The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1906-11-14

people know nothing of road building.
In his last Export Secretary Wilson of
| the department of agriculture said:
There are not enough men in the
United States today who understand
! scientific and permanent road con-
! struction to warrant any large APP
propriations of money by the national
government Before we can look for
aid from the government we must
learn how to apply this to good adj
vantage with a guarantee that no mis-
takes will he made and that the tax
payers will get their moneys worth in
results.
I'm Erie county we have seen aid
given by the people and the govern
ment, and no money squandered. The
roads here have been used for three
years, and so far there has been no
bill for repairs. These have been made
from crushed rock laid in thin layers
and packed in wet with a small
amount of dust for binder. First
stones not over three inches in dame
ter were used and next one and one
half inch, and on top the fine three
quarter inch stuff. the latter being
rolled to a finished surface, If stones
over three inches are used you Will
see them again. The passing of the
heavy roads will at last bring them
to the surface.
Road builders are not as rule care
full enough in regard to the little
things. They do not understand that
it is only careful attention to these
details that will make their work
lasting and successful.
Railroads Will always do their
share towards improving the high
ways of a section. In one place in
Illinois they gave a rate of 50 cents
a ton on material for road construc-
ton that had to be hauled a distance
of 1870 miles from the quarries in an
other state,
where it has been tried it has been
found that convict labor is great
aid to the improvement of the thor
oughfares of a state. They can be
employed and the road tax paid in
cash. This gives the commission labor
always at hand and does away with
the play-working out of taxes that is
practiced in many counties where
working out the tax is allowed. Every
one is familiar with the spectacle of
a gang of men working out taxes. sit
ting by the roadside eating watermel-
ons at the rate of 50 a day.
I'm one county having an assessed
valuation of $4,000 900 there has been
| 20 miles of permanent stone roads
constructed in the last three years.
| Up to this time business was sus-
pended all winter, as in that season
of the year the roads were absolutely
impossible
king county has an assessed valu-
alton of $50 1000, 900 and today has two
miles of macadamized roads. Its taxes
this year amounted to 100000 and
next year will aggregate $500, 900.
don't see why. with the splendid OPP
portunity and incomes you have here.
you don't go head over heels into the
work
1T takes one man to care for so
miles of this road and with this work
they have been kept in fine condition
since their construction.
you say that your traffic out here
will wear out any road built. There
have been 10000 bales of cotton haul
ed over one of these roads every sea-
son for three years. Before they were
fixed I have seen a milk wagon stalled
and left till dry weather, when II was
dug out with picks. Every bale of cot :
ton weighs from 500 to 600 pounds and
two three of them was considered
a good load. Today 10 to g is the or
binary load. 1t is no longer a ,ques-
| ton of how much a team will haul
hold"
f. c. Barnard. the government topo-
grapher from Washington. D. c., urg-
ed the fact that the mapping of the
entire state before any extensive pro
jects of any kind were undertaken
This would show the resources OF the
! country and the proper places for
Improvement. Natural routes could be
selected and much expense could be
saved In this way alone. He said the
money expended in this way would
bring greater results directly and in
directly than in any other way.
The evening session was devoted to
remarks by Mr.. Lancaster. who spoke
at length upon the benefits to the
country at large resulting from a sys-
tenn of good roads. He has accom-
plished a great work in the vicinity
| of Jackson. Tennessee, and is an au-
thority
Judge John H. Scott. from Salem.
Ore. talked on the relation OF con-
Wet labor to good roads. His obser-
vations were based upon experience he
has gained in experiments conducted
in his state along these lines and from
them he was able to say that convict
labor on the public highways was a
great and unqualified success.
There are at present about 800 of
these men in the state of Oregon and
the governor gave the judge the con-
troll of so OF them to be used in max
| ing his experiments. They were taken
onto the roads with the understanding
that for every day they worked in an
Industrious manner their sentence
would be shortened two days. On the
other hand should they attempt to es-
cape they would be taken back to
the cell with the loss of all the time
they had served and not allowed out