The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1912-08-02
Alex Younie and Mayor Caps Return
From Inspection Trip at Portland

of the city council, and Mayor L. M
Caps who went to the coast cite:
two weeks ago to inspect pavements
and methods of making them, return
ed last week, and herewith is re.
port of what they saw and how it i'm
pressed them.
Mr.. Younie talks
We left Blackfoot on Saturday as
the guests of Mr.. Harry Ferguson
who was acting for the Warren Bro.
theirs, manufactures of bitulithic Chit
u 18th ic) paving, with headquarters
and main plant at Portland, Oregon
The purpose of our trip, as already
stated in the Republican, was to study
the whole pavement question, and
we went as the guests of these manu-
features and as the servants and re-
personalities of the people of Black
foot, the best town on earth. You
smile when I say "best town, etc., y
| but l have travelled considerable in
my modest career, and when l set
tied at Blackfoot l knew I had found
something worth while, and in all my
, subsequent trips I have been remin-
/ ded of my good judgment in deciding
, to make my home and my invest
ments here. But all this is aside from
my subject except so far as it may
, enter into the question of whether
I Blackfoot wants paving and when,
and whether We have something
worth while; something that is going
to be big town soon and city later
, on.
Our host, Mr.. Ferguson is broth
, err to DR.. Claude Ferguson, and prov
| ed to be very genial and agreeable
travelling companion. He seemed to
have a good "roll" and was deter
mined not to let us spend cent of
our own money on any occasion, not
even for a newspaper. We arrived
in Portland on Monday morning and
began our inspection of all the diff
ferent kinds of paving, and when I
say paving, l mean street covering
for team travel, not sidewalks in
particular.
They have fourteen kinds of paw
ing in Portland. and we examined
them in various places and condit-
ions until we could tell at sight or
by walking over it, which kind it
was. We were very much impressed
with the magnitude of this business;
it is one of the big economic quest
ions that presses itself upon people
wherever they have congested travel.
There are pavements that are perman
ent and satisfactory and there are
pavements that are temporary and
source of constant annoyance and
expense. Everywhere we went we
found both classes, and it was
source of extreme regret that so many
communities have been the victims
of fake preparations for which they
paid large sums of money and for
which they have no redress.
Down at St.. Johns, Oregon we
found that they had laid considerable
paving warranted to be as good as
bitulithic, and when it is new it looks
to be all right, but the experience of
this town was that they got the
paving, parted with their money and
then saw the materials become PUPPY
and rotten so that it was no better
than we'll packed earth road, and had
the additional disadvantages of get
ting sticky on hot days so that it ad-
hered to wheels passing over it, and
tracked into the peoples houses,
leaving spots on their rugs and car
pets. We kicked out pieces of it
with our shoes, and as we went about
we noticed that it was spotted, break
ing through in places and needing
constant repair to keep it even good
enough to use at all. 1t seems that
the guarantee was not one that they
could get redress on, and even If
they could get their money back they
would be greatly injured by the in
convenience of having the street torn
up and closed to travel while all this
useless work was being done. The
job cost them within five cents a
yard of what good, durable work
could have been had for, and now
they are too poor to start in again
and get what they know is good.
And there are so many examples OF
this kind of thing it is really distress
sing to witness the results.
We were given the privilege of dig
ging into these materials wherever
we wanted to, and on one street in
Portland where travel was very heavy
and constant was some bitulithic that
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