Mountain Roads as a Source of Revenue

Excerpts: It is the purpose of the present paper to consider the road question from a point of view which the writer believes to be not only vastly important, especially to the mountain region which he represents, but entirely new in the discussion. The numerous and capable advocates of good roads throughout the country, and the many associations devoted to road improvement, have given to the economic and industrial side of the question the fullest consideration, while the interest in good roads of those seeking health and recreation has not been forgotten. The writer's object here, however, is to approach the question from a standpoint which in the highest degree unites the utilitarian and the aesthetic ideas. With a view to forcibly presenting this side of the subject to readers of the Yearbook, the writer, with the authority and approval of the Secretary of Agriculture and the Director of the Office of Public Road Inquiries, procured, through the courtesy of the State Department, from many United States consular officers in Europe [Switzerland, Norway, Austria, and France] replies to interrogatories designed to set forth the extent to which road building had been carried and the profits derived therefrom by the communities building them in those portions of Europe now so liberally patronized by the travelers and tourists of the entire world.