Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1894-04-13
How 70 GET GOOD ROADS.
Colonel A. A. Pope SUGGESTS a successi
Tax-Road engineering.

Colonel A. A. Pope Suggests Succession
Tax-Road engineering.
In the congress- on good roads at
Chicago recently, Colonel A: A. Pope Of
Boston presented a paper which was at
tentively listened to. Among other
things he said: ssAside from questions
Of material gain, which is perhaps the
lowest standpoint, to consider the good
that comes from easy means of COM
munion, there is. to be borne in mind
that good roads are the great highways
for the advancement Of social life, edu-
cation and Christianity. The visits of
friends, the attendance Of children at
school and the gathering together at
church, are all governed to a greater
or less extent by the condition of the
roads, and the abandonment of the
farms and the crowding of people in the
cities is due largely to the isolation
caused by bad means of communication
to and from the farm. But the problem
to be solved is to provide money to build
good roads.
''Many farmers are opposed to the good
road movement because they believe it
means to them increased taxation, and in
some sections of the country agricultural
interests are SO depressed that they don't
feel able to bear financial burdens. It
has been estimated that the state of ILL
pois loses every year 800, 900, 900 because
of bad roads. I. a:s%
''Now, l am going: to urge a plan
which I believe to be the least burden
some and the most efectual and equi-
table for providing good roads. Let each
state establish graduate succession tax
that is, tax on property passing by
succession, by Inheritance or by legacy.
Such tax might be arranged as follows:
On all estates valued at $4,000 up to
100000, per cent; on estates of over
10000. up to $500 goo, | per cent on the
first 100000 and per cent on the re-
mainder, and SO on, gradually increasing
the amount as the inheritance increased.
The succession tax will not fall on the
poor. Those whose estates amount to
$4,000 can we'll afford to give $500 to
the state in return for all the protection
of its laws which has enabled wealth to
be accumulated and enjoyed.
Good roads, when rightly construct
ed, can be maintained at comparatively
small cost, and as the wealth of the
states increases the succession tax would
furnish sufficient revenue to meet all ex.
penses Of the state after paying for the
maintenance of the road"
Of equal interest was paper by Pro.
fessor Lewis M. Haupt Of Philadelphia
on road engineering and construction.
He gave statemento Of the total tonnage
of the railroads in the United States in
1891, amounting to 704, 399, 900 tons car.
ried an average distance Of lis miles,
and giving q ton mileage of 1910, 1884,.
600. This movement cost the shippers
$755, 1854 ,430.
To produce this result there has beer
invested in railroads the incomprehensi
BILE sum of $40, 1856, 1884 1928, an average OF
$61 1878 per mile, and it has paid fair rev.
enue. The speaker then showed the
enormous economy resulting from re-
duced resistances Of locomotion, as in.
stanced by the waterways, and cited the
case of the improvements on the great
lakes, where total expenditure of $780,,
100000 had saved in the cost of trans
portation by water, as compared with
rail, nearly $3.50, 1000, 00oin one year.
In closing his paper he said that "whilf
the rapid progress made by the United
States since 1880 was due largely to the
fundamentally Of her railroads, tbt
greatness of Great Britain was attribut
able mainly to her foreign commerce, il
which she utilized the cheapest known
methods of transportation, while thu
thrift, frugality and wonderful recuper
ative powers of both France and Ser
many were due chiefly to their goo(
roads and numerous internal waterways
as we'll as to their policy of protecting
home industries.
"With intelligent, liberal and patriotic
legislation, with our unlimited resources
with over 160, 900 miles Of railways, rs ,OO
miles of coast line and 10000 miles O
navigable rivers in the Mississippi basi,
alone, with unrivaled physical possibili
ties for intracoastal canals, there is ~
reason why our glorious country SHOULD
not rise to the zenith of her greatness b,
combining all the elements which hav
conspired to enrich and ennoble the olde
nations of the eastern hemisphere.
| "Our people as whole need to be i'm
pressed with the Importance Of securin!
cheaper transportation and be made t.
realize that our common roads are
most serious obstruction to our other
wise phenomenal growth. When tina
is accomplished, and from present indi
cations the leaven is working rapidly
the road problem will be satisfactoril,
observation-disclosures Star.