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![handle is hein.usccsset/usconset30541 and id is 1 raw text is:
58TH CONGRESS, SENATE. REPORT
3d Session. No. 2626.
IMPROVEMENT OF THE PUBLIC ROADS.
DECEMBER 7, 1904.-Ordered to be printed.
Mr. LATIMER, from the Committee on Agriculture and Forestry, sub-
mitted the following
REPORT.
(To accompany S. 4098.]
The bill has for its object the improvement of the public roads,
and carries an appropriation of $24,000,000, to be available in three
annual installments of $8,000,000, beginning with the current fiscal
year. This fund is to be used in the construction and improvement
of the public roads of the country, under the direction of the Secre-
tary of Agriculture, through a Bureau of Highways. A plan of coop-
eration between the States and the United States is provided, whereby
the States may apply for and receive a proportion of the sum appro-
priated, according to population, on condition that they provide the
necessary right of way for such roads as are sought to be constructed
or improved; that the roads shall be of such public importance as to
justify construction or improvement, and'that they will be maintained
without recourse upon the United States after they are so constructed
or improved.
The first point of inquiry is as to the constitutional power of Con-
gress to make an appropriation for road purposes.
The broad construction that has been given to the commerce
clause of the Constitution by the enactment of river and harbor leg-
islation would seem to leave little doubt of the power of Congress to
make an appropriation for the construction and improvement of the
roads if such appropriation was thought desirable. In other words,
an examination of the course of legislation under that clause will
demonstrate the fact that both upon principle and logic the power to
improve roads is as clear as the power to improve the nonnavigable
waters of.the country, and that the whole question is not so much one
of power as of expediency. It is clearly demonstrable that roads and
canals are and have always been considered, so far as the authority
of Congress over them is concerned, in the same class of internal
improvements as the waterways of the country which are not the
natural highways of foreign and interstate commerce. It is equally
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