Community Civics and Rural Life Part 36

Our roads, even in remote rural districts, are of national importance for the reasons stated on page 259. Moreover, they are becoming more and more used for the transportation of freight and pa.s.sengers over long distances, for which the introduction of the automobile and the motor truck is responsible. Therefore, national cooperation is necessary for adequate road improvement.

WORK OF THE NATIONAL GOVERNMENT FOR ROAD IMPROVEMENT

The work of the national government on behalf of good roads has heretofore been largely educational and advisory. In 1893 the Office of Road Inquiry (now the Office of Public Roads) was created in the United States Department of Agriculture to investigate methods of road making and management. The results of its investigations have been published for the benefit of the country. Advice was given when asked for. Instruction was given through extension courses (p. 257). Here and there model or experimental roads were constructed to test new methods or to serve as object lessons to the localities where they were built.

Good road building has also been greatly stimulated by the extension of the rural free mail delivery, routes not being established unless the roads are in reasonably good condition. The national government has also given to many states public lands within their borders, the proceeds from which were to be used for road construction; and a part of the proceeds from the sale of timber in the national forests is devoted to road building in the locality.

FEDERAL AID ROAD ACT

In 1916, however, Congress pa.s.sed the law known as the Federal Aid Road Act. This law places the national government in the same relation to the states, in the matter of road building, that the state governments have borne to the counties in granting state aid.

The Federal Aid Road Act appropriated 75 million dollars to aid states in improving their "rural post roads," and 10 million dollars for the construction and maintenance of roads in the national forests. Of the 75 million dollars for state aid in building post roads, 5 million dollars were to be available the first year, 10 million the second, 15 million the third, and so on for five years, when the total amount will have been used. The money is given to the states only on their request, and on condition that each state shall provide an amount equal to that received from the national treasury. The money is apportioned among the states on the basis of area, population, and the extent of post roads in the state.

RESPONSIBILITY OF THE STATE

The administration of the law is in the hands of the Office of Public Roads. The entire country is divided into ten districts, over each of which is a district engineer. When a state desires aid from the national government, its highway department must draw up plans for the improvements proposed and submit them to the district engineer, who in turn submits them with recommendations to the Secretary of Agriculture, whose approval they must have.

Having obtained this approval, the work is carried on by the state as in the case of other roads entirely under state control.

RESULTS OF FEDERAL AID

It is too soon yet to tell what the results of this new cooperative enterprise of the national government will be. But the first important effect has been to cause the organization of state highway departments in the few states that did not already have them, and the reorganization of such departments in the states where they were weak; for the Federal Aid Road Act provides that aid may be given to the states only on condition that they have effective highway departments. The result is that every state in the Union now has an active highway department, and road improvement is going on at a rate never before known.

Investigate and report on:

The amount of time saved in a year by a farmer in your locality because of good roads; or lost because of unimproved roads.

The wear and tear on vehicles and equipment because of unimproved roads.

Effect of improved or unimproved roads in your county on school and church attendance, social life, etc.

Instances of the exercise of the right of eminent domain in your county for road improvement.

Materials used in road making in your county. Relative merits of different materials as shown by experience in your county.

Methods of road construction in your county.

Extension courses in road making by your state agricultural college.

The amount of traffic on the roads of your community by non- residents.

The sentiment of farmers of your locality with regard to road improvement.

Organization of the state highway commission of your state.

The state highway system of your state.

History and use of ca.n.a.ls in your state (if any).

Influence of rural mail delivery upon road improvement in your county.

The extent to which federal aid for road improvement has been taken advantage of by your state.

THE NATION'S INTEREST IN TRANSPORTATION

Those who live in the most remote rural communities have a vital interest in the nation's transportation system, including railways and steamship lines. As we have seen (p. 203), there was the closest relation between the building of railroads and the opening of the public lands. The market of the farmer and the source of his supplies are not merely the neighboring trading center, but in far distant parts of the country and of the world. Without railroads, the farmer, the manufacturer, and the city merchant would alike be helpless.

GOVERNMENT CONTROL OF RAILROADS

While our government has at times given direct aid to encourage the building of railroads, as by the gift of public lands, they have been developed chiefly by private enterprise. They are owned by private corporations which do business under charters granted by the state governments (rarely by the national government) and regulated by law. Control over them has been exercised chiefly by the state governments, except in matters affecting interstate commerce, which falls under the control of Congress. As the parts of our country have become more closely bound together and interdependent, largely by the influence of the railroads themselves, an increasingly large part of commerce has become "interstate" in character, and railway transportation has become more and more a national concern. The result is an increasing control by the national government

INTERSTATE COMMERCE

In 1887, Congress created an Interstate Commerce Commission with power to inquire into the management of the business of "common carriers," such as railroads, steamship lines, and express companies. It was later given power to fix rates which such carriers could charge. Other laws were pa.s.sed, such as the Sherman Act, or "Anti-Trust Law," of 1890, which made unlawful any "contract, combination ... or conspiracy in restraint of trade."

