The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1911-06-30
RAISING THE MONEY
BOND ISSUE is BEST WAY TO PAY
FOR GOOD ROADS.
EFFORTS OFTEN MlSDlRECTED
Good Roads Fever Carries Community
OF Its Feet Frequently and Work
10 Started Along Impractical Lines
Tax Levy Plan Wrong.
By HOWARD H. GROSS.

In forwarding any great movement.
as the building Of good roads, enthus-
iasm is essential, but unless this is
coupled with knowledge of the sub
ject, it Is a question whether it some
times does not do more harm than
good. The writer believes that
movement for better highways Is off,
en- retarded by over-zealous friends
who are attempting to do something
they do not understand. The propo-
sition to build good roads throughout
the land is a very big one, and ex-
ceedingly important. 1t is question
that must be handled in big way.
If anyone had suggested fifty years
ago the building of a railway to the
Pacific slope, he would have been de-
clared at least visionary. This has
been accomplished and today there
are a half dozen such railways, and
the four months journey across the
desert is now comprised In less than
three days. While the building of
good wagon roads throughout the
country is an UNNECESSARILY big job,
yet there are back of it boundless re-
sources; there is far more to encour-
age us than the builders of these first
great continental roads had to en-
courage them. Let us 60 forward
with a stout heart and high purpose
and with clear head, and all will
come out right.
In a good roads campaign one of
the most important things is to un-
learn some things that are not so, to
get a view of the proposition from
the right angle, and not to work along
impractical lines. The good roads
fever usually breaks out in some CON-
munity with hurrah, to build a mile
or two of hard roads, and there is
sQuabble to determine which particu
lar road shall have the improvement.
Selfishness crops out and must be
reckoned with. When the particular
road has been determined upon, then
comes the question of raising funds.
Those who are disappointed will give
nothing; others will contribute va
rious amounts; the banker. merchant
md grain dealer are called upon and
subscribe different sums; others will
contribute labor; an entertainment
will be held in the town hall, the pro-
ceeds to be devoted to the building of
the road. The local paper will be
filed with letters, interviews and edi-
torials; everybody is patting himself
on the back and talking of the Won
derful progress that is being made.
This is all very we'll so far as it
goes, and perhaps the moral effect is
good-it stirs up the community, but
it does not do very much in the way
of road building. Usually half mile
or so is the limit and may reach from
the town to the cemetery. Well, that
does some good, and will give de-
parting citizen a smoother road in
death than he had in life.
The means employed in such cam
paign are wholly inadequate to the
end sought. 1t reminds one of the
old woman who proposed to keep the
tide back with her broom.
There are also other unsatisfactory,
expensive and wrong ways to take up
this question. The most common one
IS for the township to levy an annual
tax for hard roads that will produce
perhaps $1,000 or $4,000 and expend it
upon a gravel or macadam stretch of
road, which is to be extended from
year to year at rate that will give
the township fair amount of hard
roads, say, in twenty or thirty years.
BY the time the last mile is built un-
der this plan. the first one is worn
out, the rule being that the road once
built receives no attention. and that
the money raised is spent upon build
ing more roads. The roads are usu-
ally built without much, If any, at
tention being paid to drainage, and
the results are not always satisfac-
tory, in fact. they are seldom what
they should be. Those charged with
the duty Of spending the money nine
teen times in twenty know little. if