Many of the states were devoid of the necessary machinery to take care of this money and expend it efficiently in the construction of roads or to maintain them in good condition afterward; so the Government asked that highway departments be created, if they did not already exist, in order that there might be skilled supervision and efficient organization on the parts of the states as that was the best insurance that these duties would be thoroughly performed. Furthermore there would be some centralized authority at Washington and some at each state capital; the initiative and the choice of location, types, and materials for road building would not be left wholly to local administrations which were more likely to be swerved to meet the selfish interests of prominent local personages than is possible in larger political units. The judgment of Congress is less likely to be biased by local conditions or by selfish individuals than would that of a township or county board, or even the State Legislature. On the other hand from the very beginning of the national federation states have jealously guarded their rights, giving up very reluctantly to the Federal Government in any attempts toward centralization. So “no policy,” states the committee report, “should be adopted which does not permit the retention by the States of the fullest measure of control consistent with the necessary inspection and safeguarding which is customary with all federal appropriations.” Hence the states were left the power or not as they saw fit of availing themselves of the Government Aid money. Nearly if not all the states in the Union have availed themselves of Federal Aid. It is claimed by opponents of the system that this is because if a state does not take its quota the money will be appropriated to other states while this state will still have to pay its proportional part to the fund from which the money comes. This they claim is pernicious and has caused states to ask aid when voting the taxes to match the same was extremely burdensome to the people. In other words the people “are forced into a position where their only justification is a presumption that they are grabbing while the grabbing is good.”[199]