Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1908-07-16
The WISHkAH ROAD
A RANCHER Who APPROVES The
work Done.
He Believes In Boosting Instead of
fSiCking, and Claims that the NE tn.
z Cd Adopted on This Road In the
Past Two Years is the Best vet
Tried.

T see by the Aberdeen World OF
June 29, that the Wishkah road kick
ers are still kicking. Now 1T is no
more than fair that the public should
know that the Wishkah ranchers are
not all kickers.
The truth of the matter Is, there
has been better work done ana more
of it for the money expended during
the last three years than ever before
in the same length of time. TWO
years ago the work was done by con-
tract and was we'll done though not
altogether of a permanent character.
The next year the commissioners ana
the road supervision concluded that
graveling the road before the Nils
were cut down and the road bed made
wide enough to hold the gravel was
q waste of time and money 1t was
also decided that the supervisor
should appoint a foreman to nave I'M
mediate charge Of the work instead Oh
having it done by contract. Thls
an was carried out, the supervisor
furnishing most of the teams to 90
the work.
When the time came for the COM
missioners to appoint a road super
visor for the next year, nearly every
Wishkah rancher signed petition to
have Mr.. Haynes reappointed, there
NV endorsing his methods. 1t was al
so understood that as much river
gravel as could be secured would be
used instead of the gravel from the
Iarkins pit. The work has proceeded
this year just as we practlcally
petitioned to have it done, and l can
not see why the commissioners or
supervisor should be blamed.
It costs a good deal of money to
build a good road in this country and
there will always be difference OF
opinion as to whether it Is better
to have the work done by contract or
by the supervisor, and there will al
ways be kickers. Some kick because
they honestly think they are doing
the public service, some KICK be-
cause others do, some kick for spite,
and some kick for fun, but the Wish
kah rancher has grown to feel that
between the river and the road he Is
I'D against it and must kick for every
reason or no reason.
Now l believe we would gain much
more by boosting than by kicking.
The commissioners would surely
never consider the kicker's plan to
gravel or plank the road first and
make the roadbed afterwards. We
don't want any plank road except In
cases of emergency for soon it would
be old and no better than some of the
streets in Aberdeen. Give us good
roadbed covered with river gravel,
commencing at Aberdeen where there
is the most travel and continuing up
the river as fast as the work can be
done, and if the expense is great now,
it will be nineteen-twentieths less
yearly after it is once done. And
when it comes to the word graft,
we don't approve of the use or 1t
very much. When one uses 1t, no
body knows whether he means what
he says or is mad about some thing.
When you want to catch thief you
don't tell him he is stealing, you just
locate him carefully then quietly call
the police.
There are many Wishkah ranchers
that approve of the road work as 1t
has been done this year and are very
sorry to see any check in it, but the
kickers got their work in first and it
looks as If everybody above Graham
ranch would have to wade mud as
usual.
WISHKAH RANCHER NO. 2.