Show 41 ti aj ST now there it iq no more important question before the american public than the general improvement of the highways to the standard of twentieth century requirements quire ments the alume of traffic over the public highways is equal to or ex ceede that of all the railways the food products of the world pass over these roads to reach the market bad roads interfere with the regular distribution of these products resulting in an erratic and inconstant supply for a fixed and regular demand bad roads have hane necessitated the tice of rushing the crops to market all in a heap but two or three months instead of spreading this delivery over six to ten months farm products should be moved from producer to consumer as they are needed tor for consumption but the farmer will find the roads in the winter and spring bad and at times practically impassable and for this very reason he hurries bis his grain to market as soon as harvested harve ted this causes congestion on the railroads and works I 1 havoc in business conditions the moving of the crops t requires an enormous amount of money and a general up hearal in financial centers every fall is the result of this sudden drain the hurried disposition of the year s crop has ne the building of large storage houses in the grain centers to care tor for it in chicago the stor age chalce is nine cents per bushel per year the car crying capacity of the elevators of that city alone Is about 85 bushels representing a storage charge of over 5 per year the passing of the food supply into the control of the grain kings means a loss to the farmer and an additional and unnecessary cost to the consumer the general improvement of the highways of the country Is vastly more important to the people as a whole than the building of the panama canal the im pio Plo of the inland waterways or the irrigation of the semiarid semi arid lands of the west rhose who have traveled know that the roads europe are good the same is true of Au australia an ani I 1 new zealand countries newer than our own lebs au po pop ilous and with nothing like our aagre gate ate wealty the fact that the rest of the world has good roads while we e have bad ones 1st significant it shows that the plan we have been pursuing has not been successful in three hundred years less than eight per cent of the highways of our country have wf been permanently improved and at the rate we are go 11 ing it would require nearly four thousand years to 4 complete tle tl e job so as roa albu iders the people of the united states have been a failure 41 this is all the more surprising when we consider that ta ey are conspicuously successful in every other lne ol 01 0 burnan dumn endea endeavor or millions upon millions of dollars have been in ip every state in the union upon the public roads by ili timed or misdirected ef fort and with really deiy little to show for the ex e pend ture iture it is within the last ten or fifteen deais s tf stat at any real progress has been made along the line of permanently improving the conditions the trouble is we have been endeavoring to un tangle the swill by pulling the wrong string without any tiny reason teason tor for doin so the farmers of 0 the country from 4 maine to Call toinia from the very first assumed that the roa la Is belonged to them and it was their i business to JUn provo them and this misconception held sway cpr or nearly jearly ii SOO years i A few ears ago a man mau in new jersey made a dis M covery it was vas that the highways are public property A as much so as tte state house this raised the ques clues tion why if it the highways are public property should not the public take care of its own why should not the state and all property therein contribute to building the roads everybody Is interested in them every body Is affected through the markets by the road cad con dillons tl e are benefited by good roads an anal injured by bad ones the new thought spread throughout the state ind finally sew new jersey led the way to better con dillons by y pissing a law by which the state should con tribute one third the money required to improve the loads other states followed increasing the tion to one halt half and in one case massachusetts to three fouz fourths in many caes of the new england states farm prop propel eit t is only a very small portion of the total taxable property erty in some cases not ten per cent and when the cost ot road improvement was distributed over all prop eriv of the state the tae burden was hardly felt and yet immense sums were raised for road purposes best of all the roads were built under proper supervision instead of leading leaning it to the inexperienced hands of the loca path master len rien years ago new snork lork state began in a small wa va to lid aid and appropriated 50 to 0 o start the work the plan grew in favor so rapidly that within five years the tate by an overwhelming vote passed a cons titu lional a nen dment providing tor for in issue of 50 in I 1 lends to help build the highways what a record in five years from fifty thousand to fifty millions the ty tay ne necessary essary to pay the int ln rest on this enormous enor mois f vi 0 V 4 A L 4 v 4 X www FA DAKOTA RAD V v A 1 ROAD CIT I 1 aa sum and