| Show RAISING THE MONEY BOND POND ISSUE IS BEST WAY TO PAY FOR GOOD ROADS J EFFORTS OFTEN MISDIRECTED Good Roads Fever Carries Community Off Its Feet Frequently and 2nd Work la Is Started Along Impractical Lines Tax Tax Levy Plan Wrong By fly HOWARD H. H GROSS In any great movement as the bunding qt pf good roads enthusiasm enthus enthus- Jasm In Wi essential but unless this Is coupled with a knowledge of ot the sub It Is a question whether It sometimes sometimes some some- times s does not do more harm than good The writer believes that a movement for better highways Is often often often oft oft- en retarded by zealous over friends who are attempting to do something they do not understand The proposition proposition proposition to build good roads throughout the land Is a aery very ery big one and aud exceedingly exceedingly ex ex- ex Important It Is a question that must be handled In a big way If It anyone had suggested fifty years ago the building ot of a railway to the Pacific slope he would have been declared declared de tie- dared at least visionary This has been accomplished and today there are arc a halt half dozen en such railways and the four months' months Journey across the tho desert Is now compassed i 1 less than three days While the tho Building of or good wagon roads throughout the country Is an Immeasurably big job yet there are back of ot it boundless resources resources re reo re- re sources there Is far tar more moie to encourage ng age ng-e us than the builders of ot these first grent great continental roads l. l Und Ld d to encourage encourage en en- coura courage e them Let us g. g go forward I 11 iI with sith a stout heart and high purpose and with a clear head and all will come out right In a a good roads loads campaign one of ot the he most Important things is to unlearn un un- learn earn some things that are not so to get jet a view of the proposition from the he right angle and not to work along impractical lines The good roads' roads fever ever usually breaks out in some community com corn with a hurrah to build a n mile or two of hard roads and there is a squabble to determine which particular lar ar road shall have the improvement Selfishness crops out and must be reckoned with When the particular road has been determined upon then comes the question of ot raising funds Those who are disappointed will give nothing others will contribute Various various va Va- rious amounts the banker merchant and grain dealer are called upon and subscribe different sums others will contribute labor an entertainment will be held in the town hall ball the proceeds proceeds pro pro- to be devoted to the building of ot the road The local paper will be filled with letters interviews and editorials editorials edi edl everybody is patting himself Is for lor the township to levy an annual tax for hard rd roads that will perhaps 1000 or 2000 and expend It upon a gravel vel or m macadam stretch of road wh which ch is to be extended from year to year lear at a rate that will give the to township a fair amount of ot hard roads s SaY In Win twenty or thirty years yeara By the lime time the last mile mUo Is built under under under un un- un- un der this plan the tho first one IB is worn out the jule 10 being that the road once built re reives no attention and that tho the mon monty y raised is spent upon buildIng build build- Ing ilig mon mor roads The roads are arc usually ally bu but t without much If it any at attention eing paid to drainage o and the reIts re Its are lre not always satisfactory satisfactory satisfactory tory in h Ij fact they are seldom what they should s be Those charged with the tho duA of spending the money nineteen nineties nine nine- teen t ties es in twenty know lI litte Je If It g. g of ot h how the road should be built nd md when it is finished It is about half halt as good as It ought to be bend and nd has cost nearly twice as ass asI I much s it should for let It ft be said again nd again that the greater part of th thAn taxes raised for highways Is frittered a away way by misdirected effort An en engineer who has had ex tende experience says at least sixty per pcr c cent nt of the funds raised for high ways wars s wasted Certainly the waste is at s 's east one This being the case Jit It t follows that one ODe of ot the first things to do is to stop this awful ful and see that a dollars dollar's worth of road results from every ery dollar ex ex- instead of or forty to fifty cents worth north It ought to be clear dear that it is very verr Important important that trat toads loads should be constructed under expert supervision and a capable road engineer is needed Of course Of-course course It Is not practical to have o this Kid f id build the roads piece piecemeal piecemeal meal meala a short stretch at a time hence the t township will find it wise Instead of ot t n al tax levy t to issue bonds to th yi ih i constitutional limit and build j ta w fifteen to twenty miles of ot road i dee ce and pay for them by the I bon bond Issue paying off orr the bonds in install in in- stall This is vastly better and cheaper chea er than to build short stretches by a ab L annual tax levy Of ot course Interest In in- ter terest will have to be paid upon the bond but on the other hand band the people peo peo- pie 1111 fill Ill have good roads to use and If t tha use of the roads Is not worth mon mor than the Interest on the bonds re lu r red d to build them then road Ing ts s not worth while The TheIs I vor D oo experience is that good roads loads G ays worth several times what I Ifie fie to any community ei are re many advantages to this vla building runny many any miles at once to have good engineer engineer- I and proper tl d the result will be a well I ra dia better and a more durable one that will not cost nearly i to maintain as one one poorly conk con ted Again Agam on so large a job contractors rs will figure lower than up up- th oj tS ll lI Job and the best machinery an ana me hods can be employed to adIt adva ad ad- va ge geso so It Is fair to say that i r q s of ot road built under a