Hon. Martin Dodge and Maurice O.
Eldridge a great work of education has been carried on--samples of good
roads have been built, good road trains have been sent out by the
Southern Railway and the Illinois Central into the South, a laboratory
has been established at Washington, under the efficient charge of
Professor L. W. Page, for the testing of materials free of charge,
and a great deal of road information has been published and sent out.

The Brownlow Bill, introduced into Congress at the last session, is the
latest plan of national aid, and is thus described by Hon. Martin Dodge
of the Office of Public Road Inquiries:

"The bill provides for an appropriation of twenty million dollars. This
is to be used only in connection and cooperation with the various states
or civil subdivisions of states that may make application to the General
Government for the purpose of securing its aid to build certain roads.
The application must be made for a specific road to be built, and the
state or county making the application must be ready to pay half of the
cost, according to the plans and specifications made by the General
Government. In no case can any state or any number of counties within
the state receive any greater proportion of the twenty million dollars
than the population of the state bears to the population of the United
States.

"In other words, all of the plans must originate in the community. The
bill does not provide that the United States shall go forward and say a
road shall be built here or a road shall be built there. The United
States shall hold itself in readiness, when requested to do so, to
cooperate with those who have selected a road they desire to build,
provided they are ready and willing to pay one-half the cost. Then, if
the road is a suitable one and is approved by the government
authorities, they go forward and build that road, each contributing
one-half of the expense. In order to prevent the state losing
jurisdiction of the road, it is provided that it may go forward and
build the road if it will accept the government engineer's estimate. For
instance, if a state or county asks for ten miles of road, the estimated
cost of which is thirty thousand dollars, and the state or county
officials say they are willing to undertake the work for thirty thousand
dollars, the government authorizes them to go ahead and build that road
according to specifications, and when it is finished the government will
pay