LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL.

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE,

OFFICE OF ROAD INQUIRY,

Washington, D. C., March 15, 1895,

SIR: In compliance with your wish, I have collected the messages of the governors of those States whose legislatures have been in session during the past winter, and have the honor to transmit herewith such portions of the same as relate to the subject of highway improvement for publication as Bulletin No. 14 of this office.

Very respectfully, yours,

Hon. J. STERLING MORTON,

ROY STONE,

Special Agent and Engineer

Secretary of Agriculture.

GOOD ROADS.

EXTRACTS FROM MESSAGES OF GOVERNORS.

FROM GOVERNOR MORTON, OF NEW YORK.

The subject of good roads is one which merits thoughtful attention at your hands, for it is year by year becoming of larger importance in the public eye. Nearly all of the various State legislatures which will be in session during this year will be engaged in efforts to secure practical results, in the direction of selecting approved methods, though on a variety of lines or theories. The information obtained by the Office of Road Inquiry, a bureau of the Federal Department of Agriculture, and which has had correspondence on the subject with all of the State governments, is that wide divergence of opinion exists on the whole question, and it is feared that it may, in consequence, be difficult to secure sound practical results. Not less than half a dozen plans are in effect or contemplation, a fact that is undoubtedly regrettable, and it would seem desirable that the Empire State should, with its characteristic progressiveness, be a leader in the establishment of an acceptable system of road improvement, extension, and maintenance. The advocates of road improvement in several States are urging the estab lishment of temporary joint commissions by the respective legislatures, such commissions to include, besides members of both legislative houses, representatives of road-improvement organizations. If this plan is adopted by a number of the State legislatures, the Federal Office of Road Inquiry proposes to act as a medium of communication between them, as well as a source of information. I think that the legislature might, by a commission, put itself into communication with the National and State authorities on the subject, and acquire all available information as to plans and experiments, with a view to obtaining good roads, constructed on wise and economical principles, throughout the State. The constitutional amendment, which takes effect two years hence, forbidding the State from employing convicts at the State and county prisons, jails, and reformatories in any industrial arts or useful occupations the products of which may come into competition with the work or products of the people, imposes a grave duty upon the law-making

power. No condition is so subversive of both moral and physical discipline, especially among bodies of men under punitive restraint, as that of idleness, and the restriction now imposed upon their occupation will render it no easy task to provide employment within the law, and to make the convicts yield an appreciable. proportion of the cost of their maintenance.

If their services can be legally applied to the building and improvement of roads and highways, the manufacture of clothing and other articles, the raising of food supplies on State farms, and other like pursuits all for use in State institutions, the solution of the problem may be less difficult than it now appears to be. The character of the laws framed to accomplish this end will be closely scrutinized by the people, and should be such as to relieve the industrial workers and their employers from the competition of prison labor, against which they have for years past so earnestly protested.

1

FROM GOVERNOR MARKHAM, OF CALIFORNIA.

One of the foremost subjects claiming the attention of the people at the time I assumed the executive office I found to be that relating to the betterment of the country roads throughout the Nation. It is a subject that has long had my thought, and one in which I take profound interest, since I am convinced it is eminently true that a people's civilization, progressive spirit, and economic methods are largely to be estimated by the character and condition of the highways that are their means of transportation and greatly of communication. It was true of the ancient nations, and the truth has not declined with us because this is a railroad-building era. On the contrary, we have been so absorbed in the promotion of the latter industry throughout the United States that we have lost sight of the necessity of building and maintaining permanent country highways to relate us to railroad systems more economically. Now the matter is so before us as to demand immediate attention, because the fact has been developed that the producer hauling to market, or to a point of rail shipment, a dozen miles over a bad road, is more distant than the producer who is located upon a railroad line a hundred miles away.

It is also apparent to the most superficial observer that our bad road conditions in California are a decided detriment in the matter of inducing desirable immigration and in peopling our rural sections. The homeseeker of to-day demands, as one of the conditions of change and settlement, the largest possible degree of the privileges, the refinements, and the advantages of town life, while at the same time he enjoys the independence and free life of rural living.

The construction of good permanent highways for trunk lines at general cost of the county, leaving to districts the construction of