in accomplishment. Thus the 'labor system' directly encouraged incompetence and shirking."

Co-operation can be carried on in four ways: Cities and villages building their streets and boulevards according to a definite plan; model county systems; state aid and supervision; and national aid and instruction.

According to the suggestion of the Secretary of Agriculture, the roads of a county should be built according to a pre-determined and unified system, based upon a most careful investigation of materials, amount of traffic, revenue available, methods of construction adapted to local needs, organization and administration, and all factors entering directly or indirectly into the road work. A plan was inaugurated during the past year whereby the most competent engineers of the Office of Public Roads were assigned, upon request of county authorities, to make such an investigation and to prepare for the future use of the county road authorities an exhaustive and detailed report with plans, estimates, and recommendations indicating the location of all materials, and advising which should be used, indicating the

roads that should be improved and the method and cost of improvement suggested, needed changes in organization and in methods of administration, and in short affording a guide for future county road work. This method was carried out last year in Los Angeles County, California, and on the strength of the report of the expert, the people voted $3,500,000 in order to build a most perfect system of highways throughout the entire county. State aid and supervision of public roads is gaining every year. New York has voted to spend $50,000,000 in ten years in building 7,500 miles of macadam road. The counties and towns to spend an equal amount, the town fifteen per cent. and the county thirty-five per cent. Pennsylvania has authorized the expenditure of $6,000,000 in six years with an additional $1,500,000 from towns and counties. State aid, state cooperation or supervision in construction of good roads is found in nineteen other states. A writer in Collier's sums up the good results of this movement for better roads:

"To the farmer these roads mean that he can drive with triple the load that his horses

drew before, and that, at any season of the year, under good maintenance; that he will save in wear and tear and time two-thirds the cost of his wagon transportation; that he will gain in social comforts, in facilities for the education of his children, in ease of contact with the rest of the world through free mail delivery, and in other ways that will enhance the attractiveness and opportunities of his life. To the driver of horses or automobiles for pleasure they will mean a boom that should add greatly to the popularity of road travel in the Empire State. Amendments to the various laws relating to highways have given to the state engineer such control over the maintenance of the roads improved with state money that much better results are assured in keeping them in condition than was possible under the old system of go-as-youplease, with all authority in the hands of untrained highway commissioners and road

There is a strong movement toward national aid for road building, one suggestion being that the nation spend $8,000,000 for three years to be divided among the states according