The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1909-07-01

sBo III 4ui6GTID M
routes needed Improvement. IA M
ureg that the cost Of grayel road,
would be $4,000 a mile-plainlv !.
sum greater than the county conld
be BONDED for. Conditions, however.
were ideal for sand-clay construction
ana he strongly urged its adoption.
By a legal proviso the count couldf
be bonded for only 3A per centum
OF the assessed value of the real and
personal property. The plan was de-
clded upon and an issue of $4,000
was voted. One hundred thousand
dollars worth of the bonds we're
quickly sold, being disposed of M
$4,000 allotments.
Forty thousand dollars was at once
spent for mules and BODYBUILDING ma
chlnery and work was started. With
he remaining sum, lis miles of the
finest sand-clay roads in the South
had been built Within two years from
the date of the bond issue; a gener-
Soo RoAA "ho oS111 VII uduu,. 0lkuLa
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 countries DESTROYS of ex-
tening and improving their highways
before actual work is under way.
When that has been done, he is warm
ly in favor of the raising of funds by
issuing county bonds with the re-
strictions which the Virginia High
way Law imposes, viz: that all mon
eys so raised shall be spent under the
watchful supervision of a state high
Way commissioner, because otherwise
the money may be wasted.
Many farmers fear a bond issue as
they do the visit of the chinch bug
or the Kansas grasshopper, but the
benefits they derive from that meth
provements are f~ar-reaching and inn
mediate, which the individual tax on
is so small that is is scarcely
noticeable. In reality, borrowing
money through the sale of road bonds
is like buying a house, a farm, or a
business on~the installment plan. The
purchaser receives the object at
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 a portion of
the cost and that the increased citizen
shop, always attracted to the locality
by a system of good roads, should
also aid IL paying for the added bene-
fits.
Besides that, there is a financial
wisdom in floating county boaus for
road Improvement. In many cases
those bonds sell at G premium, and
everybody interested gains a benefit.
In some southern states good road
bonds have brought a price so high
or three years interest on the prin-
cipal. In Bradley county, Tennes-
see, but a few years ago the super
visors voted a bona issue of 100000.
Those bonds bore interest at the rate
of five per cent. So enthusiastic
were the citizens for road improve
ment, and so much confidence did
they have in the locality in which
they lived, that the premium was
$20,000: the cash sales placing in the
county treasury S1l0.0OO.
1t has been ascertained by the of
flee of public roads, the bureau of the
federal census, and the land and in
dustrial divisions of the twelve great
railroads, that the building of mod
ern highways Immediately enhances
the value Of property through which
they run to a marked degree. This
increase is estimated by the most
conservative at 50 an acre, and by
the more enthusiastic at 50. All
concede, however, that the increase
is immediate and inevitable. Place
the acreage of the rural portion of a
county, therefore, at 100000 acres
and the increased valuation due to
the construction of better highways
at but $3.50 an acre and it will be
.en that the property holders whose
land is to be thus benefited would
gain not less than $500, 900. So great