Rogue River courier. (Grants Pass, Or.) 1886-1927, 1911-08-04
Mr.. WIMER GIVES VIEWS
ON ROAD SITUATION

~ ~ - NH"uV Nhdl lASy are lueA-
eusably bad, and the new arrival,
the auto man, who swooped down
upon our roads so unceremoniously
complains because he can't run his
big, heavy machine over our dirt
roads as fast as other cars are run
on well ballasted steel rails; the
thought never occurring to this driv-
er that the faster he travels the
rougher the road; and, the road gets
no credit at all for the rough work of
an incompetent auto driver, of which
the woods are full.
This is one side of the controversy;
the other side is, Josephine county
with its many bridges, and roads in
every direction; the taxpayers COM
plant of high taxes; the county court
doing its utmost with the funds avail
able, and patiently shouldering COM
plants from both sides, striving all
the time to act as nearly as possible
along the lines of happy medium.
And now comes along Mr.. Jackson
of the Portland Journal, who Is 60
ing to present to the voters of Ore
gon for their adoption at the next
state election bill placing all taxes
upon land and forcing the sale of all
lands to the state, and upon which
the state will have a sixty-day op-
J tion to buy the land at the assessed
valuation. Mr.. Jacksons idea of
good roads Is about as reasonable as
his forced sale of the peoples homes
for which his Journal" will battle
from now until the election. He
favors a narrow, one-track road that
will become deeply rutted, water fol-
lowing the ruts and washing out the
filling; thus he annihilates the splen-
ulu WOIh WulCu udo bteu uOuc uc-
tween here and the Applegate river.
He undoubtedly wants to confine the
roads to one-track so that when he
gets his d-sale-of-all-lands law
passed (the price being fixed at the
assessed valuation of the land, i'm
provements not included), there will
be more land to sell when the agent
of bloated money bags drops around
and offers the dissatisfied home own
er better price for the land than the
state can legally give him and some
thing besides for the improvements.
Bloated capital alone will be able to
own land then and the home-owners
individual pride having been destroy
ed will seek a business free from an
nual annoyance.
The fact Is, Mr.. jackson does not
know much about road building; he
evidently does not know that the
main essentials for good roads are
drainage and proper crowning to Sc
cure It; nor does he know that II is
all important to have room to dodge
bad mud holes so that they may not
become impossible.
The Courier has criticised certain
piece of road beyond Kerby, where
the auto accident, fire and death, oc-
CURED. For some years as little work
as possible has been put upon this
section Of the road because OF a con-
templated change Of grade which will
cut out a bad bedrock climb up q
winding, steep hollow on one side ol
the hill and a long upgrade through
deep, black mud during the wet sea
son on the other. The new proposed
cut of would get entirely away from
bedrock canyon where the accident
happened. away from one-half OF the
, climb over the hill and away from
the long. black mudhole on the othel
, side. and reduce the time Of trave
, by half.
when this proposed change was es
: tabllshed H. s. woodcock, father o
the present county commissioner
r was one Of the viewers, and the mark
, and blazes show that the road wa
3 established where It Is now proposed
= 10 take II. The present road was TAX
n en- over the hill by the builder t.
@ satisfy q freak whim, some such pur
/ pose as pleased the native Indian
who climbed to the highest poin
Il where he could get better view o
), signal fires.
8 Some years ago p. II. Harth, bein
interested in this piece OF road re
ouested the writer TO look the propc
!, sI,ion over; did so in two pieces Q
days I recommended that tn