DEARING, CHARLES L. American Highway Policy. Pp. xi, 286. Washington: The Brookings Institution, 1941. $3.00

• Published date: 01 May 1942
• Date: 01 May 1942
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/000271624222100162
• Subject Matter: Articles

223

out

the

decade

of

the

1920’s,

while

net

savings

of

the

National

Government

are

shown

to

be

negative

every

year

of

the

1930’s

with

the

exception

of

1937

(a

sta-

tistical

contrast

that

will

not

fail

to

come

to

the

attention

of

the

G.O.P.).

Such

a

result

could

be

secured

only

by

interpreting

the

Federal

budget

in

the

rather

one-sided

manner

commonly

accepted.

But

if

the

same

manner

of

approach

were

used

to

study

private

enterprise,

much

of

the

ap-

parent

saving

would

have

to

be

offset

by

personal

indebtedness.

Expansion

of

pri-

vate

credit,

in

other

words,

may

at

times

more

than

offset

the

amount

of

savings

in

the

realm

of

aggregate

private

and

corpo-

rate

finance

as

well

as

in

the

realm

of

gov-

ernment

finance.

The

difference

is

that

in

government

finance

the

books

never

set

up

the

valuation

of

the

assets

created

by

the

expenditures.

It

is

very

unfortunate

to

have

misleading

statistics

of

this

kind

pub-

lished

by

as

reputable

a

source

as

the

Na-

tional

Bureau

of

Economic

Research.

But,

imperfect

as

the

results

may

be,

these

two

volumes

contain

a

summary

of

the

best

statistical

work

that

has

been

done

in

this

field

and

the

most

comprehensive

report

of

its

kind

available.

JAMES

G.

SMITH

Princeton

University

DEARING,

CHARLES

L.

American

Highway

Policy.

Pp.

xi,

286.

Washington:

The

Brookings

Institution,

1941.

$3.00.

Dr.

Charles

L.

Dearing

of

the

staff

of

the

Brookings

Institution

undertakes

in this

volume

to

study

the

basic

concepts

upon

which

governmental

units-local,

state,

and

Federal-may

base

highway

taxation

and

administrative

programs.

He

does

not

un-

dertake

to

explore

the

problems

of

the

ap-

plication

of

these

basic

concepts

to

the

spe-

cial

beneficiaries

of

highway

transportation

facilities,

or

to

provide

an

equitable

basis

for

the

establishment

of

any

parity

relation-

ship

of

competitive

opportunity

among

highway

and

railroad

transportation.

Dr.

Dearing’s

study

leads

him

to

con-

clude

that

all

highway

users

have

a

com-

petitive

advantage

over

railroads,

because

of

the

ability

of

governmental

units

to

borrow

funds

for

highway

construction

at

lower

interest

rates

than

are

necessary

for

railroads

to

attract

funds,

because

the

high-

ways

are

financed

partially,

at

least,

from

general

taxation,

and

because

the

public

highways

are

not

subject

to

general

prop-

erty

taxes.

The

subsidy

from

this

source

is

found

to

be

&dquo;a

possible

advantage

of

unknown

extent.&dquo;

Federal

highway

aid,

Dr.

Dearing

finds,

is

extended

to

aid

interstate

commerce,

and

not

merely

to

develop

tra~c

to

be

fed

to

other

instrumentalities

of

transportation

or

to

provide

facilities

for

social

pleasure

travel.

&dquo;The

modem

road,&dquo;

observes

Dr.

Dearing,

&dquo;is

a

multiple-purpose,

joint-use

facility,

and

its

various

units

produce

serv-

ices

that

are

distributed

unevenly

among

various

members

of

society.&dquo;

Important

purposes

of

roads

are

to

provide

access

to

land,

and

to

facilitate

community

life.

Only

a

small

portion

of

the

total

highway

system

is

provided

for~intercity

transporta-

tion.

Dr.

Dearing

dismisses

the

public

utility

theory

as

fallacious

because

it

dis-

regards

these

important

purposes

and

em-

phasizes

erroneously

the

use

of the

roads

for

the

conduct

of

business

enterprises.

Highway

taxation

upon

the

physical

use

of

the

highways

by

vehicles

rather

than

upon

revenues

derived

from

highway

use

is

ap-

proved

in

principle.

The

gasoline

tax

is

found

to

be

a

fair

measure

of

highway

use

for

taxation.

The

material

is

well

assembled

and

logi-

cally

arranged.

The

treatment

is

concise

and

logical,

and

confined

to

the

problems

attacked.

The

author

wisely

refrains

from

straying

from

this

course

to

discuss

col-

lateral

problems,

particularly

those

pertain-

ing

to

the

equitable

distribution

of

highway

taxation,

upon

which

data

adequate

for

critical

discussion

are

lacking.

G.

LLOYD

WILSON

University

of

Pennsylvania

KNOWLTON,

HUGH.

Air

Transportation

in

the

United

States.

Pp.

viii,

72.

Chi-

cago:

University

of

Chicago

Press,

1941.

$1.25.

In

the

author’s

words,

the

basic

purpose

of

this

69-page

work

on

air

transportation

in

the

United

States

is

&dquo;to

analyze

the

basic

civil

function

performed

by

air

transporta-

tion

in

this

country

and

the

underlying

eco-

nomic

factors

in

the

growth

of

American

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