Sec. 22. That within sixty days after the approval of this Act the Secretary of Agriculture shall certify to the Secretary of the Treasury and to each of the State highway departments the sum he has estimated to be deducted for administering the provisions of this Act and the sums which he has apportioned to each State for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1922, and on or before January 20 next preceding the commencement of each succeeding fiscal year, and shall make like certificates for each fiscal year.

Sec. 23. That out of the moneys in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, there is hereby appropriated for the survey, construction, reconstruction, and maintenance of forest roads and trails, the sum of $5,000,000 for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1922, available immediately and until expended, and $10,000,000 for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1923, available until expended.

(a) Fifty per centum, but not to exceed $3,000,000 for any one fiscal year, of the appropriation made or that may hereafter be made for expenditure under the provisions of this section shall be expended under the direct supervision of the Secretary of Agriculture in the survey, construction, reconstruction, and maintenance of roads and trails of primary importance for the protection, administration, and utilization of the national forests, or when necessary, for the use and development of the resources upon which communities within or adjacent to the national forests are dependent, and shall be apportioned among the several States, Alaska, and Porto Rico by the Secretary of Agriculture, according to the relative needs of the various national forests, taking into consideration the existing transportation facilities, value of timber, or other resources served, relative fire danger, and comparative difficulties of road and trail construction.

The balance of such appropriations shall be expended by the Secretary of Agriculture in the survey, construction, reconstruction, and maintenance of forest roads of primary importance to the State, counties, or communities within, adjoining, or adjacent to the national forests. and shall be pro-rated and apportioned by the Secretary of Agriculture for expenditures in the several States, Alaska, and Porto Rico, according to the area and value of the land owned by the Government within the national forests therein as determined by the Secretary of Agriculture from such information, investigation, sources, and departments as the Secretary of Agriculture may deem most accurate.

(b) Co-operation of Territories, States, and civil subdivisions thereof may be accepted but shall not be required by the Secretary of Agriculture.

(c) The Secretary of Agriculture may enter into contracts with any Territory, State, or civil subdivision thereof for the construction, reconstruction, or maintenance of any forest road or trail or part thereof.

(d) Construction work on forest roads or trails estimated to cost $5,000 or more per mile, exclusive of bridges, shall be advertised and let to contract.

If such estimated cost is less than $5,000 per mile, or if, after proper advertising, no acceptable bid is received, or the bids are deemed excessive, the work may be done by the Secretary of Agriculture on his own account; and for such purpose the Secretary of Agriculture may purchase, lease, hire, rent, or otherwise obtain all necessary supplies, materials, tools, equipment, and facilities required to perform the work.

The appropriation made in this section or that may hereafter be made for expenditure under the provisions of this section may be expended for the purpose herein authorized and for the payment of wages, salaries, and other expenses for help employed in connection with such work.

Sec. 24. That in any State where the existing constitution or laws will not permit the State to provide revenues for the construction, reconstruction, or maintenance of highways, the Secretary of Agriculture shall continue to approve projects for said State until three years after the passage of this Act, if he shall find that said State has complied with the provisions of this Act in so far as its existing constitution and laws will permit.

Sec. 25. That if any provision of this Act, or the application thereof to any person or circumstances, shall be held invalid the validity of the remainder of the Act and of the application of such provision to other persons or circumstances shall not be affected thereby.

Sec. 26. That all Acts or parts of Acts in any way inconsistent with the provisions of this Act are hereby repealed, and this Act shall take effect on its passage.

Approved, November 9, 1921.

Note: It requires no great amount of legal acumen to construe this Act. The application of common sense and an honest purpose is all that is required.

It is stated elsewhere in this book the cost in each State of constructing a National (Interstate) System of Roads; and if an inter-county System is to be included under this Act, and if the States will capitalize the automobile tax in order to raise a

State fund with which to co-operate with the Federal Government, as twenty-four of them have done, then, in such States it will not cost the tax payers one dollar, whether one owns a car or not. If any State refuses to raise such State fund this will not block the wheels of Government for one moment, the only effect will be that such State will have to pay its proportionate part of Federal taxes in any event. It is for each State to decide whether it shall share in the benefits of this measure or prefers to see the Federal taxes paid by such State appropriated to the States prepared to receive it.

