Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1914-01-08
NEED ENGINEERS
TO BUILD ROADS
CHAIRMAN OF STATE HIGHWAY
COMMISSION SHOWS FALLAcY
OF HAPHAZARD METHODS.

| Ames, Jan. GIVE have passed
from the era Of talking good roads II
/ Iowa to the era of building good roads
in Iowa." declared Dean A. Marston
chairman of the state highway com
mission in notable address before
! thousand Iowa farmers, county engln
: GERS. and others at the Good Roads
mass meeting of short course STUD
ents at Iowa state college Saturday
evening.
IN the past six months work has
been begun by the county road ottclals
, Of the state under the supervision Of
the commission that will remove the
stigma from this state of having the
| worst roads in the union, and vii
put it in the first rank Of those states
which are proceeding in systematic
way to build permanent culverts and
bridges and highways" he said. Good
roads in Iowa are 4 fact now, and Will
be bigger fact by the end OF 1914
II is the business Of the state high
way commission to build roads and
bridges and not to debate the merits
or dement's of the new road law. de-
clared Mr.. Marston, in commenting on
certain challenges to public debate
that had been received by the com
mission. 1--WE are engineers, not de-
baters," said he. And we ask that
the work done under the new law be
judged by the results accomplished. II
after fair trial, and sufficient time to
do constructive work. definite results
in building good roads In Iowa cannot
be found, then we have failed as engin-
GERS, and the law should be repealed
or amended"
That few people In Iowa have even
a faint conception of the magnitude OF
the engineering problems In making
roads in Iowa, was illustrated by Mr..
Marston in a striking comparison. 1t
took ten years to draw up the plans,
secure the finances and build the great
Keokuk dam, which cost $25,O00,0o0,
said he. In Iowa there are 100000
miles Of roads. In one county alone
5000 bridges and culverts must be
built or rebuilt. In the next ten years
out of the road tax levies on the pre-
sent basis, the state of Iowa will spend
one hundred million dollars, more than
four times the cost Of the Keokuk dam,
in building roads and bridges. Definite
plans for every mile Of road, with
grades and profile maps, as we'll as de-.
finite plans for countless bridges and
culverts must be made. Materials
must be specified and tested, stresses
figured, all of the work subjected to
rigorous inspection, and accurate rec
ords of every item Of material and OF
every dollar spent must be kept. All
this is engineering work, and demands
engineering accuracy and skill of the
highest grade. Z ,-
.T own a farm In Iowa, and hire an
Iowa farmer to run 1t, not an engineer,
said Mr. Marston. with all due re-
gard to the intelligence Of the Iowa FAR
mer, whether he is road trustee or
county supervisor. unless he has had
engineering training, he is not compe-
tent to build the roads Of Iowa. 1t Is
lust as logical for him to doctor his
own or his neighbours family, or to ap-
near in the courts as lawyer, as TO
think that he knows all there Is to
know about road and bridge building.
The efficient expenditure OF public
funds to get permanent results is the
whole purpose of the new road law,
and of the highway commission IN
carving out the law, said Mr.. Marston
Under the old system $500 road trus'
tees and county supervisors had to 90
with the spending OF the tax money
in piecemeal fashion.
zone road superintendent told me
that for thirty-flve years every spring
he had spent public money to fill up
a certain mud hole on his road until
this year when proper drainage and
proper grade were put in.' said Mr..
Marston. NATURALLY some Of these
8, 500 road officials have objected to
being interfered with. But in the coun-
ty after county the supervisors and
road trustees are working in splendid
harmony with the commission, and
those counties are getting permanent
results from their road money"
The fact that certain disgruntled
road officials were making use of the
average increase Of IS per cent in the
taxes on farm lands next year as po-
litical capital against the new road law
and the state highway commission was
vigorously denounced by Mr.. Marston.
"TR highway commission had no
more to do with the increase in taxes
thar. threshing machine with the size
Of the wheat crop" said he. Every
county board had it within its power
to lower and equalize the tax levy in
the face of the increased valuation
placed upon property in this state. If
the county boards failed to lower the
levy, the responsibility rests with
them. The highway commission has
nothing to do with the tax levies. 1t
merely oversees the expenditure Of
such road funds as the tax supervisors
obtain through the tax levy"
Some of these men have complain
ed that the salaries and expenses of
the county engineers has meant an in
creased tax burden. In the reports of
the first eight coutjes which have filed
their records for the past year, the
average engineering expense was but
three cents out of every dollar spent
on roads and bridges. 1t is safe to say
that In every case the county received
more than dollars worth of work as
compared with the former haphazard
methods"
Mr.. Marston presented figures show
ing the number of miles of road and
hc;I ox,fr,