then finally pay off the bonds will hardly be felt by the p owners of the empire state owing to their immense list of taxable property ohio after 40 years of building roads by the old plan of local ta taxation Tation and bond issues in which the farmer had to pay practically the whole bill has pissed passed A state aid law which will enable if it to build three miles of improved roads where it has been build ing one without any increase whatever in taxation upon farm property virginia Is the first southern state to join the state aid column for good roads kentuck Is alive to the situation and is taking steps to change its conati aution lu in ardi r to be in a position to spread the road tax over all tl e erty in the state in certain parts of the country notably in the mis ails sis sippi valley there is an entire misconception as to what the state aid plan of road building means some imagine the state would take control of the highways build clensie cp ensie roads and tax the people to pay for hem others that it is a scheme to force road building against the wishes of the farmers nothing could be farther from the truth the state does not in n any manner under a state aid law interfere with the ab solute local control of the highways the voters of every township decide whether any roads shall be im proved what roads road to what extent when it shall be done I 1 at all the state has absolutely no voice in the matter it if however the township by a majority vote decides to build a road under the state aid plan it makes application to the state tor for that purpose the state engineer thereupon visits the locality goes over the road proposed to be improved with the local author atles and decides upon the character of the improve ment best suited to the conditions he then prepares plans and specifications and when these are approved bv by the highway commissioners or other properly conati buted local authorities the contract Is let to the lowest responsible bidder and the work is then done under the supervision of the state engineer this insures proper constriction and that means durability and low cost to n fintain the road afterward under lunder a state aid law not a rod of road could be built unless the residents of a township decided to do so not a dollar of state money could be expended unless the farmers who live in the rural township voted for improvements it if it should be alleged that state aid was a plan to compel railroads corporations merchants and manu facture rs to help build the roads it would not be tar far from the truth under state aid the farmers control the situation it if they decide to improve the roads the other people are obliged to help pay the bill in order to build roads cheaply they should be built extensively it costs a great deal more proper tiona tely to build a halt mile of road than it does to build fen ten half miles no contractor cares for a small lob job rut tut for a large one competition Is keen it takes just as much time and bother to get ready to build halt half a mile of load as it does to build ten miles by build ing in the baiger quantities from 20 to 25 per cent in cost of construction const luction can be saved As i boals on is properly built will last for a great many years tl ey should be built as school houses and court ho aises are built viz by a bond issue thus a township ur arder der state aid could build 10 15 or 20 mile of roads in one j ear have the roads to use and spread the pay ment of the same over say 10 or 20 years if this Is ione lone and the state aid plan prevails there will be very little it if any increase in fix taxation few people have any idea to what extent bad roads interfere with travel and how they affect the business of the merchant mer clant ant in the country town the illinois highway commission has gathered some very valuable data upon the effect of road and weather conditions upon highway traffic observations were made at 72 well distributed points in the state and an actual count was made by the vehicles passing upon different days throughout each month of the year covering all kinds of weather eather and road conditions the report shows that traffic over stone or gravel roads was fairly uniform throughout the year while upon the earth roads it was subject to the widest varia eions the following figures are significant and tell the following table comp led from agures gathered by the agricultural department in 1904 shows the percentage of improved roadways in each state alabama iowa nevada 60 50 south dakota 25 arizona kansas new hampshire tennessee tennesse arkansas 64 L kentucky 1660 new jersey 16 3 texas 1 5 california 1887 louisiana 13 new mexico 01 utah colorado 58 maine new yolk 7 96 vermont 1345 connecticut 1675 maryland north carolina delaware massachusetts north dakota 35 virginia district ot of columbia michigan 1013 ohio washington florida minnesota oklahoma 0 west virginia 97 georgia mississippi 38 oregon wisconsin 1672 idaho missouri 2 pennsylvania wyoming illinois montana 28 rhode island indiana nebraska 00 09 south carolina the united states iacia b A tet IA u more forcibly how geat g eat Is the burden of had dad roads than anything else can possibly do the clear lake earth road leading