The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1912-10-10

THE ROADS ~ be lm. - ~
Then YOU tell US about the governor
annointing the SS members known as
sha ~ state wide good roads committee.
Yes was one of them. II was cut
ord dried affair from birth to death.
Ont Of the 38 members appointed just
60 were favorable to the Grange |
nIan % of Road Legislation. If there is
Gnht on and | am party to it, and / |
have the power to appoint an aroltra-
t;on committee to settle IL, certainly |
would not trap myself. Just so with |
this affair, the trap was haue .e ana sci, |
the convention called, ana the cut ana
dried bills proposed ana ADOPTED A
special legislature was called and
everybody was going to hoiier them
selves hoarse for the state wide COM
mittee bills. But did they! You know
the result. Public indignation all over
the state killed the project almost be-
fore n was born. The whole state
wide committee affair was farce from
beginning to end. Do you know that
the dav the trap was set and the trig-
Ger nulled and the state wide road
hills' providing for forty million state
bond issue. were adopted by this big
| 1N representative body (state wide
committee) there were just eighteen
persons present, three grangers, tlve
Portlanders, and ten from other parts
of the state. How does this represent
atiye(?) body compare with the 80 duly
elected senators and representatives at
the last legislature? Well after, this
hubble burst. next came the harmony
committee (new arbitrators selected by
lust one side ofthe disputantsl and no
one would expect harmony from a COM
mittee so unjustly selected.
If the Journal desires to 90 into the
past history of this fight it should
either tell all of it or let Others have a
chance to do it. The history of the
acts of the state grange for road legls-
lation in Oregon is an open book. We
have no regrets nor apologies to offer
and if it is in our power we expect to
, expose the rottenness OF the harmony
(?) road bills from every street corner
and road crossing in the state between
: now and election. Will you meet Vi
, there? We hope SO. N your cause |
! so fair and just why won't you NEE
: us before the public?
While | cannot go into details at thi
] time, yet | want to answer just fey
points which you have been so yer
anxious to impress upon the minds 0
the public. Three times you have edi
toriaized the thought expressed in tn
T following editorial.
There is not one reason in tn
' world why farmers should object t
state aid When they oppose it the
e merely insist that farm property pa
; all sthe cost of road building and tha
+ city property orspublic service corpora
i tions bear no part of the burden.
This is purely Tommy Rot, )" for ev
n eryone knows that if each county i
; permitted to bond and build their owI
roads (as proposed in the Grang
County Bonding BID that every dol
lars worth of assessable property il
that county will have to contriput
its share of the expense. Anothe
: point of interest you are referring t
' quite frequently is the par excel
n lence" in uniformity Of road building
: under the harmony road bills compares
|, | with the Grange road bills.
i Let us investigate and see if such i
s true. Under the harmony bills practi
= callv two thirds of the million dollar
:. derived annually from sale of stat,
/ bonds. and all money derived from sal
a of county bonds or road tax levy
# which is made compulsory in order t
E. Obtain state aid, all of this one AM
Is one-ouarter million dollars, is to b.
Il turned over to the 80 county treasurer
d and credited to the general road funt
i with no instructions or compulsory re-
/, strictions as to how the money is to D.
I expended. With 80 different sets 0
:, county courts barring Multnomah
q can we expect uniformity of construc
tion? Especially when we say to eacl
"a of them. here is the money with whicl
9r 9r To do as YOU please. That is exactly
,e what the harmony bills say. Sector
b 13 of their state Highway commission
u hill reads. "Said money shall be spen
to under the direction of the county cour
ID independently of the state road boar!t
N N or state highway commissioners.
.y will this give uniformity!
i'd Already jackson county commis
" as siorcre are saving we do not want
u state highway engineer ana are push
ade ing their home rule q Dill. but rea
n. n the grange road Dill ana see now " "
of get uniformity in road construction
to We nlace an abundance of power IN tn
u u hands of our county courts, but whe
,h tbe contract is ready to be let for tn
n, construction Of permanent road Worl
3s II must he approved by the state higi
X wav engineer. This will gve uniform
;tv for ihe advice is coming from or
hhg fonntain head Of road cOnstructic
n knowledpe. The grange road bills ais
of COW that the construction of all perm
6, nent road work must be done under Il
h. ennervision of practical road build'
he onpointed bv the county court, but sa
oi apppo;ntment must be ratified by Il
" state highway engineer. Again I
formity is insured and the expenditu
of the money protecteo.
er. Don't talk about uniformity OF r
- suits derived from the Harmony rot
b;llsi How many somersaults will y
moks in order to obtain the control
.. selecting the roads to be improve
ioi In one of YOUR editorials. a long tin
ge. apo, when YOU were trying to get
hiGbwav commission, with three e
se naneive useless and needless comm
lay s;oners possessing no qualifications
md rnad bniIding except to spend for
cte ,sta million dollars of state bonds, y
Of wrote an editorial, a part OF viii
'Ie Ia reads as follows:
urt I "The average county judge kno
and nothing of road building. He is not
a"r ae, blame for it is not his line of busine
ny tbs Nor Is the average commissioner
expert If they had been, and if I
DC raInn,, enent in the past on roads