The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1903-09-04
ANENT THE GOOD ROADS.
B. F. Stedman Writes a Communica
ton on the Subject.
From Mondays Daily,

To the Editor of The Free Press: So
many writers are trying to solve the
good roads" question, and as in nv
opinion none of them have as vet cot
down to bed rock that | wish to take
shy at it myself. Our townships are
each divided into about a dozen road dis
tricts, each district in charge of an'over-
seer or pathmaster-chosen yearly. This
year A holds the office; next year B,
then c, d, E and so down the list. Not
one in ten of the lot has any more idea
of how to Understandings make good
road than he has of running a locomotive.
Under the present anticipated law the
townships yearly elect three supervisors.
Next year the entire board is likely to
be changed and so on until the list is
completed. This law should be so chang
ed that while the board of supervisors
should consist of three members, but
one chould be chosen each year, and hold
office for three years-the last year of
his term ne should be chairman of the
board. The small road district system
should be discarded each township being
road district under charge of the SUI
pervisor. The board should about the
first of April go over the town and de-
termine what is necessary to be done
that year. Specifications of each job
should be made and posted and on the
first of May these jobs should be sold
at auction to the lowest bidder, the
work to be done in May, no payment to
be made until the work is completed ac-
cording to specifications. Of course all
board taxes should be paid in cash. In
a few years the country would be full
of expert road builders ready to bid on
any and all jobs, and who would do good
work for the price. Not long since I
was present at such a road sale in Iowa,
and the competition was as sharp as
though they were bidding for prize
steer. A few years ago | handed to
Senator Barr memorandum embodying
| the above ideas. He reported later that
| the legislative committee in charge of
| such legislation were opposed to it and
/ no action was taken. Presumably the
| members of that committee hoped some
day to rise to the office of district over
seer, therefore didn't want the office
abolished.
What Mr.. Geddes said about road
| drainage is true. Getting rid of the sur
face water is the principal objective in
the good roads question. Thousands of
| dollars worth of work principally "poll
| taX') has been done in this county cut
| ting parallel bitches through sloughs,
throwing the sods in the space between
them, making fairly good canal for
| slack water navigation on each side, fill
ed with water whenever the frost is
out of the ground. Generally one half
the work expended on the road would
have drained the slough, then road bed
could easily have been made. But first
| class work in country road building will
| never come until our antediluvian road
laws are changed, rotary election of SUI
pervisors and road overseers done away
with, and some little intelligence put at
| the head of the work. | doubt if all the
road conventions held in the state with
| all their grandiloquent speeches and res
| olutions have caused single rod of coun-
| try road to be improved. Still the
speeches are fine and the resolutions
| gilt-edged, and the promoters get great
| honor to themselves.
B. F. STEDMAN.