Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1906-06-16
BUILDING ROADS IN
PALOUSE COUNTRY
Continued from page One

Continued from page One
the interest in the work and need of
roads, the economy of good roads over
poor ones, etc. This is by no means
a little task, and it is one in which a.
considerable money could be expended
proftably. Sufficient funds should be
allowed by the state government for
this purpose.
Not only should there be State
Commissioner and State Engineer of
Public Highways supported by state
funds, but the state should give aid in
the construction of permanent roads in
the parts of the state demanding them.
The burden of taxation is too large to
be borne by small community or
county if any considerable amount of
the best kinds of roads are to be main
tanned or constructed. Then, too,
these good highways benefit not merely
the limited area in which they are To-
Gated, but the entire county or even
state. Likewise, permanent roads are
a permanent benefit, and the expense
of their construction should not be
met in a few years. This latter con-
dition could be met by bonded in
debtedness. The first would be met
in the following way: Any of the
county commissioners of the state or
any group of persons holding property
along a road which they wanted per-
manently improved (by permanent
Improvement, | mean the construction
of a macadam or other serviceable
road could petition the State Com
missioner for state aid. The state
engineer would then estimate the cost,
and if the cost was not too high, the
road really needed; and, provided the
county had not already used up its al
loted maximum amount of funds APP
for that purpose, the con-
tract would then be let according to
the prescribed forms of the law pro-
viding all these things. The expense
of the building of the road would be
borne in the following proportion one
half to be borne by the state, thirty
five per cent by the county in which
the road is built and fifteen per cent
by the land owners along the road.
So far this schame has had IN con-
slderation only the building of perma-
nent roads. Now, in state so large
IS ours, where the population is small
- comparison to the amount of roads
to ibe built and kept up, especially as
we are compelled to spend a consider
able sum every year in the construc-
lon of state roads in the mountainous,
regions of the northern part
Of the state, it is quite likely that,
under this system, a considerable time
will elapse before any great amount
of road will be built. This is as it
should be. The greater part of the
attention and expense should be put
upon the county roads, by the county,
in the maintenance of the ordinary
dirt roads. 1t should be done by the
county for the reason that the county
reaps almost all the benefit of the
temporarily good road, The county
and the state system should be kept
distinct except that they are to work
in harmony in the construction of per-
manent roads. The chief officer of the
county should be as capable and as
practical man as could be found, and
as much responsibility placed upon
him as possible. He should have un-
der his direct control the work of the
improvement of all the roads of the
county, with sub-foremen in the differ
ent localities. The organization should
be centralized as much as possible and
the work done by contract as much as
possible.
This then completes the scheme for
the arousal of interest and the execu-
tive system or force for the building
and maintaining of the roads. In any
state these problems are the same. A
plan which will succeed in one state
VIII also succeed in another if given