Extracts from State constitutions relating to indebtedness. Historical sketch of national legislation enacted or proposed.. PUBLIC ROAD SYSTEMS OF FOREIGN COUNTRIES AND OF THE SEVERAL STATES. To the joint committee on Federal aid in the construction of post roads: GENTLEMEN: Immediately after the appointment of this joint committee I secured the cooperation of the Department of State in obtaining from the principal countries of the world data relative to their highway systems. This information, so far as received up to that date, was printed in my preliminary report of January 14, 1913. Since that time further information has been received from foreign countries, and I present herewith all the reports now available, together with a comparative analysis of their most important features. A synopsis of the various State laws relating to road construction by the aid of State appropriations is given, together with reports showing memoranda on the cost of road construction and maintenance in several of the States. There is also included a chapter containing extracts from the various State constitutions bearing upon the subject of State indebtedness. I have had prepared and included in this document a memorandum concerning the scope and activity of the Office of Public Roads in the Department of Agriculture and a brief résumé covering the salient features of early Federal legislation and a list of road bills introduced in the Sixtysecond Congress. There has also been printed, separately, a public-roads chart, containing, in condensed form for reference and comparison, tables showing all probable factors upon which Federal aid might be apportioned. among the States; the salient features of foreign road systems and those of the several States, and the cost of road construction in the various parts of the country. JONATHAN BOURNE, Jr., Chairman. |