Baxter Springs news. [volume] (Baxter Springs, Kan.) 1882-1919, 1904-10-06
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 6.
GOOD ROADS TRAIN.
IContinued from last week.

There is enough money in that
two million a year to build all the
roads necessary in the next 40years.
That il has not been done in the
last 40 is due to the class OF road
builders at whose hands il is placed
for disposal. They are usually far.
mers in the vicinity who have no
practical experience in road max
ing and whose valuable time is ia
ken up in crop raising, condition OF
the roads being with them a side
issue. At the end of the year, ow-
ing to this state of affairs, il is fire.
auently found that not half OF the
money available for roads has been
called for, and it is turned back in
TO the public treasury by due pro-
cess of law to be used by energetic
people in other improvements, who
have enough "get up about them
to have it appropriated. Thus the
money taxed out of the farmers to
improve the roads by means OF
which he gets his grain to market
at the railroad station is detected
TO other channels, while his wagons
remain nired to the hub, his vehic.
les and harness torn to pieces aud
his willing horses die in their
tracks.
Not the lack of money, but the
lack of organization, is the trouble
Now comes the solution OF the
problem which is no longer prob.
lem. The National Good Roads AS
sociation urges the adoption OF
what ~ known as the "state-aid"
plan. Instead of the farmer road
inspector have a state officer, "a
practical engineer, take charge OF
the administration of the laws
which seem to be sufficient to raise
the money, but not to spend it in
,elIig.ntly. By this "state-aid" plan
the whole state, the county ana the
township bear the expense of road
building taxes.
BY way of illustration, here is a
road in Laclede county on which
John Jones lives, wealthy farmer,
who wants the road improved. II
will cost $4,000 to do it. He has
driven over it 80 much that he has
arrived at the same frame OF mind
to which Bill Nye, the humorist,
came after learning to navigate a
bicycle some time back.
IL have always believed" said
Bill, "that roads should be macad-
amized, but now l think they
should be upholstered"
So the farmer J. Jones goes to the
other farmers, his neighbors living
in the township, and raises one
third of the necessary amount. The
county, in this case Laclede county
raises another third and the state
meets this with the last third. All
the money is put into the hands OF
the state officer or board charged
with the administration of the law,
and he sets his local1officers or en-
gineers to work on the road. The
proportion which the township, the
county and the state donated is de-
termined by population, but in Mis-
souri and in most southwest states
about one-third of the population
live in the cities and the other two
thirds live In the counties and
townships. Thus the people who
live neareet the road are taxed twice
for IL, while the distant residents
of the city are taxed once because
along this road and others like 1t
comes the-food, wheat, corn and
wool which keeps their bodies fed
aud warm and find them material
for the factories they work in and
also because along this road must
90 the manufactured goods they
make to find q return market.
This unitarian idea of road be-
longs to the Good Roads Associa-
ton, and when they advance 1t in
their conventions they created a
seusation. The farmers had the
idea that their roads were their own
and IL twas nobody's business" how
dirty and miry their child became.
Out of their pockets had come the
hard earned cash which built It
poor and mean as II was, they drove
it day by day and knew every one
of it's mudholes and peculiar fail
ings, hence the slight feeling OF
some who resented the idea of
estate aid" on the grounds that II,
looked like charity.
"Guess we amt too poor yet to
take care of our own roads,' they
said.
But when Secretary Richardson