into springfield illinois showed an average traffic for four days in march 1906 of vehicles per day over the same road in june jube and july the average was vehicles on the same days in peoria 60 miles away under the same weather conditions but over a bard hard road the traffic for march was and the average e tor for june and july at champaign over an earth road showed the average for january february said and march to be 63 as against tor for september and october the r aunt at decatur over a gravel road was march and april ZW july and august over an earth road leading into sullivan the count for january february parY and march wao wa 54 august augut and september delivering an address upon good roads the writer mas once interrupted and asked if he would favor taxing the widow widows s cottage to help build the roa roads s he e answered answered that a he ie certainly a n jr aou would as the annual tax would bouc probably not exceed 10 or it 1 cents and he gave the following illustration of how bad road roads burden the people A woman goes into a grocery store for a dozen and a pound of butter when told the prices she protests the grocer in defense says well you see madam the roada roads are axe so bad now very fw f w farmers are coming to town so sq butter and eggs are scarce she pays paya three cents more for the eggs and four cents more for the batter butter and this seven cents represents her bad road tat ta pail pal that ev evening aning this Is repeated from time to time through out the year po rw only in her case but in hundreds of others in that town and in thousands of tomae through out the length and breadth of the land there Is no doubt that the in question would benefit through good roads by at least ten times timea the amount of t the he tax on her cottage t ft 0 it would be interesting to take a concrete con creto example of state aid apply it t to a epical farm in o 0 of ot the central western states ana an pee see exactly chati what state aid mea means n s so far araxe upon that farm are concerned for the purpose of illustration let it ug us take I 1 an average farm of aares are in n the corn belt of illinois and see nhat the effect upon the taxes on that farm auld be it if the state should undertake a very vigorous campaign 4 4 4 aa t 4 0 BA V e C 6 A ja A p A 7 Z Z O 0 eq Z 0 ot of road building under state aid one that contemplate an expenditure of the enormous sum pf 50 la in ten years enough money fo to improve all tha ih maln highways ot of the state connect every with the market town and county seat aad giat ailon a tom t om piete network of good goads roads aroa from gillens to io cairo cafro the plan being that the state should pay ex pense and the townships or road districts the other it 50 00 were expended in ten years the state T be required to raise 26 2 00 bt jt it there Is in the state property to the total assessed valuation of 1 1250 to raise 2 a bear year or 25 la in ten bears ears would require awo mily tax upon this property so a t tw ta A cr mill tax applied to all the property p of the state of illinois at the present pl assessed essed not taking into account the possible in crease in value thereof would produce the sum aired i the records show that the taxing value of an average acre farm in the corn belt of illinois Is a little less than 2 the actual value being 10 A two mill state tux on this farm faim as sensed se ged on the value of 2 2000 would bb exactly 4 a year and no more and in ten years the stale tax would be 40 which would be the farm s proportion ot of the 25 total where this farm would pay 40 single corporation in the city ot of chicago would have to pay another and the rail rall ways of the state over two millions of dollars thus tius we see by a state levy ot of two mills for ten years one halt half of the 50 Is provided for the other half must be raised by local taxation or by a bond issue let us assume that the township towns hp in which toe farm in Is located votes bonds to td the full lional limit that Is goes into debt just as far aa as it can go and pays the highest interest thai that the law per der mits it to pay the limit of the bond issue is five per cent of the assessed valuation so the amount of bond bonds resting upon the farm would be alvo per cent of 2 or exactly payable one ond tenth each year with in terest at five per cent the interest on tats bond issue so tar far as this farm Is concerned for the ten years would be 2750 27 50 thus it we add the bonds i 00 interest on bonds 2 tit and the state tax of 40 00 i we have a total tax on or tho tarm farm of 1137 50 which Is exactly the amount of tho the ta tal that would be levied and collected upon this firm for both state aid and to pay off the road bonds and inte interest iest 1 amount Is about abou t 10 jova cents per acre sere po pe year and the total charge against the farm for the whole ton tea would be 1 05 per acre this amount of money by the farm under the state aid plan TO ill enable the state to expend 50 upon its aard aft the 0 el pend iture of that sum would add to the value of farm property at least five and probably ten times as much as the respective farms would rould be taxed in order to baj the bill copyright by baw W A nake tt 0 io o 1 |