The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-09-30
WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 80, 1903.
NO REFORM THERE.

The last meeting of the county COM
missioners held out no hope of a re-
form in the manner of expanding pub
lie moneys, or of treating the improve
ment of the public highways. A Wig
orous attack was made by Commits
sioner Seng upon the patchwork sys-
tenn Of spending the road improvement
fund. He had all the facts. all the ar
guments and all the rights upon his
side. He was unable to make any i'm
preston upon body that is either abb
solutely incapable of understanding its
duty or singularly unwilling to perform
It,
There is not an iota of difference Of
opinion among intelligent men any
where on this question of road i'm
provement. The county commissions
ers know, precisely as every other citi-
zen knows, that every dollar spent I'M
der the present system is wasted. The
county board might just as we'll cal,
in their personal and political friends
at each session and cut up the road
Improvement fund among them as
pure gratuity as to dispose Of it as
they are now doing. The public knows
this. and they know.
he Globe has made the whole
situation clear. It has investigated the
condition of all the principal roads in
Ramsey county and told the public ex-
actly what they are like today. It has
shown when and where and how the
enormous amount of money collected
from the people of this county for road
Improvement purposes within the last
ten years has been squandered. It has
shown that, with the expenditure of
this money on correct and honest prin-
ciples, Ramsey county could boast a.
large mileage of the finest roads in the
country.
We are now spending from $500 to
$4,000 a year on our roads. We are
not getting SIS worth of benefit from it
all. The reason that we are not is be-
caue the county commissioners. with
full knowledge of what they are doing.
determine that it shall be wasted in
stead of prof1tably used.
The most ignorant of men knows TO-
day that the system of doing temporary
road work which has to be repeated
each year is nuisance to travel and is
dishonest to the taxpayer. 1t means
simply perpetual expenditure and ner-
petual bad roads, The taxpayer gets
for his money nothing but a highway
q little better for few weeks in the
year, and good deal worse for the rest
of the time than if it had been left lust
as nature made it. We can go on I'M
der this sytem for a thousand years
and have roads no better than they are
today, and practically no better than if
We abolished the road tax and the road
Improvement fund altogether. That is
what the county board approves and in
sists on by its present policy.
On the other hand, we can emnlov
competent roadmakers on scientific
principles and build permanent roads in
Ramsey county. We are spending
enough money every year to give us
from three to ten miles of such roads.
according to local conditions. These
highways would be practically as good
as the paved streets of our cities. They
would be permanent They would need
from year to year only the slightest re-
pairs at the most trif1ing cost. The
entire fund available could be devoted
next year to the construction of that
much more modern improved highway;
and in a few years the outlying dis
tricts of the city and county would be
transformed, the business of our mer-
shants would be increased and the