The Ypsilanti Daily Press

Program For
Roads Ready,
O.K. Awaited
Washington, Aug. 20-AP-Any
time Congress gives the word, a
nation-wide highway program is
ready for launching.
Not even an appropriation is im-
mediately necessary. All Congress
needs to do is say that the war-
created emergency no longer ex-
ists.
Congress already has authorized
expenditure of a billion dollars a
year by the federal government, to
be matched by an equal amount
from the state governments, during
the first three years after the war.
This, Congress said, will begin a
40,000-mile system of national, in-
ter-state highways. In addition it
provided $37,500,000 a year for for-
est roads; $4,250,000 a year for
park roads; $10,000,000 a year for
parkways, and $6,000,000 a year for
access roads to Indian reservations.
And it said $107,000,000 of ear-
marked federal aid funds-a bal-
ace from previous appropriations.
will be available for use when the
emergency is ended.
For every $100,000,000 expended
in road building, the Public Roads
Bureau estimates that 19,350 man-
years of direct employment and
43,120 years of indirect employ-
ment will be required. Indirect em-
ployment includes labor in manu-
ufacture of machinery, steel, cem-
ent, tile, and various other con-
struction material.