single cP f. f will wm cost from 15 to 20 per Der Wi W Y e j give exact figures and hare a concrete I example It will be necessary to take tak I a typical farm in some Bome portion of tw I central west and apply the two plant plans I Ito Ito to that farm As the tho figures are al at alhand alhand hand the writer selects an average farm tarm In the corn belt of Illinois There Is la no reason why this farm should be taken in preference to a p farm In any other state except that more moro complete data Is at hand hence It will be used Tho The same plan will apply with slight variations to other farms in other states tho the owners of ot which by getting the assessed valuation valna- valna tion of their township and state can figure out and ascertain each for tor himself himself him him- self just what the effect will be upon his farm The Tho assessed valuation of or an average average average aver aver- age acre farm In the corn belt of ot Illinois is about Suppose the township of ot which this Is a part has baa hasan hasan an assessed valuation of ot say and anet is out of ot debt By the old plan suppose there i Is an annual tax levy for tor ten years of 60 cents on one onehundred onehundred onehundred hundred dollars This will produce per year and In ten years will total This money spent under un der tier aver average ge local conditions means mean that about half halt of It will be wasted ind md the farm In question will have to pay each year sixty cents on thirty hundred dollars or 1800 per year The net result of this expenditure will be the paying out of ot during during du duo ring ten len years and probably will produce produce pro pro- duce not much over worth of roads at what they ought to cost Suppose the new plan is adopted ed by Issuing bonds to tho the full constitutional limit of ot 5 per cent paying the same off orr In Installments spread over twenty twenty ty years and letting the next generation genera generation tion who will use the roads help to pay for them The bond limit on the th township In question is ol of which exactly rests upon thi th farm In question to be paid off one twentieth each year or on account ac no count of ot principal each year for twenty years rears Interest of ot course will willbe willbe be paid annually but will decrease o as the bonds are arc paid off The first years year's Inter interest st will be 5 per cent on 00 or Add on account ol of principal and the first years year's payment on this farm for good roads Is 1500 The tenth year half one half of the bonds will be paid off and the Interest will win drop to 3 35 5 so that that year the tho tax will be 1125 The last years year's payment will be on account of ot principal and 38 33 cents cent o on account of or interest making a total of ot Thirty thousand dollars of ot bond Issue issue Is sue will build far more and d far better better bet bet- ter roads on a general contract than spent in ten years on a patch patchwork patchwork patchwork work p plan nn and the cost to the tax taxpayer taxpayer payer will be bo considerably less as well Now let us suppose that Illinois had as it surely needs an up date date to-date state aid law one halt the amount required for building permanent permanent permanent perma perma- nent roads should be paid from a state tax levy If this condition obtained ob tamed then the township In question could after raising draw 30 more moie from the state and expend upon highways in their town township ship In Illinois less than third one-third the property of the state Is represent represented ed b by farms so tho the state tax will be spread over an immeasurably greater amount of ot property A tax of ten cents on one hundred dollars for the state will produce nearly a year and the state aid tax upon the farm in question will be le per year in order to ral raise e the second This state tax would add 3 00 to the tax bill of the farm In question so the maximum amount per year If were expended upon the roads of the township would be 1800 per year year year- less than 12 cents per acre acre per year and take It for a series of years anyone any one who can figure at all will see that the cost to that community spread over a series serle serie-of serie of years will be even en less under unde the bond contract plan and that they can get by the new plan about three times as much road as they would upon the old In handling road building In this big way It will give an early and anti practical solution of ol the good roads problem vastly better betler and more effective than to pass the hat get up an entertainment and rind I wear oneself ou to raise laise the money money oney to build a little bit of road 1 on the back and of ot the wonderful won made progress that Is being I This Is all very well BO so far tir as It the the moral effect Is goes and perhaps perhaps' but It stirs sUI'S up Ui the community good good It It does not do very very much In the the way of road b building i Usually Usual Y a half halt mile or DO so is the limit and may reach from the town to t the e cemetery Veil q that dosS some good and will give a do- do parting citizen a smoother road In ln death than he lie had In life lite employed in such a cam cam- cam i The means tir are are wholly Inadequate quate to the end sought It reminds one of the theold old woman who proposed to keep tho the I I tide back with her broom There are al also o other unsatisfactory I p pensIve and wrong ways to take up The most common one h s question than if built a mile or so at gain the roads are nil new new- a le timo and will be far more ory to the people and the thebe be simultaneous to the community Suppose the state in which a given is situated aids in building toads pads under the plan that in more than one half the t a This JT will make the roads built builta a lighter burden I Lt see how the matter of taxa will affect the owner of a rt the two t plans of road build builds ra that is s a little each year by an au lev Iery and the other by n r supplemented by state aid words by comparing th the a Ith the new In order to V nr n nIo d ouo Io |
