Built in 1861,
Once

LINWOOD LAWN.

Located one mile south of Lexington, Mo. Cost $67,000.
when labor and material was one-third less than now.
owned and occupied by the author.

detected that expression, showing their feelings about the matter, I said, "Did you know that way down yonder in the State of Missouri, the people living along the line of this old road have voluntarily voted bonds and taxed themselves to build this road for you?" And that is what they did. They did that in Shack's district; and one road district in his district, a purely farming community, carried the bond proposition by a unanimous vote. (Applause.)

Mr. Shackleford speaks of the people that are in favor of such a proposition as "highbrows." I do not care anything about how high their brows are, but I see that some of them are educated up to the point where they believe in building roads, because they voluntarily taxed themselves, not to build roads generally but to build this particular road. And that was in his district. When I told them about that in New Mexico a smile spread all over their faces. I said, "Do you not see that this is a community of interest, that it is no longer a selfish, local affair, this question of building roads, but is a community of interest, and a road is only valuable as it goes somewhere?" (Applause.)

A road extending across a township of course has some value; it has an increased value when it goes across a county; it has very considerably increased value when it extends across a State; but it is of infinite more value when it extends from State to State across the continent.

And, after all, and this was an education to myself as well, when I traveled over that old road from ocean to ocean, as I have done, it gradually dawned upon me that after all the people in Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Maryland, and all the other States, were the same people that I had always known and associated with, that they were not different from the people of Kentucky, where I was born and raised, nor different from the people of my adopted State, Missouri; that they were the same people, the same nationality, with the same environments, the same aspirations, the same hopes and the same God.

Now, why confine their efforts and narrow them down? Why, as Mr. Shackleford says, should we make the railroad the center and let the little roads radiate out from each shipping point on the railroads? Does Mr. Shackleford know that with one exception every harbor in the United States is owned or controlled by the railroads of the country? I will say every one except two; or more properly speaking, every one except one and a-half. New Orleans owns her harbor, after a long fight with the railroads, fought out through the Supreme Court of the United States, with the aid of Daniel Webster; and New York owns one-half of hers-her water front. Now are you beginning to see where the trouble comes? I see it. I have seen it for years, in the rivers and harbors bills.

The gentleman who just preceded me says that they have now got the rivers and harbors improvements out of the old pork barrel proposition, and they are congratulating themselves upon it. I have seen the last river and harbor bill, and I must admit there is some truth in that statement. It is no doubt a much better bill than any such bill that has gone before; but there are some places mentioned in that bill that I cannot find on the map; it takes a getter geographer than I am to know where some of the places are. But no matter. These things I have mentioned are some of the things that I have learned in the discussion of this subject.

According to the program I see that you expect me to talk about the Old Trails Road.

Chairman Diehl :-You are not confined to that. You can submit a typewritten statement in regard to that and we will put it in the record.

Mr. Lowe:-Well, I have not prepared anything particular on that line; but I will say this much: I suspect that the Old Trails Road organization is the only one in the United States which is organized in every village and hamlet along the line of the road between the two oceans. We are thoroughly organized. But we do not stand for that road to the exclusion of any other road. Further, if there is any other line of road which ought to receive consideration first; which ought to be built first; which has greater claims and more of them than our old road has, as historic as it is; then we are ready to get behind that road and stand for that road just as strongly as we are ready to stand for the National Old Trails Road. (Applause.)

Now let us get together. My ideas or yours, especially on the road question, cannot always prevail; because the roads question is a subject on which we have a right to differ and on which we do differ. But let us stand for something affirmative. As Mr. Shackleford said yesterday, you cannot find a corporal's guard of men who are not now in favor of good roads. Everybody now is in favor of good roads. But let us get something concrete. Let us get a start somewhere, somehow, and follow that up. I say cut out that word "aid." Ask the Government to build the National roads, roads that are National in character. Let us stand behind that idea and stick to it. If we do that we are as sure to win as that the world goes round. (Applause.)

I know the average Congressman. I have had lots of dealings with him. I know that no man keeps his ear nearer the ground than he does; and this mighty swell that is lifting itself and being felt over the country he is watching; but just as long as we are divided and different in opinion and purpose, just that long he will sit back and take notice. But whenever we go to Congress

with a concrete proposition and say, "This is what we stand for, and this is what we are going to have, then he is going to do more than simply stand back and listen.

