CONSTRUCTION OF RURAL POST ROADS

MARCH 19, 1930.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union and ordered to be printed

Mr. COLTON, from the Committee on Roads, submitted the following

REPORT

[To accompany H. R. 7585]

The Committee on Roads, to whom was referred the bill (H. R. 7585) to amend the act entitled "An act to provide that the United States shall aid the States in the construction of rural post roads, and for other purposes," approved July 11, 1916, as amended and supplemented, and for other purposes, having considered the same, report it to the House favorably and recommend that it do pass without amendment.

The section of the act approved November 9, 1921 (23 U. S. C. 3), referred to in this legislation, and which is amended by the same, appears below. The parts to be omitted are shown in black brackets and that to be inserted is printed in italics.

The Secretary of Agriculture is authorized to cooperate with the State highway departments, and with the Department of the Interior in the construction [of public highways within Indian reservations, and to pay the amount assumed therefor from the funds allotted or apportioned under this chapter to the State wherein the reservation is located.], reconstruction, and maintenance of main roads through unappropriated or unreserved public lands, nontaxable Indian lands, or other Federal reservations other than the forest reservations. Such sums as the Congress may hereafter authorize to be expended under the provisions of this section shall be apportioned among those States having more than 5 per centum of their area in the lands hereinbefore described and shall be prorated and apportioned to said States in the proportion that said lands in each of said States is to the total area of said lands in the States eligible under the provisions of this section, and no contribution from the States shall be required in the expenditure thereof. The roads constructed and maintained under the provisions of this section shall be of the same standard as to width and character of construction as the Federal Government requires of the States under like conditions: Provided, That in the allocation of any such funds authorized to be appropriated under this section or any subsequent act preference shall be given to those projects which are located on the Federal-aid highway system as the same are now or may hereafter be designated.

The Secretary of Agriculture shall prepare, publish, and distribute a map and other information, at least annually, showing the progress made in the expenditures of the funds authorized under this section.

For a number of years Congress has been making authorizations for the construction of the roads on the Federal-aid system through the national forests. However, the Federal Government is still many years behind in its road-building program even through the national forest as compared with the States in the completion of the other roads on the Federal-aid system. The Federal-aid system in many of the States outside of the forests and public domain is practically completed, but it will take the Federal Government an average of 43 years to build the roads on the Federal-aid system through the forests as the program is now being carried out.

When we turn to the consideration of roads through unappropriated or unreserved public lands and nontaxable Indian lands, we find the situation even worse. There has been no special provision whatever for building roads through these lands, yet there are almost 100,000 square miles of unappropriated and unreserved public lands in the Western States in excess of the square miles of forest areas.

This bill amends the act approved July 11, 1916, and would make it possible for Congress in the future, after an authorization bill has been passed, to appropriate for the construction of roads across the unreserved and unappropriated public lands in the United States. This money could only be used in a State having in excess of 5 per cent of the total area of all its lands in unappropriated public lands and nontaxable Indian lands, and will be apportioned in these States in the proportion that said public lands, in each of said States, is to the total area of said lands in the State eligible under the provisions of this section.

Your committee was impressed with the testimony of the highway officials from the Western States that it is impossible to raise the money by taxation to build many of the connecting links of the Federal-aid system where these roads cross the unreserved lands. The country is so sparsely settled and the amount of taxable property so small that money can not be raised by local taxation. If our continental roads are to be completed and many approaches to forest reservations and parks constructed, legislation of this character is absolutely necessary.

The map given below visualizes the extent of territory unappro priated-forest, Indian, and national park lands-owned or controlled by the Federal Government in the 11 Western States.

TERMS OF DISTRICT COURT IN WESTERN DISTRICT OF MICHIGAN

MARCH 19, 1930.-Referred to the House Calendar and ordered to be printed

Mr. MICHENER, from the Committee on the Judiciary, submitted the following

REPORT

[To accompany S. 3371]

The Committee on the Judiciary, to which was referred the bill (S. 3371) amending section 88 of the Judicial Code, as amended, fixing the judicial districts and the terms of court for the State of Michigan, report thereon without amendment and recommend that the bill do pass.

The purpose of this bill is to change the time of holding terms of the United States District Court in the Western District of Michigan, affecting both the southern division and the northern division of said western district. The present law provides:

Terms of the district court for the southern division shall be held at Grand Rapids on the first Tuesdays in March, June, October, and December; for the northern division at Marquette on the second Tuesdays in April and September; and at Sault Sainte Marie on the second Tuesdays in January and July.

S. 3371 provides:

Terms of the district court for the southern division shall be held at Grand Rapids on the first Tuesdays in March, May, September, and November; and for the northern division at Marquette on the first Tuesdays in April and October and at Sault Sainte Marie on the first Tuesdays in January and June.

With the above exception no change whatever is made in existing law.

This bill has the approval of the Attorney General, as well as of all of the judges and court officials in the western district of Michigan. The proposed change is for the convenience of litigants, as well as for the convenience of the court, and so far as the committee is advised there is no objection whatever to the bill.