, and the public lands must be settled. The Const.i.tution gave Congress the power "to establish post offices and post roads," and "to regulate commerce ... among the several states"; but it was not clear how far these powers could be exercised for "internal improvements." Roads and ca.n.a.ls were proposed in great numbers. In 1806 Congress authorized the building of the c.u.mberland Road, which began at c.u.mberland, Md., and was finally completed as far west as Illinois. Road building was, however, left chiefly to the states and to private enterprise. The c.u.mberland Road finally pa.s.sed under the control of the states through which it ran, and by them was given into the management of the counties. Many "turnpikes" were built by private companies, which charged tolls for their use.

POOR ROADS IN THE UNITED STATES

The building of many ca.n.a.ls and, later, the coming of railroads caused interest in public highways to decline, and their building was left almost wholly to local initiative, where it remained until very recently. The result is that the United States has had the poorest roads in the civilized world. Under local management the cost of public roads fell chiefly upon the farmers, cities escaping taxation for this purpose, except for their own streets.

A road running across a state might be well kept in some localities while allowed to run down in others. A community was reluctant to spend money on a highway only to have the improvements destroyed by through traffic from neighboring communities who had no responsibility for maintaining the road.

Local communities could not afford to employ expert officials to plan and supervise road construction.

STATE CONTROL OF HIGHWAYS

Under these conditions the road situation became so bad that public sentiment was gradually aroused on the subject, and it was seen that a road was of more than merely local importance. State control was agitated. New Jersey was the first state to pa.s.s a law placing the highways within the state under state regulation. This was in 1891. Other states followed New Jersey's example, until by 1914 forty-two states had state highway departments. These differ greatly from one another in organization, powers, and efficiency.

Unfortunately, "political influence" has entered into road building and management in many states in such a way as to interfere with efficiency;--that is, those in charge of roads have often been chosen for political reasons rather than for their fitness for the work, and large sums of money have been spent unwisely, if not dishonestly in some cases.

RECENT PROGRESS UNDER STATE CONTROL

In a number of states, STATE HIGHWAYS have been built. These are wholly state enterprises, paid for and managed by the state.

California has two trunk lines running the entire length of the state, with branch lines connecting them with the county seats. To January 1, 1914, Ma.s.sachusetts had completed more than 1000 miles of state highways. New York has an extensive system, and Maryland is another example. But the plan most commonly in use is state aid and supervision in the construction of roads by counties. This was the New Jersey plan of 1891. By it, plans for road improvement with state aid in any county must be approved by the state highway department, and construction is supervised by state engineers. The cost is divided between the state and the local community.

In New Jersey the property owners along the highway, who of course are most directly benefited, were to pay one-tenth of the cost, the state one-third, and the county the remainder. In Wisconsin, the board of county commissioners in each county is required to plan a "county system" of highways to be a part of the state system. The cost of each county system is divided equally among towns.h.i.+p, county, and state. The work is directed by a county highway commissioner, but in accordance with plans and specifications of the state highway commission. In Ohio, a system of "intercounty highways" is being built, connecting all the county seats of the state. Counties, towns, and property owners along the highway must provide an amount equal to that provided by the state, and the work is under the direction of the state highway department.

In Virginia the cost of highway construction is divided equally between state and local communities; but the counties often accept from the state the labor of prison convicts instead of money.

Convict labor on the roads is quite common in southern states.

The money for state aid in highway building is commonly raised by the sale of bonds by the state. For the maintenance of the roads after they are built, the proceeds from automobile licenses are applied.