Show ito building BUIL DINu BOND ISSUE IS BIG PROBLEM rest bert meant means to pull counties out of land hand H and of mud make all improve ments permanent the biggest single issue before the keople today Is good roads biggest mot alone of itself but biggest big gest because the prompt and satisfactory so of a permanent road system in ili aery every state will help to solve a halfden fundan fundamental problems and in directly affect tor for good as well as in dollars and cents almost every phase of farm social and industrial life in the state we cannot expect t to have a real system of roads unless it Is based on large units and this Is best accomplished by accepting the county and state basis with a few experienced and responsible men in charge in each ease we must have roads that begin and end somewhere many counties are presenting to the taxpayers the question of a bond insua lor for the improvement of their highways the bond issue for a public improvement should be governed by the same considerations which govern a 21 bond issue by any business tion hon when a manufacturing concern issues bonds the money raised Is placed in permanent improvements in flie be plant which will last far beyond the life of the bonds or else no investor would purchase the securities bonds for municipal purposes or for public improvements are not always subjected to this acid test and instances are numerous in this country where bonds for twenty years have been issued for the construction of public roads where the type of roads built with tile the proceeds of the bond issue could not possibly last more than ten years and even then expensive maintenance Is continually necessary in some instances history shows that during the life of such a bond issue the original road has been worn out and rebuilt with a different material and with the proceeds of subsequent bond issues as many as three times and still the original bonds are a liability on the community bond issues for better roads are the best means to pull counties out of the land of mud but it mastbe must be certain that the road improvements will last the life of the bonds this can be assured by securing expert and unprejudiced engin engineering advice on the best tind kind of roa is tor for the soll soil the banker can pel perform form yeoman service in this connection in the state of iowa the man who begun began with nothing and now owns a farm believes in paying as he goes when building a road but he will borrow money from an insurance company with which to buy more land ind and he be has not yet seen that when he builds N y 4 A 4 making necessary repairs on macadam road a concrete bridge e with one years tax money he has made a christmas present of that bridge to posterity for the next one hundred years he says that thirty year paved roads are impossible because per mile Is too much to pay out of one years tax money and it has not occurred to him that there will still be taxpayers aken he is dead and gone who will be using that road and by rights should have to pay some of it wallaces farmer |