The morning call., 1895-02-08

/ ever improved TO tndb
The speaker here referred to the varying
needs of the different portions of the State
made necessary by its peculiar geograph
| ical construction. He told of the expe
riences of different States and showed how
the lessons they had learned could be
made OF value. Continuing he said:
There is no question that any methods you
adopt that secure you good roads will bring
prosperity with them. New Jersey has done
more, perhaps, toward the building of i'm,
proved roads than any other State, although
Kentucky probably has the greatest number oil
good roods. New Jersey is doing more road
building just now than any other State.
General Stone then told of his efforts to
arouse the interest of the Legislature OF
New York in good roads, and continued:
1 told them if they would come with me ]
would take them down in the State of New
Jersey and show them community that was
growing rich in the midst of hard times,
simply from the fact that they had lately built
good roads and that they were paying all the
cost of building these roads with cheerfulness.
1t aroused the interest of the committee and
they asked the Legislature for permission to go,
and got train for them from the Pennsylva-
mia Railroad. They invited the Supervisors
from the different counties to go along and
made up party of about 100. The farmers
turned out over these good roads with their
beautiful teams and carriages and took them
out over the roads and showed them the new
barns and fences and all the signs of agricul-
tural Improvement
The whole Legislature went to work to do
something for good roads and in less than a
week passed q bill for road improvement
through the Legislature by a majority of four
to one in the lower house. am not here to
advocate any rash, hasty experiments, nor to
rush into high taxation, or unlimited debt but
| am here to advocate a thorough investigation
of your road affairs in this State and study of
the question as to whether you are getting
the best results for the money that you are
spending. This is the vital question of the
moment. You ought to have in this State the
finest roads of any State in the Union. You
have the wealth, the rich soil and the climate
You have no frost to trouble you.
Road material is scattered so nearly all over
the State that it is available from every part of
the State. You have kinds of road material
that we could not get in any other State in the
union. You have conditions in the way of
bituminous rock and of certain soils here suit
able to roads that do not require broken stone
You have everything that a people could ask
for except the knowledge of the systematic
business-Gke methods of doing things. The
progress of road-buiiding in the last three or
four years has brought down the cost. The
roads being built in New Jersey to-day do not
cost one-half what they did four years ago and
there are good stone roads being built in the
State of New York to-day for less than $1,000
per mile. And on these roads in the midst of q
January thaw, they are hauling two tons of hay
with two horses on a narrow-tired wagon with
perfect ease, when it took two horses to haul
buggy through the mud of the country. These
roads were not great broad magnificent macad-
amized roads. They were simply good solid
narrow tracks of stone ten inches deep where
ii was dry and eighteen inches where it was
wet. They had the stone along the road
in the fields and all they had to do was to get
travelling crusher and get the farmers to work
out the tax with their teams, bringing the
stone and putting it on the roads. The condi-
ton prevails in many parts of this State where
the stone can be had with a very short haul.
Where the material is to be moved by railroad
it car always be moved by down haul or on a
level grade. You do not have to haul stone
over mountains TO get to where you want to
use it.
The speaker asserted that the cost of
moving road material by rail in the East
was only 20 cents ton for 100 miles. He
understood that the railroad question was
delicate subject in California, and he did
not want to enter upon it. But, since
good roads were recognized as feeders of
the railroads, he was sure that the railroad
people would be willing to make conces-
sions if only for their own interest.
If you can get road material as cheaply as
you ought, If you can get any moderate rate of
transportation to those regions that have not
an immediate supply, you certainly can afford
to build roads as cheaply in California as any
where in the United States Farmers will GER
tainly haul stone to the roads when they are
delivered at the railroad station, and there is
no reason why the roads in California should
cost much more than the roads are costing at
Canandaigua, n. Y.
General Stone spoke briefly on the use of
convict labor in making the roads. He
knew there was prejudice against it, yet,
he urged, it was frequently much to the
advantage of the prisoners to be employed
on outside work. he said that one of the
most important items developed by inYes-
tigation was the fact that narrow roads
were better than wide roads, being cheaper
to build and wearing longer The narrow
roads also save one-haIf the cost of repairs.
Where the counties have had to borrow
70 DullQ fOduS, uG dSScTtBu, JQeV
have invariably reduced the taxes. The
improvement in the value of the property
and attraction to outside capital to invest
in those counties has raised the value of
lots so much that the tax rate has fallen
This is question for your permanent
committee.
On this subject he further said:
If this convention appoints one to make
thorough investigation of the subject and
bring it to the knowledge of the people of the
State, when the time comes that you are ready
and anxious to improve your roads, you will be
satisfied that it can be done upon credit with
out running any sort OF risk OF increasing the
taxation.
General Stones address was listened to
with the closest attention. At its close the
chair announced the following committees,
which were ordered to be prepared to re-
port at 10 o'clock tomorrow morning:
Wisdom of Policy of Constructing Main
or Trunk Lines of Road at State or County
Expense William Curtis, Sacramento,
chairman; A. Greeninger, San Jose; R. A.
Thompson, Sonoma; Abbott Kinney, Los
Robert Fallen, Amador.
Road Districts, their size, organization,
powers, etc.. A. Linscott, Santa Cruz,
chairman; H. G. Bell, Butte; George w.