Daily Kennebec journal., 1912-02-21
Paul D. Sareent's Address.

Paul D. Sareent's Address.
Mr.. Sargent said:
am GLAD to see this awakening to
the necessity Of further and more sys-
tematie road Improvement than has
taken place under State auspices. and
| am glad to be present to discuss the
problem with you.
If ! sense the situation Alright at the
present time. I would say there is in
the minds OF some who are interested
i'll road conditions in Maine more or
less dissatisfaction with our present
S-ate read law; possibly there exists
in come quarters feeling that we
should spend less for State aid and
more for trunk line work. or perhaps
that we should discontinue the State
aid law altogether and substitute for
i a trunk-line law. / ann aware that
the faNorite method of educa ting
sentiment along these lines has
been To rnfer 10 what New Hampshire
has done in the past few years in COM
pdrison with what has boen accom-
piished in Maine.
Conditions in Maine and New Hamp-
shire. / believe, ale fairly compare BILE.
Lea"ing 9ut OF consideration the un-
settled portion of Maine we have at
least tV.,en The aros nf XIV. tIan,n.
shira. We bava ono ,na ,rya-tbi,,le
times the road mileage, practically one
and ttra-tbiras tim. rb. po,a,fat tian
and onr State valnatio, i, s,hetsn5
italy one and tWo-thirds times chat ef
New Hampshire. We have the sam
need for improved reads froru an ag
r,a,5i,,,,..,1 ,dj,f er= t.fa,,. .,,.l ~. -,
tho ca ,,a nesa or i,,,,rs4#.a r,t,t., fa,
the d..,.4Ienn,ant ~ to,,rfst -hrei,ass ,s
cviste - ,.,,r raiobhorjnoe= =st,fa .r,.ig
similarity. ot condition, Iq.,s. ,acnaz
,faad il, 1aaG uhcn ,ef.a. - ti5ar,,,o,
Investigation md a,l,zsis road
ca,5lt4ia,e j., NIaino .,5,=l... ,.s.,s. .,,.,a.s
oe ali .xistirta= road -tau-z- -rffn,4atorv
"a ,.,,,nor,endino !. snit.,i,ia l;t4tc-aid
-. ,.,,. Ff..i.a ,f,,sz., 49,, ~
fa,,.iIi.,,.= viii, tb5 ef.4ts-.i9 la.o.s ~ tho
-.f4fss n33,s. indeo4 ...ca,ni1a a
st,.,s,.r e4,,.l,eit,. l,ats.-,,.,. ,h,.f5, ,F,k.
NV, l.,,,zS however .ro eesartial1,. fif.
fora,,. -, ty., ,,,ints =, u-fi.b would
caf ,...t,,. ,.t.atior boli.zs#a ,otb
of So, ,,l.,..t., bata ,5,5,I.a., haarz
| inzs -, results oh1ainad m ft5. 4nar9 :
tia,, ~ tf3o ,,,.o 1--we III, 4irst az thee.
,oi,,ts ie n, fba o,no,,n+ of etatc ais,
,,.,id =, citiae -ana town. taea5 ~, rbeir
,.,f,,.,,iq, - ~ a,,. tIat,t.,hiro
ia,,. t[.,,.,,, ha,.i,,o, = ,,,i,,,tio, ~ Ice
,han s,oo aoo a,n ,aid e. ar star afa
far ,aob dolIac ,nnro,,.iatns, h,. m,
tov.l Between the sto0 00n and 81 900 =
oon ,.,1,ati,,ns tho town. ,,, ero,,nea
into several classes based on yalua-
,ta,, a,,a ,,,i,h oaol, ir,,.,..,.,s, in ,,,l,,3-
+ia,, , dacreasino amount of state aid
ie n,5d ogainst annron,fatfons made
b, tho towns C,ities and towns bay-
;n,. ,.aluation in avcase IF 90 600 0ne
receive % cents of state cid for each
dollar which> they appropriate. IN
other words. the state pays il times
as much state aid to IT'S poorest tuWns
as it does to the wealthiest cities and
towns. These are the original pre-
portions provided f5f When the law
was passed in 1908, and they have
never been changed Again, under the
! New Hampshire law. towns having
valuation OF less than f2.0e0,0n must
appropriate 81 80 for each $l019 of val
uation in order 10 secure state aid
| This compulsory appropriation de-
| crtases in amount as the valuations
| Of the towns increase. until the
Wealthiest class of cities and towns
named in the law are Obliged and al
| lowed to raise but s.S7le on each $1,000
of valuation in order to draw state
| aid If you have followed these ns-
ures carefully, you have observed un-
| doubtedly that the New Hampshire
| law is actually 80 times as liberal WITH
| tie poorest class of towns as IL IS Win
tine Nealthiest class of cities Does Il
occur to lou that this would be any
| incentive to poor towns to make an
/ extra effort to secure state AID ana TO
| improve their roads,
| ,,o,nnaro with the figures lust given
ra,. Nv Jampshire similar provisions
r,tad in tho Maine law. The recon-
i,,..5dation made To the legislature of
1qn7 was that the State should pay s.
of aid against each 5 raised by towns
having a valuation less than $lao,o7o
land 80 cents Of state aid to the
weaithiest class Of cities. In other
words, il was thought that the state
might We'll he four times as liberal
with the poorest class of towns as