Amador ledger., 1900-01-19

66Cueu ldf OSs Ouu InSlI FoSpcCOlNS III
fancies, if the municipalities desire to
take control of them and furnish the
sinews of their further construction
and maintenance, let them do so. Un-
der the civil service rules of charters
the commissions will be better, and the
State will be free to expend the money
saved in some other direction, possibly
in road construction aud maintenance.
1t will be a long time, however, be-
fore we can ever look to the State to
aid us except in the more remote local
tiles. If the roads that are now to be
built under the auspices of the State
Highway Bureau shall be well built.
possibly public opinion will approve
speedy extension of the system to diff
ferent sections of the State. If, on the
other hand, the State Highway Bureau
should degenerate into political asy-
lum for taking care of the workers"
and the push, or of those who walk
down the line" with their votes on the
United States Senatorship, as has been
the case at times with the Harbor Com
missions, then public opinion would de-
mand repeal of the whole legislation.
Moreover, if the State should ever
come to take up the subject of road
construction under any comprehensive
plan, it could never do any more than
aid on the main lines of thorOughfares.
whereas what l understand to be
wanted is a plan that will treat fairly
all sections of the county in the pro-
motion of travelling facilities. If we
betterment in Calaveras or Amador in
the present generation, the plan of re-
lief will have to be county plan. We
need not be discouraged by the enor-
nous amount of money that has been
squandered in the last forty years
without any appreciable result. The
these counties we have been attempt
ing to maintain roads before we ever
really constructed them We have
always been working from hand to
mouth. doing patchwork, attempting
to make road maintenance fund do
the double duty of partial construction
and maintenance. The roads will have
to be built-why not build them in
this generation? Why leave all the
good things to posterity?
This is not the time to stop to point
out where the grades of the old roads
are correct. the old roads should be
preserved rather than new ones con-
structed, nor the time to point out that
where the old grades are not correct
they cannot be too soon abandoned,
nor the time to point out legal difficult
ties in statutes that can be easily
amended according to our will nor is
it even the time to build roads. We
are not yet that far. The first thing
is to devise the ways and means of get
ting the necessary money. THAT is
THE WHOLE QUESTION NOW. With
the necessary money it is an easy
matter to obtain the requisite engi-
neering skill and ability, the requisite
machinery and the requisite ma
terial to build roads, For one, do
not see why the future generation
shoul not stand some part of the ex-
pense, or why this generation
should not have some part of the
benefit.
The. association has taken hold of
this subject in the proper way. A pre-
iminary committee of five has been ap-
pointed to make the necessary surveys,
ascertain the different locations, and
figure out the proper cost, where the
road are needed, and to submit spe-
cific report to the organization, together
with maps and estimates. | was pres
ent at the first meeting of that COM
mittee and saw in five minutes $1,000
subscribed to defray expenses of this
preliminary work. Two or three
thousand dollars more will be needed
and is being subscribed. With menlike
Mcclure and Kemp Van Ee at the wheel,
things move. The committee should
have sufficient money to make its
work scientific and complete. Then it
will be able to submit to the association
report that will not be in the air, nor
a mere matter of guesswork, but
solid report, on which men will be
ready to risk their business reputation
as civil engineers and the details
of which will be open to verifcation
Then the association will be able to
act with deliberation upon information
that will be reliable and exact, and
having thereon formulated its pro-
gramme, will be able, with confidence.
to go before the final arbiter-the peo-
ple.-John F. Davis in Calaveras Citi-
zen,
L. T. Travis, agent Southern Railroad, Sc
lina Ga writes: Il cannot say too much in