These and other laws checked abuses that characterized railroad management at that time, but, on the other hand, they are said in some respects to have hampered the economic and efficient development of the country's transportation system. The Sherman Law, for example, absolutely forbade the consolidation of competing railroad lines under one management, although such consolidation often makes for efficiency and economy.

GOVERNMENT RAILROAD ADMINISTRATION IN WAR

When the United States entered the recent war, the weakness of our transportation system quickly became apparent, and the need for the most effective transportation service led the government to take unusual steps to secure it. The President issued a proclamation by which, in the exercise of his WAR POWERS, he "took possession and a.s.sumed control of each and every system of transportation in the United States and the appurtenances thereof." This meant a.s.suming control over 397,000 miles of railways owned by 2905 corporations and employing more than 1,700,000 persons. The management of this great transportation system was intrusted to a Railroad Administration with a Director General of Railroads at its head. The ownership of these railroads, however, remained with the private companies, which were to receive compensation for the use of their property, and were to receive back the railroads after the war was over.

ADVANTAGES OF GOVERNMENT MANAGEMENT

The whole purpose of the government in its management of the railroads was to win the war, the convenience of the public being a minor consideration. The people cheerfully put up with inconveniences of travel and with rates that they had not experienced while the roads were under private management. On the other hand, there were certain decided advantages in the management of all railroads as one great system. It meant the consolidation of competing lines that the law itself prevented the railway companies from effecting, it meant shortening routes in many cases, the use of common freight terminals by different lines, the increase of track facilities and storage areas at seaport terminals, the selling of pa.s.senger tickets good over any one of several roads running between two points.

There are those who believe that the railroads should be managed, or even owned, by the government in time of peace as well as during war. There are others who believe as strongly in private ownership and direction. Many of the latter believe, however, that a more perfect control should be exercised over the privately owned roads by the government under laws that protect the interests of the public and that at the same time permit, or even require, greater cooperation among the roads than has heretofore existed. Since the war, bills have been introduced in Congress looking to these ends, and doubtless the experience of the war will result in an appreciable improvement in our country's railway transportation system.

WATER TRANSPORTATION

In the early days of our nation, rivers were used for transportation to a large extent, and ca.n.a.ls were proposed in great numbers, some of them being built and carrying a large amount of traffic. The coming of the railroads caused water transportation to decline, to the nation's great loss. The war stimulated the use of our waterways to a considerable extent, and any scheme for transportation control in the future should provide for their fullest development as a means of marketing the products of our farms, forests, mines, and factories.

There was also a time, in the early part of our history, when our seaports swarmed with American ships that sailed every sea. Our shipping afterward declined because other nations built and manned ships more cheaply than we could do. We allowed these other nations to carry our commerce. We deplored the fact that our merchant marine had disappeared and discussed ways and means to restore it. But all to no purpose, until the great war came; then we HAD to have ships.

EFFECT OF WAR UPON OUR MERCHANT MARINE

When we entered the war we had almost no ships. Congress created the United States Shipping Board and its Emergency Fleet Corporation. As a result, and within a year's time, the United States took rank as the leading shipbuilding nation in the world.

It has more shipyards, more shipways, more ship workers, more ships under construction, and is building more ships every month during the war than any other country. Prior to the war the United States stood a poor third among the shipbuilding nations. Since August, 1917, more seagoing tonnage has been launched from American shipyards than was ever launched before in a similar period anywhere. [Footnote: "Shipping Facts," issued by the U.S.

Shipping Board, September, 1918.]

Moreover, under the stress of necessity methods of shipbuilding and operation were developed that ought to make it possible for the United States to compete successfully in the future with other nations, even though our workmen and sailors are paid more than those of other nations.

The chairman of the shipping board said, "The American community must think of ships as a local improvement." This means that the business and welfare of every American community, whether a seaport or a remote farming community, are dependent upon ships.

By our merchant marine the American farmer and the American businessman are brought into touch with the remotest parts of the earth.

Investigate and report on:

The service of the railroads to the farmers of your county. To the merchants of your town.

The story of the building of the first transcontinental railway.

State control of railroads in your state.