The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1910-05-26
4NENr Road 111PR,oY.EMEn Is.

tion seems to receive good deal oil
favor indeed, good deal more than
it may deserve. It is estimated that
the average county would get enough
money through this tax to build
twenty miles Of good roads each year.
AS the average county has about a
thousand miles of roads some of us
will have to wait a long time to get
our roads. With such tax and the
money distributed as at present, it is
certain the money would go on the
main highways where the automobile
travel is greatest. The public high
ways ought to be improved mainly by
a tax on the lands benefited, with
the assistance of a county and state
tax to help pay for expensive bridges
or where costly grades are necessary.
Todd County Argus.
Bob Dunn has not advocated two
mill state road tax. He has advocat-
ed and favors the submission of a
constitutional amendment that will
provide for a one-mill state road
tax.
Admitting that the average county
| has a thousand miles of roads. no
sane person presumes that it would
| be possible to convert a thousand
miles of Indian trails and cow-paths
in the average county into frst-class
highways within one or dozen years,
nor could it be reasonably expected
that every farmer would have a
macadamized road leading to- his
dooryard, unless he constructed the
same at his own expense.
The total valuation of the state is
81, l08, 605,572 It is safe to assume
that this year the figures will reach
81, 250, 100000. A one-mill tax on that
amount would produce Sl,250, 900.
There are IS counties in the state:
81 ;250, 900 distributed among the IS
counties would give each on an
average, in round numbers, $4,000.
That amount, supplemented by like
amount from the county, ought to
construct 20 miles of good roads-not
macadamized roads, but good SER
viceable roads. In a decade that
would mean 200 miles of good roads
for each county. It is not alone the
benefits that would accrue from the
construction of 20 miles of good roads
in a county annually that must be
taken into onsideration-the2 20 miles
| of good roads would be an object
lesson to every road overseer in the
county which would prove of incal-
culable benefit. The state can assist
to only a limited extent; the same is
true of county; the major share of
the cost of road-construction must of
necessity be borne by the towns.
Todd county has an assessable
valuation of Sc, 476, SOP; one-mill. tax
on that amount would produce
S6.476.50; then Todd county would be
called upon to pay to the state
treausry S6.476.50, and would receive,
on an average, $4,000 per annum
from the state. Would not that be a
good business proposition for Todd
county?
The demagogic argument that a
state road tax would be used to i'm
prove the main highways for the
benefit of Automobiles is puerile.
That is the argument that has been
| advanced in the past to create a
prejudice in the minds of people who
have no automobiles against the state
highway commission. It stands to
reason, however, that the first roads
that should be improved are the
roads that are most traveled-the
roads that will accommodate the
greatest number of people. But that
is a question that could be decided by
the local road authorities. The
county commissioners could designate
the roads that ought to be improved.
The sole duty of the state highway
commission, through its engineers,
would consist in seeing that the money
was properly expended, and that good
permanent roads we're constructed.
The proposition advanced by the
| Argus that roads Oupht tn he innrrov