Audubon County journal. (Exira, Iowa) 1884-1993, 1913-07-31
KNOCKING THE NEW
LAW AND SUPERVISORS

are making Lne discovery tnat Ine
new road law is revolutionary.
Some have already laid hold of
the fact that road-building in the
future in Iowa is to be under the
supervision of trained men, who
command good pay.
Others have found out that road
building under the new plan is eX-
pensive and threatens to make bad
inroads into the public treasury.
And there are some who are just
beginning to see that the newly
built roads are to be wider, better
drained, better graded, more per-
manent, and otherwise superior i'll
every way to those which we have
had in the last.
Of course this last is the big
thing to keep in mind, and every
just criticism of the new road law
must be made with this fact held
up to plain view. 1t is too bad that
many, who condemn it severely, re-
fuse to consider how greatly the re-
suits under it will differ from those
under the old law.
Road building is an exact science.
There may be some unframed men
who understand it, but they are
very few, This has surely been
proved to the satisfaction of Iowa
people in years gone by. 1t is
RIGHT that the large sums of mon
ey which we are going to expend
on our roads in the future should
be spent under the supervision of
engineers who understand how to
drain the road bed properly, how
to bring it to the correct gra e,
how to move the dirt at least cost,
and how slopes and crowns should
be built to make road that is per-
manent and economically kept up.
Men who have been trained for
this work command good salaries
and furthermore, are in demand,
The board can not fix their pay
arbitrarily Audubon County is
paying five dollars per day and
expenses. This, howveer, is not
for the entire year, but only for
such time as the engineer works.
The Audubon Advocate considers
this an outrage. 1t may be; but it
is necessary first for the Advocate t
show that competent men can be
got for less; and it is very doubt
full whether this can he done.
At any rate, it is not an outrage
that competent men must be en-
ployed If this had been done twen-
ty-five or more years ago, we
should have had far better roads
and our road taxes would have
been less for quite a long time now
In the supervision of concrete
bridges alone, the engineer has
doubtless saved the taxpayers many
times his salary this summer, for ii
is "a notable fact that concrete
bridges which are built without
such supervision have way o1
crumbling and going to pieces
within few years while those
which are built under rigid inspec
tion will last a century or two, Oh
even longer.
The Advocate condemns the ov
erdrawing of the bridge fund il
the construction of these concret,
bridges.
The fact is that the old bridge
4 had to be replaced. They wer4
worn out, which seems to be ;
fate common to all wooden bridges
The board of supervisors doubtles
could have replaced them with otht
wooden bridges without overdraw
ing the bridge fund. Instead, the
have overdrawn the bridge fun,
and have put in bridges that will
last ten or twenty times as long a
the wooden ones. Some may ques
tion the wisdom of this; but
the majority of people it looks lik
pretty good business after all. 1t
certainly the only policy that vii
11Adlly uO away WACh WV pA6 "a
pense which Audubon County ha
always had to bear in keeping u
dts bridges. 1t will be a day of re
joicing for taxpayers when all on
bridges are of re-enforced concret
or steel. The matter of paying
little interest on an overdrawn fun
lis small enough when cOmnara
with the increased length of lii
of the bridges themselves, and
is with this that il must be compa,
ed.
The Journal feels that it is hare
ly fair to criticise the board of 81
pervisors on the scores mentioned
On certain other points it differ