The Saint Paul globe., 1904-12-17
A STATE HIGHWAY COMMISSION

of state highway commission. They
are led captive by the craze that pre-
walls just now for the erection of
boards, commissions and intermediary
| bodies of one sort or another between
] the people and the actual doers of the
! work they want done. All this is mere
machinery, whose principal purpose is
to furnish offices for ambitious poll
ticians and to divert the expenditure
of public moneys from the purpose
intended to political ends.
These are facts that the good roads
people who are interested in this
movement do not fully appreciate; yet
surely they ought to. Such a commits
| sion is in no wise necessary to the
improvement of the public highways,
but would be merely clog upon it.
Take the experience of the counties
/ themselves for an illustration, Ramsey
county being the most conspicuous and
| shining example of them all. 1t is the
4
our county commissioners and nothing
| else. There are no decent roads in
Ramsey county, and there never will
/ be under the existing system. The
/ people have paid enough money in road
| taxes to make every road in the county
as smooth and as hard as iron, but
this money has been peddled out by
| the county board for useless work and
to forward political projects. On
! larger scale this is what would inevi-
tabIy happen under a state highway
commission, to a greater or less extent.
What we need. and all that we need,
to put into effect a system of building
| good roads is a state road engineer.
| This man should be an expert in the
! business, educated in scientific meth
| ods of road construction and having
had wide experience. Put the whole
matter under his charge. There is not
the slightest need of a distributing
| board, because the allotment of funds
will take care of itself. Money appro-
proxement should be expended only in
| counties which have made a special
| levy for that purpose themselves; the
state putting in nothing unless the
/ local property owners have first con-
| tributed their quota. 1t will be per-
fectly satisfactory then to allow the
local authorities to determine what
roads shall be first improved. The
system works automatically. When a
| county wants good roads, it appropri-
| ates the money and calls on the state
for aid. The state contributes from
the fund raised for that purpose by
taxation, in proportion to what the
county itself gives. When the fund is
| made up from these two sources, the
| county specifies the highways to be
| improved; and then the work is done
under the executive direction and con-
troll of the state road engineer.
We challenge any one to find a flaw
| IN this system as correct method of
| business procedure. 1t eliminates en-
tirely the state highway board. with its
salaries, its political membership, its
| pulling and hauling between one Sec
ton and another and it's inevitable
waste of public money. It puts road
building on a business basis. 1t helps
those who help themselves. 1t will not
| give. us, indeed, few splendid high
ways traversing the state from border
| to border, which is not what We want
| at present, because not what win be
number; but very large number of
small sections of good road scattered
| through all the counties in proportion
to their intelligence, public spirit and
| wealth. These will be such powerful
object lessons that even in a few years
the people of the whole state viii be
hurrying to tax themselves for more
and better roads.
Let us keep this great improvement
out of politics if we can. Let us make
it a straightforward business under
| taking. If we are to accomplish these
desirable ends. we must fight shy of
| boards and all similar bodies. If the
Legislature shall provide for a state
| engineer and constructor of highways
| responsible to the executive and to
itself, and for no other machinery or
officials whatever, it will do the best
that can be done for the cause of
good roads.
| Certain eminent politicians seem to