The Oskaloosa herald. (Oskaloosa, Mahaska County, Iowa) 1885-1919, 1914-01-15

of the law, then action may be insti-
tuted in the courts to secure the ben
efits in the way of improved roads that
ARE now the right of counties of this
state. The law is comparatively new.
Tt has been and is the policy of the
commission to not be over hasty; give
plenty of time; exhaust every other
means of securing action by the board
of supervisors before resorting to le
gal procedure. ..
Thomas H. Macdonald, State High.
way Engineer spoke in part as follows:
The principles of the present road law
must eventually prevail for they are
fundamentally correct. Details may
be changed but as to fundamentals,
the law has practically everything in
its favor; is among the best, and in
some respects is the very best road
law offered by any state in the union
not excepting the state of New York
with her two issues of fifty millions
in bonds for road improvement.
Any large proposition to be made
practical must be reduced to units.
The purpose Of cur road law is the
building up Of a system of units, uni.
form, united and related in a practical
and business like way. The legisla
tIre of course, passes laws not for the
county or the township but for the
state, and in state like ours there is
but little objection that can be right.
fully urged, claiming that the law does
not fit local conditions. In the broad
est and best sense, and particularly, as
referring to road legislation. the nine
ty-nine counties of the great state of
Iowa are much alike. In some such
light as this the road law must be in
torpreted One of the purposes of the
State Highway Commission is to Sc
cure in solar as is practical and advis.
able, a uniformity Of road improve
ment.
There are three divisions Of admin
istTation, the township, the county
and the State Highway Commission
As you know there are three township
bers of the board of supervisors; and
representing the interests of the
whole state, there are the three mem
bcrs of the Highway Commission
Heretofore these three units of ad
ministration worked largely independ
ertlly. Now their work Is cooperative
and interlocking-one of the most for
tunate and hopeful accomplishments
OF the new road law.
AS Mr. Beard has explained, the
township trustees oversee eighty-five
per cent CT the roads; the board OF
supervisors oversees the remaining fiji
teen per cent, and in certain respects,
generally conceded helpful to the coun
ty. and in the best interests of state
vice road Improvement, this commits
sion has supervision over all. The
township trustees appoint a road SUI
perintendent. The supervisors appoin
a county engineer. The highway com
mission appoint district engineers. To
degree the district engineers super
wise the work of and cooperate with,
the county engineer; the county en-
gineer in turn supervises the work o.
the township superintendent. These
officers are each under bond.
The township road superintendent
must look after the dragging Of the
roads Please notice, in order to cor
rect a prevalent error, that the pres.
the amount that he may pay for the
work Of road dragging. nor is he lin
tied as to the kind or plan of contract
that he may make for the dragging of
roe de-. He has one mill to expend, is
supposed to expend it, and this is his
only restriction. The township super
intendent must also see that the roads
are in good condition on each side of
cu!verts and bridges, that it must
lcCk after the approaches; and he
must also keep the water way below
free from weeds and debris. He must
report TO the township clerk and the
rlerk in turn nus report to the count
engineer on blanks prepared for the
nurr"se giving Q definite, itemi2ed &C
counting.
There will be spent in Iowa this
year approximately ten million dollars
on road improvement, or half the cost
of the famous Keokuk dam. AS one
of the members of this commission
said not long ago, the road has no
more to do with the increased taxation
than does a threshing machine engine
have to do with the size of the wheat
crcp
The county supervisors have a one
mill road fund levy, part of which
is paid by the city: a two mill levy for
road building and five mills for bridge
fund. The one and two mill levys re-
ferred to may also in certain instances
be used for constructing culverts when
these may rightfully be denominated
as road work" The two mill levy
under the old law was optional, now
it is made mandatory. The levys may
be so fixed as to not increase the
amount of tax above that heretofore
raised
II is the purpose Of the commission
to so arrange the grades in permanent
road work that they will not run above
six per cent; that is so the elevation
will not be greater than six feet in
one hundred. The whole plan Of O
road proposed to be improved must be
provided by the county engineer This
is worked out as carefully as though
it were a city street to be paved. Our
district engineers aid the county engin-
eer, and before the work is done the
plat must be approved by the commits.
sion. The United States government
has set very good example, espec.
iaIly m a few NJ tho pouOtiae in Iowa