FOOTNOTES
[188] Bohm-Bawerk, “Positive Theory of Capital,” translated by W. Smart, p. 96.
[189] “Letters on Grain Marketing Problems,” by C. Vincent, Secretary of the Farmers’ Grain Company, Author of Nebraska Co-operative Law, and Member of the Omaha Grain Exchange, pamphlet privately published, 1921.
[190] “Letters on Grain Marketing,” by C. Vincent.
[191] “The Motor Truck as an Aid to Business Profits,” by S. V. Norton, A. W. Shaw Co., Chicago.
[192] Bulletin No. 8. “Marketing Livestock by Motor Truck,” issued by The Firestone Ship by Truck Bureau, Firestone Park, Akron, Ohio, 45 pages.
[193] From a reprint by the National Automobile Chamber of Commerce.
[194] During the year 1919 there were reported 27,000 forest fires which burned over 8,500,000 acres.—American Forestry, Dec., 1920, p. 707.
[195] “The Motor Truck as an Aid in the Extraction of Raw Products at the Source,” by F. W. Fenn, National Automobile Chamber of Commerce, New York.
[196] Quoted by Lane in “Motor Truck Transportation,” p. 6. Van Nostrand Co., New York.
CHAPTER X
FINANCING HIGHWAYS AND HIGHWAY TRANSPORTATION LINES
Highway financing may be divided for consideration into two parts, namely: financing the road and financing the operation of the road. Both are necessary if goods are to be transported from where they are plentiful, grown, manufactured, or stored, to where they are needed for sale, consumption or transshipment. Money is required for both parts and it must be obtained in some legal manner.
As has been shown roads developed from mere trails that originally were paths along which by common consent, force, or otherwise the privilege of passing was gained. This, when ownership in land was recognized, became an easement. After the development of civil governments the right to traverse and transport goods over such roadways, that is, the easement, was vouchsafed to the inhabitants and protected by laws. In England the right of way over another’s land became known as the king’s highway, as all public property was held and measures taken in the name of the king. In the United States it is known simply as a public highway. The highway is in reality the right of passage, not the beaten track, for in both England and the United States the laws recognize the privilege the traveler has when for any reason the road becomes blocked or obstructed of taking to the fields and making another track. Equity courts may grant damages for such usage of private land by the public but no court will attempt to prevent it; if necessary they will, however, by writ of mandamus command road officers to repair the established roads so as to make them passable. In England the law allowed the traveler to turn into the adjacent field, whether cultivated or not, whenever the track became worn or rutted. In order to keep the used way within due bounds and at the same time maintain it in a passable condition the freeholders, perhaps at first voluntarily then by force of laws, worked the roads once or twice a year. By doing this they saved their lands and crops from being trampled down. It has also been shown how Edward I took up the question of improving the highways as a police measure in order that it might be safe for man and goods to pass along the road without being attacked from ambush by robbers.
Such robberies have taken place in the development of every land, and those who have made a profession of it are variously styled highwaymen, bandits, brigands, and so on. Even to the present day, as has been shown in a preceding chapter, highway robbery still exists, although the profession of highwayman no longer commands the respect of reputable society as was the case during the time of Robin Hood, and Claude Duval of England, and of the Robber Barons of Germany.
Thus the public good demanded that the time of the freeholders and the money of the government be expended upon the highways. Of late years in the United States the “working out” of road or poll taxes has been practically abolished and the taxes are collected in money which is expended in road construction and maintenance by persons regularly delegated for that purpose. With the increased use and the building of better types of roadways more and more money is demanded so that the financing of highway improvements has become a matter of vast importance. The money must come from either private sources or from the public. If from the public it results directly from taxation or is borrowed and the obligations paid off by taxation.