St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-01-26

convention took I'D the discussion of the
papers. MIR. McKnstry, of FdribauIt.
testified To Ills experience in conventions
of this character. Hehad found that the
discussions that supplemented the pa
pers invariably proved more instructive
and OF more value in fact than the pa
prrs themselves. While he is particu-
lar lover or shade trees. having imbibed
the feeling through his New England
training; he had found that shade
trees are usually the cause of wet and
bad roads, and therefore he would
abolish the system Of planting shade
trees along pubic highways, unless they
perchance, be planted at wide distances.
They gather snowdriftS in winter, and
the average MinnesOtan has q penchanJ
for never breaking ROAD.
- MIR. Buel. OF fIamline. declared that
he had had Il deal of experience in street
grading and paving in the Twin Cities.
Whenever property owners want any,
thing of the kind they find little trouble
II they are ready to pay the expense.
he became reminiscent and roasted the
aldermen of Minneapolis. The property
owners that had a string on the alder
men got the good streets, while the citi-
zen without special influence paid the
bills and get nothing. The suburban
streets in Minneapolis were declared to
be ShOckinyly bad.
"Some OF the old buffers on the board
OF trade often got mad at me-" he EN-
phasiZed, because | have said this, for
they always endeayored to publish to
the world that Minneapolis is the best
city in the world in all respects" He
IN In t.I SO RI
property benefited, but a country dele
gate took exception to this proposition.
He asserted that everybody in MinneaD-
oils and st. Paul is benefited by every
good road in Hennepin county. This
retort was greeted with applause.
MIR. SWEET thought that shade trees
are grand feature. If the roads are
we'll built the water Will drain off. He
conceded that along prairie roads shade
trees are a detiiment.
MIR. Iltis. of Chaska, asserted that he
had no idea that the roads were SO bad
until he had listened to delegates from
st. Paul and Minneapolis. The first
time he had seen horse OH his back
was in st. Paul.
Carver County Roads.
"Our roads in Carver county are good
enough" he said. ave build good
roads. and Mr.. Washburn can take his
option bill and give it to the babies for
jumping jacks, it everybody will build
roads as we build them. We don't
want such roads as Gen. Andrews spoke
of in his paper We don't want such
roads as they have in Germany. | lived
there when they needed such roads.
They had 10 railroads there, and that is
the secret
Mr. Hazard. of ST. Paul, urged lay
ing sand foundation for roads in the
country. and giving it clay surface.
LII I, clay county wells might be dug to
get the sand, and vice versa. In sandy
regions clay may be dug from wells. I'D
Mr. Clay. of Fillmore, suggested that
the convention was beginning OH the
roof first. He advocated stone roads,
and thought a law should be passed pro-
building to the lowest bidder, and to
collect taxes to cover the expense rather
than pursuing the present system
of little road districts. He as
serted that since 1860 Fillmore
county has spent money sufficient
to build stone roads throughout the
county. and nothing but miserable eX-
cuscS for roads. He would abolish the
poll tax, and, instead, take half the sa-
loon tax for road building, also per
cent OF the tax received from the rail-
roads and all the revenue from the in
ternal improvement lands. He would
make the county commissioners the
cuStOdians of the wot k. He advised
every delegate to read Gov. Flowers
inaugural address upon good roads.
Mr.. Pettis, of Rice. opposed the prop
osition of giving the county commits
SiOnerS the control of the roads. In the
country the character OF the roads can
not be changed very much. Rice county
has an abundance of rock and gravel.
but the trouble has been to get compe
tent and effective work.
MIR. johnson, of the same county, felt
that gravel will make as good roads as
are needed, if rightly constructed.
Mr.. Gilfilan, Of Ramsey county. re-
viewed Gen. Andrews paper. lie
thought the suggestion that the legis-
lature appropriate $4,000 for expert
Inent each year would result in simply
eXpe nding the money i'll advertising
certain QuarrieS.
About as far as we can go is to build
good gravel roads. In Europe nine
tenths of the roads are built for military
purposes. A hundred years from now
possibly the suggestions Of the very
interesting paper may become prac-
ticable."
Mr.. Starks, of Freedom. favored the
suggestion that all the willow hedges
along highways be ''grubbed" up.
Chairman Wells announced the fol-
lowing committees, and an adjourn
ment was had until 8 p. H.:
On Finance-C. B. Giltillan and G. G.
Andrews, of st. Paul; r. r. Greer, Of
Fillmore county.
On observation-disclosures members at
large, the complement to be named by
the delegates from the different con-
gressional districls-E. }. Buel. of Ram
sey; w. Ii. Grant, of Pine; E. l.. Traut.
of Rock.
On Good Road Observation-Disclosures
members at larga-A. b. Choate. of
Hennepin; y. P. McKnistry, of Rice;
w. w. SWEET. of RAMSEY.