The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1910-03-03

amendment to section 16, article 9,
Of the constitution which, IL adopted,
will permit the state to pay one-half
the cost. The proviso fixing the pro-
portion the state can expend should
be eliminated and the amount left to-
the discretion Of the highway com
mission, subject, Of course, to the
constitutional proviso that not more
than three per cent of the state road
and bridge fund can be expended in
any county in any one year.
The assessed valuation of the state
Tor the year 1909 is $1,108,605, 572.
The valuation will be materially in
creased this year, when there is a
complete new assessment of real es-
tate and, for convenience sake, we
will assume that it will be increased
to $1,20O,OOO,OOO. Why not amend
the constitution so as to permit of the
levying of a one mill tax upon all the
taxable property of the state to pro-
vide state road and bridge fund
commensurate with the dignity and
Importance of the great state of Min
nesota?
California is expanding millions of
dollars in the Improvement of it's
roads-has issued state bonds for
that purpose. The comparatively
young state of Washington levies
general state road tax Of one mill,
and that splendid commonwealth is
forging to the front at a rapid rate
and is attracting thousands of people
we can i'll afford to lose from this
state. Are not the people of the
North Star State as intelligent and
progressive as those of California and
Washington?
A tax rate of che mill on a $780,
100000 valuation would produce a
state road and bridge fund annually
OF Sl,2OO,000. With fund of such
magnificent proportions something
worth while in. the improvement of
our highways could be ACCOMPLISHED.
Such a sum judiciously expended an
nually under state supervision and
expert road-builders would soon put
Minnesota in the front ranks in the
good roads movement. There are IS
counties in the state and each county,
on an average, would receive $4,000
in round numbers, which, supplement-
ed by local taxation for road purposes,
would give each county from Is to 20
miles of good permanent highways
each year. Think of it: $4,000
miles of first-class roads within the
state in the next decade!
Is there anything unreasonable or
impracticable in this proposition?
Would 1-mill tax be onerous?
Surely a tax of ten cents on each one
| hundred dollars worth of property,
| which is generally assessed at one
third of it's value would not be bur-
densome. To be sure the three large
counties of st. Louis, Hennepin and
Ramsey, where the population and
wealth of the state is largely con-
centrated, would contribute more
than so per cent of the entire fund,
| What of it? Large wealth should be
taxed for the general good If a 1-mill
tax could be enforced this year the
United States steel corporation alone
would contribute over 100000 to the
state road and bridge fund, and next
year at least an additional $4,000!
l would rather see that amount of
that corporations money expended on
the roads and bridges of the state,
out in the rural districts where it
would do the farmers some good, than
twice or thrice that sum paid into
the state treasury, under the guise
of tonnage tax, to be wasted upon a
horde of useless new office-holders.
| Why, should the cities of st. Paul
and Minneapolis object to such a tax?
In this age Of automobiles, as far as
travel by road is concerned, Prince
ton is nearer Minneapolis today than
Anoka was ten years ago. Quite fire.
quently nowadays an automobilist
leaves Minneapolis after partaking
OF late breakfast, eats lunch on the
shores of Mile Laos Lake and dimes
the same evening with mine host
Dan Gum at Grand Rapids. The
city people make use of our rural
roads more frequently than we coun-
ty people do, and their automobiles
play havoc with our roads. But mark
the indirect benefit that would accrue
to these cities. Two-thirds of the
state is tributary to the Twin Cities.
A system of good roads, such as
l-mlll tax would lay the foundation
for, would add 100000 people to the
| population of the state within the
| next decade. Think what such an
addition to the population of the state
| would mean to the merchants, man.
ufacturers and mechanics of the
Twin Cities.
| 1t is useless for me to enumerate
the ben efits that would accrue to the
rural districts from system of good
roads, and, remember, I have not in
view roads paved with granite blocks
or macadamized roaus. 1 have in
mind roads properly drained and
rounded off, wide enough for vehi-
| cles to pass each other without diff
Guilty, with top dressing of gravel
or crushed rock wherever possible.
By the wav we need about q cooro