Many states in order to take advantage of the Federal aid within the time stipulated by the Act have, as has been shown, issued long-time bonds. Others have relied on increased taxation, and many require abutting property to pay a special tax for improvements.
The success of the Act was extremely marked. So much so that the Post Office Appropriation act of February 28, 1919,[158] carried an amendment to the original Federal Aid Act providing an additional appropriation of $200,000,000 for post roads and $9,000,000 for forest roads. Fifty million dollars of the post road fund was made immediately available and $75,000,000 was made available for each of the fiscal years of 1920 and 1921. Of the forest road fund $3,000,000 was made available for each of the fiscal years 1919, 1920 and 1921. This bill transferred to the Secretary of Agriculture all available war material and equipment suitable for use in the improvement of highways for distribution to the several states on a value basis the same as provided in the Federal Aid Act of 1916. Under this provision trucks, road equipment, and road materials having when new a value of over $100,000,000 had been distributed by November 1, 1919.
SELECTED REFERENCES
Anderson, Andrew P., “Highways,” American Year Book, 1918, pp. 317-321; 1919, pp. 308-311. D. Appleton & Company, New York.
“Bonds for Highway Improvement,” Office of Public Roads Bulletin No. 136, U. S. Dept of Agr.
Boston Transcript, Letter by a foreign visitor giving her opinion of American Roads. Aug. 10, 1892.
Burrough, Edward, “State Aid to Road Building in New Jersey,” Office of Public Road Inquiry Bulletin No. 9, 1894. Dept. of Agriculture, Washington.
Chatburn, George R., “Highway Engineering,” pp. 125-126, John Wiley & Sons, New York.
Congressional Record.—Good Roads Resolution introduced in the Senate by Senator Manderson, Vol. XXIV, pp. 157, 261, 300. Introduced in the House by Representative Lewis, Vol. XXIV, p. 883.
Conrow, Clayton, “Inside History of the State Aid Law,” Report of the New Jersey Commissioner of Public Roads, 1900, p. 81.