19

A Modern System of State Highways
What it Means as an Aid in Getting Farm Products to the Consumer and
Thus Reducing Living Costs.
Extracts
from an address by W. A. McGirt, Pres-
ident of the North Carolina Good Roads As-
sociation, delivered duly 23 before the North Caro-
lina Press Association at Waynesville, N. C. are here
given as of general interest in the cause of good
roads. In part, Mr. McGirt said:
There is no more serious problem before the na-
tion today than that of
reducing the cost of getting
the products of the farm to the table of the consumer.
We are told, on the authority of the Government,
that farmers lose $300,000,000 yearly in marketing
their crops because of bad roads. North Carolina’s
sweet potato crop amounted to $13,000,000 last year,
and $6,000,000 went to waste because of lack of trans-
portation and organization. We should remember
these facts in connnection with the high cost of living.
You cannot neglect the farmer without seriously af-
fecting every line of industry. Merchants, bankers
and manufacturers are beginning to realize this, and
many of them are now supporting legislation favor-
ing the development of rural communities.
The country can exist without the city, but it
is not possible for the city to exist very long without
a back
country to feed and
support it. Practically
all wealth is traced to the soil, and the farms are the
blood and sinew, the
very life, of our State and
Nation. Without them the pulsebeat of this
.great
nation would forever cease.
What is the solution? How can we better rural
conditions and remove all crop wastage? How can
we improve our educational facilities and our health
conditions and reach an assured position with regard
to these fundamentals?
After
many years of close study of these problems,
I am satisfied that a modern system of State high-
ways will do more to bring quickly the needed
changes than
any
other one thing, because it is a
fact not to be disputed that with the advent of good
roads there come quick communicat on and transpor-
tation, better
churches, better homes, better schools,
including consolidated schools in rural communities,
better
farms, including silos and barns, crops
and
increased cultivated acreage, less crop waste, and
best of
all, good roads mean a satisfied and contented
rural population. The above statement is based on
the result obtained
by good roads in other States,
and what has actually happened in the more pro-
gressive counties of this State that have already com-
pleted thc 7
r system of modern hard-surfaced high-
ways.
If von agree with me on the solution of many
of
our problems, the next question that naturally comes
to our minds is, How can we secure a
system of
State highways?
I would suggest for
your
consideration: First,
the establishment of a State highway construction
fund for the building of a modern system of State
highways 'connecting county-seats and principal
towns. This construction fund to be provided by an
ad valorem tax
supplemented by sufficient serial
bonds, issued at such times and in such amounts as
needed to meet economical
expendtures. Seeon. the
establishment of a State highway maintenance fund
to be derived from a liberal license fee imposed on
all motor-driven
vehicles, the license fee to be grad-
uated according to the horsepower and
purpose
of
the vehicle, and to be used exclusively for the main-
tenance of State highways and for the support of the
State Highway Commission. Third, the creation of
a small though strong and representative, State
Highway Commission, with a competent State high-
way engineer as its executive head. The commission
to employ the best highway engineers obtainable,
who, under the direction of the commission, shall
locate, supervise and maintain the State system of
hard-surfaced highways. Fourth, that the counties
shall be relieved of the burden of building any por-
tion of the State highway system.
If any county has already constructed any county
road as a section of such State highway, or any road
is to be incorporated as a part of the State
highway
system, such county shall be reimbursed, either
by
the building of an
equal amount and quality of county
highway or by an equitable adjustment based on the
original cost of sa : d road.
Fifth, the employment of all able-bodied State
prisoners in the construction and maintenance of
the proposed system of State highways. Sixth, the
necessity of a constitutional amendment, if such be
necessary, for the exemption of bonds for roads and
other public improvements from local and State tax-
ation.
No one will question the feasibility or the practi-
cability of the plan suggested, other than that portion
of it embraced in the question of the ability and wil-
lingness of our taxpayers to invest their
money in a
program which will certainly involve
many millions
of dollars. However, no road poTcy wi’l he success-
ful which is not broad
enough in its scope to
provide
an adequate system of hard-surfaced highways haul-
ing into every section of the State. We should not
make the oft-repeated mistake of underestimating the