Highways of Arkansas

Last week it transpired that the National Farmers' Union had placed before the President a memorandum charging that farmers in Arkansas were being dispossessed of their land by excessive assessments levied for roads built with Federal aid. Within two hours the President wrote to Secretary of Agriculture Wallace, directing that no more road-aid money be allotted to Arkansas until the charges were cleared up.

The day following this disclosure, the two Senators from Arkansas, Caraway and Robinson (Democrats), rose to express themselves on the floor of the Senate:

Mr. Caraway: "The President says he wants the road business in Arkansas investigated and I have no objection to its being done. I tried to get it done a long time ago, but if it is done I would like it made by honest men, and I know the Secretary of Agriculture does not want it done that way. I have every reason to believe that any crooked deal that ever was started in Arkansas had sympathetic cooperation here in Washington, and I said as much to the Secretary of Agriculture, because, when the investigation is made, if it ever is, it will lay its hands on his department, and he has had that information quite a long while."

Mr. Robinson: "There has been in some cases extravagance. There may be graft in some cases. But there can be no justification for the course pursued by the Department of Agriculture."

Secretary Wallace was not long in replying to these charges, setting forth his side of the case: "Because of the peculiar road system adopted in Arkansas, Federal aid administration has been exceedingly difficult. In April, 1921, it was discovered that great injustices were practised in these road districts, of which at that time there were more than 500, but in only 110 of which Federal aid had been granted. . . . None of these conditions affected Federal funds, nor could they be remedied by Federal authority. . . . Many complaints were received. . . . Most of them came from districts in which no Federal funds were being used, and which, therefore, could not receive attention at the hands of the Department. The conditions revealed, however, were such as to lead me to notify the Governor in January, 1923, that no further Federal aid allotments would be made to Arkansas until these conditions were corrected."