Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Benton County, Or.) 1900-1909, 1908-07-31
Cause oE BAD R0ADS.
UtSS -. =, :,
8usinesslike Methods Not Used
in Highway Construction
THE RIGHT SYSTEM LACKING.

H0a0 608SSo oFVeto 80 ssSs"~N~@
Politics and Made to Pass an Ex-
animation Showing Their Efficiency
Change Needed In Road Laws.
back number-the bad country !
road is a back number. 1t is as much |
out of place and date as the grain era
die or fail thrasher. They had bad
roads away back in grandfather's time |
ever since people began to travel, to
haul stuff in modern narrow tired
wagons. They had good roads away
back in Caesars time in the old world.
What progress have we made In road
building? Very little. Over three
fourths Of all the miles Of country
roads in the midwest are still unim-
proved, says the Agricultural South
west. In most states 80 per cent would
be more nearly correct. OF course
every bit of road gets its annual tear
ing up by the road officials, who draw
a salary for calling it road Improve
ment.'
Why is it thus? There's a reason
WHY country roads are bad. Can't lay
It to the weather or the road material
either. AS one farmer says, Il have
seen in twenty-three years hundreds OF
thousands of dollars OF taxpayers
money expended on the roads in town
and country; but, after all, our roaos
are still as bad as ever" AS BAD as
ever! What a comment to make upon
the appearance of country homes had
II been said that the farms had not
been improved in twenty-three years!
But. no; the farms have improved, the
towns have grown, and business places
are better than they were twenty
three years ago, but the country roads
are "as bad as ever" after spending
fortunes upon them.
The reason Is this-road building Is
not done in the same businessllke
manner as other things are managed.
We have seen the creamery come into
existence. We have seen the skilled
buttermaker turning out carloads OF
butter finer than that made by the
farmers before the creameries took
the lob off their hands. Science and
business methods have made the
change in buttermaking. But the
roads are "as bad as ever because II
is q farmers job, to be done when IL
suits his convenience. 1t Is done Dy
men who have never studied the SCI
ence of road building. 1t is done IN
hit and miss method devoid of business
principles. This is why hundreds OF
thousands of the taxpayers money have
failed to make the roads any better.
And again we say it is not because OF
or
material The buttermaker takes pad
cream and makes pretty good butter
from it because he knows how. VI
course he could do better with good
cream. Likewise the skilled road
builder can make good roads out OF
lust plain country dirt because he
knows how. OF course he could do
better with crushed rock and all OF
that. It is not a scarcity Of money OF
Of material, but 9 lack of the right sys
tenn, that is responsible for bad roads.
Dollar for dollar-what we want Il
see is a dollars worth of good roads
for a dollar spent in road tax. Anc
why not have it? Isn't it about time
to quit pouring money into a mud
hole? Most roads could have beer
nicely paved with the dollars the!
have cost since first laid out. Wher'
has that money gone? Don't CT!
graft" OF course there has been to-
much politics-ah, politics; there's tn
rub-but there has been no politlca
graft to speak of in connection wit
country roads. The trouble Is the sys
tenn is and has been wrong. Roa
building is for the public good, just a
mail carrying is. The mail carrier
are under civil service, out of polite
entirely. They are paid for known
their business. They must give do
lars worth of service for dollar !
nav. Why not handle the road prol
lem that way? Remove the road Dos
from politics and make him pass a
examination showing his eficienc'
g Keep him just as long as he does u
work WELL Then you Will see goe
dirt roads wherever there is nothln
better. Enough money will soon
saved In road tax to macadamize evel
mile of the main Travelled COUNT
roads.
A farmer would be foolish to
ahead with a large job of tiling wit
out having the whole thing mapp
out and levels established by some o.
capable of doing it. Then he would
equally foolish should he not study t
capacity of tile needed to drain 7
area intended. 1t is good busine
sense for him to hire competent 81
veyor or ditcher. Just one tile put
wrong will ruin the whole plan
drainage But that same farmer "
pay money every year in road tax a
let men who know nothing about 70
building sQuander the money. 1t
time this foolishness was stopped
1t will be stopped when the farmt
who pay the money and who use
roads get together and demand
change Of system, demand that 1t