Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1909-07-02

county could be bonded for only 3 a per
centum of the assessed value of the
real and personal property. The plan
was decided upon and an issue of SLAB,
900 was voted. One hundred thousand
dollars worth of the bonds were quick
ly sold, being disposed of in $4,000 al
lotments
The first allotment brought pre-
MUM of 1925 and the second one of
1925. Forty thousand dollars was at
once spent for mules and road build
ing machinery and work was started
With the sum remaining, t1Smiles of
the finest sand-clay roads in the South
had been built within two years from
the date of the bond issue; a generous
sum was still on hand; eight gangs
were at work, and the people were SO
pleased that they stood ready to take
up the remaining issue of $4,000 and
expend it in the same way.
1t is the belief of the Director of the
Office of Public Roads that such facts
should be impressed upon the people of
all counties DESTROYS of extending and
improving thier highways before ac-
tual work is under way. When that
has been done, he is warmly in favor
of the raising Of funds by issuing county
bonds with the restrictions which the
Virginia Highway Law imposes, viz:
that all moneys so raised shall be spent
under the watchful supervision of a
State Highway Commissioner, because
otherwise the money may be wasted.
Many farmers fear bond issue as
they do the visit of the chinch bug or
the Kansas grasshopper, but the bene-
fits they derive from that method of
raising money for road improvement
are far-reaching and immediate, while
the individual tax on each is so small
that it is scarcely noticeable. In real
ity, borrowing money through the sale
of road bonds is like buying house
farm, or business on the installmeut
plan. The purchaser receives the object
at once and derives the benefits from
it while paying for it. AS the benefits
derived from perfected highways cover
long periods of time, fairness and equity
demand that the rising generation
should bear portion of the cost and
that the increased citizenship, always
attracted to the locality by system of
good roads, should also aid in paying
for the added benefits.
Besides that, there is a financial wis
dom in floating county bonds for road
improvement. In many cases those
bonds sell at a premium, and every
body interested gains benefit. In
some southern States good road bonds
have brought price SO high that the
premium has wiped out two or three
years interest on the principal. In
Bradley County, Tennessee, but few
years ago the Supervisors voted bond
issue of 500, 200. Those bonds bore in
terest at the rate of five per cent. So
enthusiastic were the citizens for road
improvement, and so much confidence
did they have in the locality in which
they lived, that the premium was $40,
900: the cash sales placing in the
county treasury $4,000.
1t has been ascertained by the Office
of Public Roads, the Bureau of the
Federal Census, and the land and in
dustrial divisions of twelve great rail
roads, that the building of modern
highways Immediately enhances the
value of the property through which
they run to marked extent. This
increase is estimated by the most con-
servative at So an acre, and by the
more enthusiastic at SO. All concede,
however, that the increase is immedia-
te and inevitable. Place the acreage
of the rural portion of a county, there
fore, at 200, 900 acres and the increased
valuation due to the construction of
better highways at but $3.50 an acre,
and it will be seen that the property
holders whose land is to be thus bene-
flied would gain not less than 5000, 900.
So great an increase in the assessed va
luation OF county would certainly
seem to constitute apoweriul argument
in favor of a liberal first expenditure.
INDIAN RELICS