The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1910-06-24

Highway Commission Needed.
! A state highway commission OF three
members, one of whom should be ar
experienced road engineer who should
give his whole time to the work and
that salary Of $4,000 or even SIS, OO(
should be paid If necessary to get q
high grade man. The other commits
sioners would give only part of their
time, so a salary or per diem aggregat-
ing $500 to 5000 per year should be
sufficient. There should be three OF
four assistant engineers at salaries OF
$1,000 to $1,000 whose duties would be
to visit the various counties, build
| object lesson roads. and teach the
county engineer the best way to drain
and build roads, The highway COM
missioners to furnish plans and specifl-
cations for bridges, culverts, etc.
Each county to elect road SUPER
visor or engineer who should have some
knowledge of road building-this might
be the same party as the county sur
veyor.
This supervisor or engineer to con-
suit with and follow Instructions from
the state engineer or his assistants
that the necessary tools and machinery
shall be supplied by the county, or
made by the state so far as possible
with convict labor. The supervisors in
the large counties to give their whole
time to building and maintaining roads.
to hire men and teams, ETC., as NAV
be necessary. That road work would
nave at all times expert supervision
and the result would be roads better
oulIt, better drained, and at less cost
10 maintain than if built as at present.
The speaker said so far as he knew
ana he was conversant with results in
thirty odd states, no state had ever
succeeded in securing good ds and
economical administrations with the
township as the unit. There were
some townships where much better re-
suits were secured than others, but the
ones that were successful were few
and far between.
The state should levy a tax of IL
cents on 800 to cover the cost of the
Highway Commission and to provide
FUNDS for investigation Of methods and
bulld object lesson roads. This
tax would produce about $4,000 per
year, but given a good engineer and
proper administration 1t would save
the tax payer a waste of at least FIVE
times that sum and give the state bet
ter roads.
Narrow Tires Ruin Roads.
The speaker said narrow tires ruin
ed roads while wide tires were road
builders. He said all vehicles used upon
roads ought to be licensed and the
amount each should pay should be de-
termlned largely by the width of the
tlre two-horse wagon with a 2 or
zA2 inch tire should pay from So to
$40 per year: 3 to BY inch tire from So
TO 81 per year and a inch or over
tire 81 per year; the money to go into
a fund for repair of roads: and that
autos should pay about twice the tax
imposed upon farm wagons.
Should Issue Bonds.
Mr.. Gross said all permanent i'm
Iprovements of the highways should be
paid for by a bond issue and these do
the work at once, which would lessen
the cost any where from 10 to rs per
cent and by this plan spread the pay
ment over a series of years-say TWEEN
ty years.
To show how this will work out, he
TOOK Cass county as an example. The
assured valuation of which is 100000
OOO' He said, Let the people of Cass
county vote 100000 of bonds payable
one twentieth each year at 5 per cent.
The interest the first year would be
$4,000; the tenth year $10,50O and the
last pear $1,000. The average tax for
twenty years to pay off the bonds and
interest would be IL on each 500
for twenty years provided there was
no increase in taxable property. The
first year to meet bonds and in
terest would require a . cent tax,
while the last year the rate would be
about ITO cents"
To illustrate how small the burden
would be he took the tax bills of
three farms in Cass county and ap-
piled the rate.
The James Holes farm of SOP acres
near this city, the cent rate would
be exactly $1626 the first year and
after that it would grow less as the
bonds were paid.
The Armenia & Sharon Land Co.
south half 10-141-52; the tax would be-
gin at 1854 for the first year on this
half section and go down year by year
to less than $500
Richard Neuresly, Wheatland, Is
12-139-54; the tax would be $500.
Thus proving that by above issue
Cass county could expend 100000 up
on her roads and the tax would never
be felt because the amount is small
and it would greatly reduce the regu-
lar road tax. The plan when fully
demonstrated by actual figures show
ing how a good roads proposition
should be financed and how small the
burden is when properly distributed
was surprise and delight to the