The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1901-04-26
IOWA FARMERS IDEA.
More Just Method of Taxation Would
Aid Road Improvement More
Than Anything Else.


How shall we improve highways?
Not by running in debt, and issuing
bonds which will remain a mortgape
on our farms until paid by increased
taxation. Such measures would drive
more people to the towns, and make
our boys and girls less willing to re-
main on the farms and follow the oc-
cupation of tillers of the soil. Yet we
want and must have better roads. The
demand for rural free mail delivery is
urgent, and pressing the general gov
eminent from every quarter. This de-
mand cannot be met without roads
suitable for light vehicles at all sea-
sons of the year, under all conditions
of the weather. How shall we make
the roads better? We must make
them, for the most part, of the soil
on and rear by where the road is To-
Gated. The alluvial soil of the great
er portion of Iowa, Illinois and a con-
siderable portion of other adjoining
states is rich in humus and all the
constituents that are needed to en-
able it to produce bountiful crops.
DoO h>S u d1C hOU llC UCSU
for making a solid roadbed ~impervious
to water, and free from mud and wa
ter in rainy weather. But roads Of
this material may be made possible
even in wet weather, if properly
drained and the grade maintained in
an oval form so hat the water which
falls thereon shall find it's way quick
1u 70 tho litohnc hncfln 49, coo1 .-1
on to the sea. A very large number
of good and sufficient grades have been
built by the townships and counties of
Iowa and other states, which for want
OF proper care are quagmires and al
most, if not altogether, impossible in
q rainy season, or in the annual break
up of the spring time. To put these
in order and keep them so we must
have some mar or men who can do it
when the grounds in conditionfo for such
work, and the farmers are busy in
their fields planting and sowing. The
road supervisor must not be a farmer,
and here in Iowa he should work un-
der the direction of the township
trustees. We have machines in almost
every township for grading and ditch
ing, which, if properly handled, will
take the earth from the edges of the
road and draw it into the center, and
place the roadbed in the proper form
for conveying the water to the bitches
and building a solid foundation FOR the
wheels. This work cannot be well done
when the ground is wet or very hard
and dry. Hence the necessity of hav-
ing a man for this work who makes it
his business, and will give it timely at
tention. All taxes for the highways
must be paid in money. We have a law
in Iowa that permits the placing of a
township in a supervisor district, and,
if the trustees SO elect, of making all
the taxes payable in money. Town
ship trustees have in some instances
made the township a single district
under one supervisor, but have rarely,
if ever, required the entire road tax to
be paid in money. 1t might be better
to give the care and the expenditure
Of the highway funds to the county
board of supervisors, permitting them
to eXpend in the several townships all
the taxes raised in the township by
contract for new grades, and the MAIN
tanning in good order all grades al
ready made, contracting for crawling
the grades wherever that is available.
Old methods of making and caring
for the roads have followed us from
promitive times in the older eastern
states, and must be relegated to the
dead past before we can hope for
very much better highways. A more
just method of taxation whereby the
property of all the people, bondhold-
ers and railroads, telegraph, tele-
phone, and all other public utilities,
are made to pay their just proportion
of the taxes by an assessment of their
properties according to their cash
or selling value, the same as a farm
or the merchants stock of goods, or
the capital of q bank, will aid mate
rally in equalizing the burdens of
making and maintaining better roads.
H. H. Fitch, in Prairie Farmer.