CHAPTER XXIV

The Pioneers.

Before reading this chapter, let your mind's eye look upon a wild, unbroken wilderness, extending from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific, inhabited by wild beasts of all descriptions, and by wilder and more dangerous people. Into this unbroken wilderness the pioneer preacher, some times derisively referred to as the "Hedge Priest" carried the Bible and established the Christian religion which we inherited. A fair illustration of a "Hedge Priest" flippantly referred to by a modernist preacher in Scribner's Magazine is illustrated in Wm. Cullen Bryant's History of the United States, in which he pictures Roger Williams felling the timber with which to build "The meeting house." A missionary Baptist church in the wilderness of Rhode Island. It is through the very heart of this former wilderness that the National Old Trails Road was established by Act of Congress in 1806 (eighteen hundred and six) now rapidly approaching completion and intersected by various roads of like character, leading from the lakes of the north to the Gulf of Mexico. This could never have been done except by following the footsteps of the pioneer, who blazed the way, and whose tired and weary feet left a trail which thousands of years have not erased.

The writer lived in a generation not so far removed from the present that I do not recall the hardships of pioneer life so vividly as I do its greatness and its pleasures. While it is true that their hardships were many, it is equally true that their pleasures were genuine. I do not recall that Mr. Lincoln ever said much about the hardships associated with his name, yet I can well realize that he never enjoyed a thrill of pleasure to a greater degree than when, at eventide, as he approached his cabin home, witth his ax on his tired shoulders, he felt subconsciously, it may be, that while the day's work had been difficult as he felled the great trees and split them into rails, he had contributed something to the world's betterment, and this thought lifted much from his shoulders, and fitted him all the more for the evening's rest at home. At least no one ever heard him complain of the hardships through which he had come. And as I recall the pioneer's life, he stands out as one of the most prominent representatives of the life that I touched so closely. It has given me a thrill of pleasure,

always, to recall an evening like that, when my father, with many lusty fellows had spent the day in the forest felling great trees which shook the very earth as they crashed down upon it in great heaps for the log rolling which was to follow, when I was permitted to accompany him back to help him to "chunk up" the fires, which had already been started, then to accompany him home to a frugal meal, after which we probably went our way to the log church, about a mile away, to listen to a sermon delivered by a preacher somewhat like the one hereinafter mentioned; possibly on this occasion it was preached by Mr. Cleveland, a great stalwart man, who filled his pulpit to the brim; for he was no weakling, physically or mentally, and we could hear his great resonant voice as it rang out on the evening air and so varied does time weave the ever changing scenes of life that during the presidency of Grover Cleveland when idly looking over the events of his life, I found that a near kinsman of his was a Baptist preacher in Kentucky, and closely related to my wife. It may have been that this discovery mellowed or influenced the memory of that evening.

THE BLIND PREACHER.

By William Wirt, Attorney General of United States, one of the greatest orators of America, and who prosecuted Aaron Burr. As I traveled through the county of Orange, my eye was caught by a cluster of horses tied near a ruinous old wooden house in the forest, not far from the roadside. Having frequently seen such objects before, in traveling through these States, I had no difficulty in understanding that this was a place of religious worship.

Devotion alone should have stopped me to join in the duties of the congregation; but I must confess, that curiosity to hear the preacher of such a wilderness, was not the least of my motives. On entering, I was struck with his preternatural appearance. He was a tall and very spare old man; his head, which was covered with a white linen cap, his shriveled hands, and his voice, were all shaking under the influence of a palsy; and a few moments ascertained to me that he was perfectly blind.

The first emotions that touched my breast were those of mingled pity and veneration. But how soon were all my feelings changed? The lips of Plato were never more worthy of a prognostic swarm of bees than were the lips of this holy man! It was a day of the administration of the sacrament; and his subject was, of course, the passion of our Savior. I had heard the subject handled a thousand times; I had thought it exhausted long ago. Little did I suppose, that, in the wild woods of America, I was to meet with a man whose eloquence would give to this topic a new and more sublime pathos than I had ever before witnessed.