Federal Aid Act. But this supreme law has been openly and defiantly repudiated, disregarded and practically "nullified" in road construction in many of the States.

Of course the Legislature may, under some circumstances, direct the purposes to which the states revenue shall be appropriated. But it has no such power under the Federal Aid Act, for the following good and sufficient reason : The Amended Federal Aid Act declares that Federal Aid can be given and applied only to the construction of seven per cent of the roads in any State, to be established and designated by the Legislature of any State desiring to co-operate with the Federal Government. If any State desires to adopt additional mileage independent of the Federal Aid Act, it may do so. But, it will have to raise the funds by a general property tax. If any Legislature wants to tamper with this question it might be well to read carefully the Amended Federal Aid Act; section six thereof provides as follows: "That in approving projects to receive Federal Aid under the provisions of this Act, the Secretary of Agriculture shall give preference to such projects as will expedite the completion of an adequate and connected system of highways, Interstate in character. Before any projects are approved in any State, such State, through its State Highway Department, shall select or designate a system of highways not to exceed seven per cent of the total highway mileage in such State, as shown by the record of the State Highway Department at the time of the passage of this Act. Upon this system all Federal Aid apportionments shall be expended. Highways which may receive Federal Aid, shall be divided into two classes, one of which shall be known as primary or Interstate Highways, and shall not exceed threesevenths of the total mileage which may receive Federal Aid; and the other, which shall connect or correlate therewith. and be known as secondary or intercounty highways, and shall consist of the remainder of the mileage which may receive Federal Aid."

Article Six of the Constitution of the United States, reads as follows: "Supreme Law of the Land-This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof, and all the ties made, or which shall be made under the authority of the United States, shall be the Supreme Law of the land; and the judges in every State shall be bound thereby, anything in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding."

If it is desired to add additional mileage to the seven per cent system, then your appeal must be made to Congress, for it alone has authority to appropriate the Federal revenues. Any Act looking to this end by the State Legislature is not worth the paper it is written on.

Of course, there will remain many roads in addition to the seven per cent system, which should and will be paved. The

automobile and gasoline tax should be sacredly preserved from all attacks, and this will be a fund sufficient to complete and maintain the seven per cent of Federal Aid roads; and, when this is done, these funds will be so large that we can go on building additional mileage, ad infinitum. In this way, and in no other, shall we get "Good Roads Everywhere," under the Federal Aid Act.

Of course, it goes without saying, that the automobile taxes should be exempted from any additional tax levy until all tax levies are equalized under the law.

The automobile manufacturer, dealer or owner, does not object to a reasonable single and just tax to be placed upon the automobile, and they generally favor setting aside this tax for road construction. This alone will raise a tremendous fund in all the States for road purposes, and should be adopted. However, no one but a fool would "kill the goose that lays the golden egg," and it may be well to caution those who would lay the entire burden of road taxes upon the automobile, that they are in danger of committing just such a foolish thing.

In the great road convention held by the A. A. A. in Washington City, in March, 1913, it was the writer's great privilege to offer a resolution calling upon Congress to levy a very slight tax upon tobacco for the purpose of raising a National Road fund. It adopted overwhelmingly, but our friend, Judge Shackelford, called for a division, stating that if we would leave the whole question to Congress to apply this fund in any way it might see fit, that he would withdraw his objection to it, but we refused to "accept his apology." A standing vote was taken, and Shackelford, and a delegate from Tennessee, by the name of "Ice," were the sole votes against it.

And finally, is it too much to claim that but for all these facts the Missouri River which has "rolled unvexed to the sea ever since the "Stars sang together at creation's birth", is now being spanned by four magnificent bridges along side the N. O. T. Road between Boonville and Kansas City (130 miles), thus tying together, not only the Interstate roads, but the entire road system of the state? This is being done at a cost of about $3,000,000, not one dollar of which comes from the $60,000,000 Road Bond Fund, nor from the state, but is about equally paid from the Federal Aid fund, and by Bridge Bond funds carried by the National Old Trails towns and counties through which it runs.

This Association and the whole people of the State should hold in everlasting memory Theodore Gary, Chairman of the State Highway Commission, whose trained business instincts suggested the plan of financing these bridges. They will stand forever as monuments to his genius as well as to the broad-minded, publicspirited people, who, by their votes made them possible.