As I have said, let us adopt some system to work on, stand for it and push it to the best of our ability. If I had my way about it I would build a great National system of roads leading from our National capital to the capital of every State in the Union. I would stay behind that proposition until it went out through the country as the system we are in favor of. In doing so I would take over these magnificent roads of New York and Massachusetts and pay those States back dollar for dollar, every dollar that those roads are worth. I would do that so as to make it absolutely equal, absolutely fair to all the States in every respect.

Some say that that would bankrupt the Government. you ever stopped to think what it would cost? Probably 18,000 miles of road will build a trunk line right through every capital of every State in the Union-18,000 miles. Now, put it at the highest possible figure to build the best road that modern engineering has devised. The French engineer to whom we listened yesterday, a magnificent gentleman, said to us, that their best roads are costing them, as I understood him, about $12,000 a mile. Put it at that. Make that the average. The western half of these roads will cost a whole lot less than the eastern half. That is another fact that ought to be known. You ought to find out another thing, too. You want to get to the mountains to find good road country. In the sections of the country where you find mountain scenery you also find that it is easier to build roads than it is on the plains, and cheaper. Eighteen thousand miles multiplied by $12,000 makes what? $216,000,000. We have already given over $600,000,000, that card up there, says $900,000,000 (indicating a map on the wall.)

A Voice-That is correct, it is nearer $900,000,000 than $600,000,000.

Mr. Lowe:-All right. $400,000,000 for the Panama Canal. It was a magnificent work and we did it and scarcely knew it. We fought the Spanish War, and would not have known that there was a war going on if it had not been for the newspapers. (Laughter.)

When Mr. Warburton comes before you I want you to listen to him. He has a map and I helped him prepare it, and that map shows a system of roads leading to every capital and every town of 20,000 population in the United States. He calculates that about 18,000 miles will cover that. Then he is going to show you something that will be of infinite interest, how to get the money to build those roads.

I will tell you a scheme. Talking of schemes, I am reminded of the story of the country school teacher who applied for a position. It was in the days when the school directors

conducted their own examinations. One of the school board asked the applicant for a position as teacher, "How do you teach geography, do you teach that the world is round or flat?" The applicant replied, "to tell you the truth, I usually consult the wishes of the majority of the parents whose children I am going to teach, and I am prepared to teach it either way." (Laughter)

I am a good deal like he was. I am prepared to teach this lesson either way, I will follow in with Mr. Warburton or with the American Automobile Association, or anybody's else proposition that will get somewhere. Let us cut out so many of these conventions, where we listen to splendid oratory and pass long resolutions and think we have accomplished something, whereas we have not accomplished anything because we have not taken a positive, affirmative position on this question. Let us take such a position today.

Mr. Warburton is going to tell you how to get the money, and he says by reinstating the war tax on tobacco we had during the Spanish War, we will be able to raise enough money to build the entire system of national roads; that we will be able to build. them in five years, and we will be able to pay off the bonds, onehalf of them at the expiration of five years; and the only convenience we will experience by reason of the tax will be that we will have to cut one cigar in 30, that we can only smoke 29 cigars for the price that we now buy 30 cigars. Well, I will go the full 30 and smoke with him on that proposition.

I have not figured his plan out very fully, but if it works out as he says it does that will supply the money and that will build the system of roads.

Now, I am not getting old, and I rarely think of my age, but there is one thing that does begin to haunt me a little bit, and that is that I would like to see some fruition of the hopes I have had during my time on earth. As I heard Colonel Potter say one day, I would rather ride one mile on a good road while I am alive than a thousand miles after I am dead. (Laughter.)

So let us get together on this proposition-the National Old Trails Road. I speak of it as an illustration at this point. More than one half of it is graded, and a third of it is built. That road can be finished without any question by the time of the great Panama Exposition in San Francisco in 1913. If the next Congress will take that up and appropriate the money, that road, at least, can be completed by that time. Maybe others can be completed too. It is altogether likely that others can be built also. We have learned how to do things and do them rapidly when we once get at it. It does not take a lifetime to accomplish a big thing nowadays. Within five years this whole country ought to be gridironed with National roads. After carrying out our plan of these National highways, let the counties and the States build and maintain their own roads connecting