The movement for better roads, however, has steadily followed along the line of State aid and more centralized control in the manage ment of the public roads. A still wider recog nition of this movement was secured in 1916 with the passage of 'the Federal Aid Road Act, approved 11 July. This act authorizes the •Sec retary of Agriculture to co-operate with the States, through their respective State highway departments, in the construction of rural post roads. The particular roads to be improved ate selected by the State highway department each State and approved by the Secretary of Agriculture. • For carrying out the provisions of this act, Congress appropriated $75,000,000, of which $5,000,000 was made available for the fiscal year 1917, and a sum increasing annually by $5,000,000 for each of the following years until 1921, when $25,000,0(10 will be available. An amendment to this act On '28 Feb: 1919 appropriated an . additional V00,111,000 avail able for the fiscal ycnrs 1919, and 1921 and also $9,000,000 additional for forestroaas available during the same period.. Three per cent of the appropriation is available for administration and overhead expenses, and the remainder is apportioned to the area States on the basis of population, area and mileage of rural-delivery routes and star routes, each having a weight of one-third. The State must pay at least one-half of the cost of all the roads improved from Federal aid, and in addition, it, or its civil subdivisions, according to its laws, must maintain these roads .after they are constructed. Under the same act $1,000,000 a year for 10 years was appropriated for the construction and maintenance of roads and trails in or partly, within the national forests, in co-operation with the State, or county; upon a basis equitable to both Vot._ ties. This Federal ,participation already resulted in a marked activity on the part of Statq, until at the present time every Stall. the Union has succeeded in establishing sot' Isonn of State highway department and is pi aiding for some form of. State aid or assistai to the local conunnnities.
Current Highway Data.— Cash expect tures on the ,astral roads and bridges in United States in 1918 amounted to $286,598,000. To this should be added the value of the statute and convict labor, which cannot be fixed with any great degree but probably amounted to not less than $14,000,000, thus making the grand total expenditure for the year $300,000,000. This total is made up of the actual expenditure for such items as labor, materials, supervision, management and ad. ministration directly connected with the con struction, improvement and upkeep of our public roads and bridges. During 1917 the grand total expenditure amounted to approximately $280, 000,000.
This, however, does not represent the total outlay by the States and communities because of their rural public roads. At present there are outstanding more than $400,000,000 of road and bridge bonds and long-term warrants, maturing at the rate of about $20,000,00Q per year and requiring about an equal amount for the payment of interest charges. These out lays are not included in the totals.
From 1904 to 1915, inclusive, the annual in crease in the expenditures on rural roads and bridges amounted to approximately 12 per cent over each preceding year. The increase of
1916 over that of 1915, however, was only 2 per cent, and that of 1917 over 1916 about 1 per cent. This was due largely to the scarcity of labor and materials which caused an unusually large amount of road work to be deferred.
The public rural roads of the United States at present have a total length of 2,478,332 miles, of which about 299,000 miles, or 12.0 per cent, are improved with some form of surfacing. The mileage of hard-surfaced roads is in creasing at the rate of about 12,000 miles per annum. During 1918 the State highway de partments surfaced about 4,000 miles under State supervision and also improved an ad ditional 7,000 miles by grading or otherwise. The several State highway departments also supervised the maintenance of 200,000 miles of main and trunk-line highways.
In regard to our city and village streets no such exact data are available. Their total length is estimated at 250,000 miles and the total annual expenditure for construction. im provement and maintenance at more than $300, 000,000. In general, their control in regard to construction and maintenance is vested entirely in the respective local authorities without any State assistance or supervision.
The expenditures in 1916 by or tinder the various State highway departments and also the expenditure of State and local funds for the years 1904, 1914, and 1916, as well as the total rural road mileage and that improved, are shown in Table I on preceding page.
The central govern ment has general supervision of all roads. The state or government roads are constructed and maintained at the expense of the imperial gov ernment, while the cost of the lesser roads are borne by the various political subdivisions ac cording •to their importance with or without government grants. In 1914 there were inr Austria 10,008 miles of state, 2,288 miles provincial, 39,212 district and 22,756 miles of town roads, or a total of 74,265 miles of all classes of roads. In Hungary there were 5,600 miles of state, 17,400 miles of county, 8,100 miles of district and 700 miles of parish roads, or a grand total of 31,800 miles. In Austria the average annual cost of maintaining the state roads was $311 .per mile and $282 per mile in Hungary, exclusive of bridges.
Canada,— Canada has no central road or ganization, but the control of the public roads is vested in the respective provinces through their local subdivisions. However, in line with the road movement in the United States the several provinces have established provisions for more or less provincial aid and control, the form of which is not exactly alike in any two provinces. The total mileage in the Dominion amounts to about 250,000 miles of graded roads. Surfaced roads are confined largely to Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia. The annual road and bridge expenditures amount to about $22, 000,000, or about $88 per mile. On 4 July 1919 the Federal Parliament passed an act providing for $20,000,000 in Federal aid to the province during a period of four years. Each province throw its highway department is to receive $80, annually plus 40 per cent of the cost of such road work as is approved by the Federal Road Department within the limits of the total allotment to each province.