I regard this question of so much consequence to the future of the States, that I cannot refrain from making some suggestions which may or may not be of any especial benefit or interest. We have so long engaged in the discussion of this question that there is really but little left, it seems to me that would be novel or interesting to say. If talk built roads, we would long since have had this country gridironed with good hard surfaced roads everywhere. And yet, there may be something said in favor of continuous agitation until such efforts shall be translated into accomplishment. In spite of all the agitation on this question for the last twenty years, it remains a fact today that "the bad roads. of America constitute the most stupendous wastefulness of the most wasteful people on the Globe." Thus does one of our prominent Senators summarize the road situation in the United States.

It is not our purpose, however, to discuss the all too apparent fact of our need in this regard. Nowadays, every one realizes that it is absolutely essential to the proper development of our civilization that strenuous steps be taken to bring about the improvement of our nearly three million miles of public roads. It would not be fair to say that no great good has already resulted from this continuous agitation. Much has been done, and very much more remains to be accomplished. I am not going to mention any of the fundamental questions underlying this discussion, except to say that early in the agitation of this question there were two lines of thought, or of proposed action discussed in Congress and out of Congress. One was a National System of roads to be built and maintained by the general Government. The other, was so-called Federal Aid, meaning aid given by the general Goverment to the States for the purpose of road construction. These two ideas were threshed out and various bills on either side of the question were introduced and fought over in Congress until the final result was: The Federal Aid proposition was adopted. After four years of strenuous effort this bill proved to be an absolute failure, and the fight was renewed in Congress with the result that the Amended Federal Aid Act, under which we are now attempting to build roads, was adopted as a kind of compromise measure and approved July 11, 1916. We are impressed that however much progress we have made since this law was enacted, very much greater progress would have resulted if the States had co-operated wholeheartedly with the Bureau of Roads at Washington in carrying out the mandates of that law.

Section Six of the Federal Aid Act provides as follows: "That in approving projects to receive Federal Aid under the provisions of this Act, the Secretary of Agriculture shall give preference to such projects as will expedite the completion of an adequate and connected system of highways, Interstate in character." This section was intended to meet the criticism and

objections of those who favored a National System, and we believed that it would very largely settle that question. Then, the bill provides, "Before any projects are approved in any State, such State, through its State Highway Department, shall select or designate a system of highways not to exceed seven per cent of the total highway mileage in such State, as shown by the records of the State Highway Department at the time of the passage of this Act. Upon this system all Federal Aid apportionments shall be expended." Please note the limitations in the last sentence: "Highways which may receive Federal Aid shall be divided into two classes, one of which shall be known as primary or Interstate Highways, and shall not exceed three-sevenths of the total mileage which may receive Federal Aid, and the other, which shall connect or correlate therewith, and be known as secondary or intercounty highways, and shall consist of the remainder of the mileage which may receive Federal Aid. The Secretary of Agriculture shall have authority to approve in whole or in part the systems as designated or to require modifications or revisions thereof; Provided, That the state shall submit to the Secretary of Agriculture for his approval any proposed revisions of the designated systems of highways above proided for." Then, it provides that not more than sixty per cent of all Federal Aid allotted to any state shall be expended upon the primary or Interstate highways; "Provided, That with the approval of any State Highway Department the Secretary of Agriculture may approve the expenditure of more than sixty per cent of the Federal Aid apportionment to such State upon the Primary or Interstate highways in such State. Article Six of the Constitution of the United States provides as follows: "Supreme Law of the Land-This Constitution and the laws of the United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof, and all treaties made or which shall be made under the authority of the United States, shall be the Supreme Law of the land; and the judges in every State shall be bound thereby, anything in the Constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding." It will be observed that if the plain letter and spirit of this act should be carried into effect, then all States occupying the position which some States do today on this question, could not receive Federal Aid, and it is clear that they will not receive such aid in the future, unless the State is placed in position by the legislature or by the people so as to be able to co-operate fully with the provisions of this Act. The question, as it seems to me, is a very simple one, and there should not be any difficulty in ironing out the difficulties under which they are laboring. The simplest and most effective means of any State to co-operate with the Federal Government under the provisions of this act is to provide a State fund, not a county fund, and this can be done by capitalizing and setting aside the automobile, truck and gasoline funds for that express purpose. Mark