maintenance. The average cost per mile of road for convict labor is $100. Of course team hire, price of culverts and other costs exclusive of labor are additional.

"Warden Tynan maintains an average of twenty men in the convict camp of Weld County. Up to the time of the declaration of war it cost Weld County thirty-two cents a day to feed a man at the convict camp. At the present time the price is close to forty cents. A substantial menu of meats, vegetables, bread and coffee is maintained. For years the convict camps have furnished their own cooks."

Much interest is being aroused throughout the country over the tour of the Bankhead Pathfinding Commission, which will inspect a number of proposed routes from Memphis, Tennessee, to El Paso, Texas. There are two routes to inspect between Memphis and Little Rock; two routes between Little Rock and Fort Smith; one route between Little Rock via Hot Springs to Texarkana, Arkansas; two routes in Oklahoma; two routes in New Mexico, and three routes in Texas. The official party will start from Memphis, Tennessee, October 15, and will be composed of Ex-Congressman T. S. Plowman, president, and J. A. Rountree, secretary, of the Bankhead National Highway Association, one United States Government Engineer, one civil engineer, three distinguished disinterested citizens living east of the Mississippi River. There will be several newspaper representatives, photographers, etc. The official party will be composed of ten and will travel in automobiles. The Pathfinding party will have the latest equipment for observations of the topography of the country roads. They will have maps, data, and all information about each route they are to inspect, before they start, so they will know the route when they commence to travel over the same. The Pathfinding Commission, who pass on route, is composed of five members; they will make a report of the most favorable route from Little Rock to El Paso and the Board of Directors will receive the same.

Secretary Rountree, who is arranging details of the tour, and who will have charge of the party, reports that, from the letters and telegrams received, that the Pathfinding Commission will receive a most cordial welcome in the States of Arkansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Texas. The people are anxious for the route to be settled and each one wants it through his State and county, and town, and especially since the Bankhead Highway Route is definitely settled from Washington via Richmond, Raleigh, Greenville, South Carolina, Atlanta, Birmingham to Memphis, Tennessee, passing directly through seventeen cantonments and military post aviation fields, making it a typical military road and with the prospects of the Government building the same.

The Senate Committee on Military Affairs, of which Senator Chamberlain is chairman, has set December 13 for the purpose of hearing and showing why the Bankhead Highway should be taken over as a military road and built by the Government.

Through the medium of the retail credit men's associations, boards of trade, chambers of commerce, and wholesalers and jobbers, Commissioner of Internal Revenue Daniel C. Roper is sending to the retail merchants of the country a personal letter urging the necessity for maintaining an accurate system of accounts.

The eight-billion-dollar revenue bill now pending in Congress means an average tax of seventy-six dollars for every man, woman, and child in America. "In many

businesses," says Commissioner Roper, "taxes will be one of the largest items of expense. It is of the utmost importance, therefore, that every concern, large or small, whether corporation, partnership, or individual, shall maintain an exact record of its receipts and expenses; in other words, keep accurate accounts. Taxes should be considered as an expense for the year for which they are assessed rather than for the year in which they are actually paid, and the necessary reserves should be provided

at once.

"No special system of accounts is prescribed by the Bureau of Internal Revenue, but the books should show in detail inventories, purchases, sales, capital investments, depreciation, and similar items required in making up income tax returns.

"Every merchant should study the income tax law and regulations, and see to it that his accounts are kept in a manner that will enable him to determine his net income for taxation purposes. Aside from the necessity of keeping systematic accounts in order to comply with the Government's reequirements, every progressive, merchant should adopt an approved accounting system for the good of his own business. In no other way can he further his financial interests more effectively.

"The bad debt loss of the nation, which runs into large figures annually, is due in large measure to inexperience and inability. If merchants would keep even the simplest books of account, the bad debt wastage would be reduced materially, for inability and inexperience are usually marked by the absence of an accounting system.

"The man who knows the exact conditions of his business from day to day has an immeasurable advantage over the individual who has no records upon which to base his operations. It is the duty of every citizen, especially in these war times, to keep in such close touch with his business through record keeping and otherwise as to maintain the greatest efficiency and render to his Government every cent due in taxes."

It is expected through the various agencies employed by the bureau to place one of these letters in the hands of practically every retail merchant in the United States. The National Association of Credit Men, with headquarters in New York, not only has assured the bureau of its co-operation in the dissemination of the letter, but it is at work on a uniform system of accounting to be supplied to merchants at cost.

"Credit men generally," said a representative of the National Association, "have found by experience that a large number of failures result because the men who fail do not have a regular system of accounts, and therefore do not know their financial condition from time to time. The National Association of Credit Men recognizes this condition, and has been co-operating with retailers in a movement to remedy the situation."

Persons, corporations, partnerships, and associations liable to any tax imposed by the war revenue act are required to keep such records and render under oath such statement of their accounts as the Commissioner of Internal Revenue may prescribe.

By adopting and maintaining an accurate system of accounting, the merchant, it is pointed out by Commissioner Roper, will be able to place before the Internal Revenue Inspector, book records showing how he arrived at his statement of net income, thus saving himself annoyance and expense and at the same time facilitating the Government's task of collecting the war revenues.