necting the East with the West, and the capital of the nation with
its then most distant possessions. Fourteen million dollars in all was
appropriated by acts of Congress to be devoted to this purpose, an
amount almost equal to that paid for the Louisiana Purchase. In other
words, it cost the government substantially as much to make that
territory accessible as to purchase it; and what is true of that
territory in its larger sense is also true in a small way of nearly
every tract of land that is opened up and used for the purposes of
civilization; that is to say, it will cost as much to build up, improve,
and maintain the roads of any given section of the country as the land
in its primitive condition is worth; and the same rule will apply in
most cases after the land value has advanced considerably beyond that of
its primitive condition. It is a general rule that the suitable
improvement of a highway within reasonable limitations will double the
value of the land adjacent to it. Seven million dollars, half of the
total sum appropriated by acts of Congress for the national road system,
was devoted to building the Cumberland Road from Cumberland, Maryland,
to St. Louis, Missouri, the most central point in the great Louisiana
Purchase, and seven hundred miles west of Cumberland. The total cost of
this great road was wholly paid out of the United States Treasury, and
though never fully completed on the western end, it is the longest
straight road ever built by any government. It passes through the
capitals of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, and the cost per mile was,
approximately, ten thousand dollars. It furnishes the only important
instance the country has ever had of the General Government providing a
highway at its own expense. The plan, however, was never carried to
completion, and since its abandonment two generations ago, the people of
the different states have provided their own highways. For the most part
they have delegated their powers either to individuals, companies, or
corporations to build toll roads, or to the minor political subdivisions
and municipalities to build free roads.

With the passing of the toll-road system, the withdrawal of the General
Government from the field of actual road construction, and the various
state governments doing little or nothing, the only remaining active
agent occupying the entire great field is the local government in each
community; and while these various local governments h