Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1906-06-21

ests of the State snail be conducted upon
up-to-date business principles. Her in
stitutons, for example. should buy their
supplies as cheap or cheaper than any In
dividual of corporations md l should en-
deavOr to see that they did.
STATE EXPENSES
Our expenses to 10 yuro have increased :
but that is hocaj So tn" number. extent
and scope OF the act ctvitics Of the State
for her paOpl" hlvc Increased. II We
expect to hold our own with other States
keep our people at home and draw
strangers to our hordcrs. We must keep
we'll abreast OF tho progress Of the age
We cannot mark time; that mean9 falling
behind for others are surely adyanciup
Instead of making iess progress We should
make more in tho future; hut let it oe
along the line of a practical and conscrva-
tive expansion rather than any radical
Innovation or parsi ronious rctrenchment.
POSITION on GOOD ROADS.
Much has been SAID about tho poor con-
dition of our highways. In some sections
many of them are not good and some are
very bad. They ran and should he bet
ter. We are all agreed regarding that.
But in our effort to improve them we
ought not to be led into higher taxation
or a State debt. | am strongly opposed
to issuing a State bond for the purpose
lOf building State highways. The condition
of our highways AT the present time is
not had enough nor the practical advant-
ages to be derived from expensive high
ways great enough to warrant loading
upon the State a d'bt. nor is it good bus-
ness to mortgage IN advance what some
one simply claims can be saved in the ad-
lmlnstraton of our State institutions.
Each proposition should stand by itself.
We shoul not deceive ourselves by. tn-
dcrtaking any policy with respect 10
State roads which IS not otherwise war
rauted and which I'm itself, independcrt of
iany question Of saving in our state insti-
tutions, We should not be willing to un-
dertake.
We are rural community. our eli
innate. grades, soil and other natural con-
Idtions are such that We have much to
lcontend with, and taxation must not he
made excessively hurdensome. We have
started right and during the past ten
years there has been progress, i'm some
communities very marked The present
State highway tax by which the large
towns IN erect COntrlhNto some part of
their direct highway money to the smaller
towns is right in principle, hut the method
of eXpcnding 1t should and must he decid-
edly improved. II should continue to he
iexpended by each town hut its expendt-
.turo should he under much moro complete
and rigid supervision and in accordance
with mere strictly enforced uniform plan
for permanent construction upon roads
In the different towns which form parts
of selected through highways. State roads
should be gradually created out of the
State highway money. Every dollar of it
should be located and expended under
State supervision, but 1t Is impossible for
one man to properly supervise the expend-
iture of over ora hundred thousand dollars
distributed annually in small amounts
throughout every town In the State. The
State commissioner should give his entire
time to outlining the work and to its gen
eral supervision. and there should be SUI
pervisors under him for each county to
designate where the State fund should be
expended In each town and closely super
Visa its expenditure.
As the method OF expending the State
highway Tund 10 improved the State might
we'll add to that fund In so far as that
can be prudently done without the crea-
ton of State debt or the levyng Of
direct State tax. The last two biennial