The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1914-07-09

across every county in this state.
Is it any wonder, gentlemen, that
the road problem Of Iowa is in need
of a good banker just now?
The last legislature in this state
created an engineering corps for the
! administration of our road and
bridge construction which is consid-
cred by students of the road prob
lem, model of perfection for all
other governments. Many an eastern
state has tried placing all supervision
directly with the state, and politics
! with it's graft has caused the system
! to fail. Other states have left the
administration of our roads entire
ly to the locality and they have work.
ed their roads about like volun-
| teer fire department.; when they had
| to. In Iowa today we have organic
ed our road administration like our
courts of justice. All work begins
| in the locality and goes up to the
state for approval We have the
same effective corps of engineers as
! the Northwestern railway has with
the state engineer corresponding to
a chief engineer. Under him there
are five division engineers who sup
ervise the work of ninety-nine coun-
| ty engineers who correspond to the
assistant engineers of railway ac-
tually at work on the job. The state
| engineers are paid from the auto IL
| censes while there is not county in
Iowa today which has not saved the
whole years salary of it's county en-
gineer on the price of single bridge.
All plans must now be approved by
| the engineers and expert craftsmen
of the state highway commission.
Likewise all contracts. The result
has been that concrete bridges in
Iowa today are costing $11 and $12
per cubic yard where they used to
cost $25. The state of Iowa has a
magnificent corps of engineers at
work upon her roads and this law
should be sustained by every enlight-
ened citizen in this state.
| We have designated in each coun-
ty the main travelled roads as county
roads and we have connected them
| up so as to create system of state
| roads. We have increased our road
taxes until we now have all the
money we need for making the best
kind of roads but we are not build
ing any hard surfaced roads. We do
not need any more taxes. The trouble
] is that we have not yet learned to
finance the taxes we are paying. We
need a banker. When the railroads
were built across Iowa, the promot-
er had their engineers run the grades
and build the bridges but they also
were wise enough to have their bank
ers The bankers realized that hill
once cut to grade would stay cut
forever, that road bed ballasted
would carry traffic for many years,
and they went back east to the older
civilizations of the New England
states and of Europe where the sur
plus savings of an immense popula-
ton were seeking investment and
they said to these people. buy our
bonds, build our railroads for us and
we will pay for them principal and
interest with our business. They did
not try to build thirty year rail-
road out of one years freight earn
ings, neither will we ever build a
thirty-year road pavement out of one
years tax money.
Gentlemen, have studied the
methods used to build hard roads in
almost every state in this union and
can find only .hree states in which
road bonds are not issued either by
the state, the county or the town.
ship, and Iowa is one of these three.
Furthermore, cannot find one state
which has made any considerable
progress in it's road building without
armortiZing it's long time investment
by bond issue.
We would never have had stone
court house nor even a brick school
house in Iowa today if we had tried
| to build them out of single years
tax levy. We will never have a paw
ed road until we finance them so as
to let the people who use them pay
for them in easy payments as they
use them. To try to pave road to-
day which is to last thirty years or
to build a bridge of masonry which
is to last 500 years is to ask the tax
payers of one year to pay for public
improvements to be enjoyed by tax
payers of the next 20 years. 1t is
neither equitable nor sound.
The Appian Way of Roman history
has been serving the Latin people as
road for 1000 years. The Cumber-
land road in this country, built in
President Jefferson's time is still in
use after 100 years of neglect and
many OF us bridges VI SIOuc MdSOuly
have never needed repairs. There is
no reason on earth why the burden
of such investments should not be
spread over period of time approx
mating the life of the improvement
and until the bankers of Iowa show
the legislature how to do this we will
never have very many improved
roads in this state.
And the waste of our hand to
mouth finance is awful. Practically
every county in Iowa is wasting half
of it's bridge fund upon temporary
wooden bridges when every wood and
iron bridge in any county could be
replaced with concrete which would
last 100 years and the principal and
interest could be paid off in thirty
years with about two-thirds the pres
ent bridge tax. In the whole state
this waste of bridge money in a
single year would pave Lincoln High
way entirely across the state.
Senator Bourne grasped the idea
of amortization when he proposed
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