Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1914-06-20

State, and by this federal aid, the
State gets a highway at cost TO II
| of about $4,000 a mile, which really
| costs about $4,000 a mUe-the federal
! government paying the difference, In
time the people will see that the road
| is none too good for that location.
Now, if anybody will figure the
amount of automobile licenses that
are paid in Cumberland county, and
also in the other Is counties of the
| state. they will find on that basis that
! Cumberland county would get over
one fourth of the bond money expend-
ed in their county. If they should fig
ure il on the valuation of that couu-
ty. or population, as compared with
| the other counties, they would fnd
! that Cumberland county would get
much more money than is to be eX.
pended on the Portland Bath road.
| according to the contract as now ac-
cepted, and there is no way 1t can be
| figured to show that this money was
! distributed inequitably between Cum
! beriand county and the other coun-
| ties of the State. Just because ii is
| large job being done at this time,
! there is a god chance for the dema-
| gogue. and he who wants TO make
trouble politically with the highway
! department to misrepresent this Whole
( matter 1t gives a chance TO use the
| Grange as an instrument with which
! to create prejudice and jealousy be-
4 tween one section of the State and
! another; 1t gives a chance to the poll
! itician to use the Grange for political
purposes; to array one class of peo-
pie against another and one COM
munity against another-all to the
damage and injury and setback in the
highway work and the best interests
of the State.
No one has a greater interest in the
agriculture of Maine than l have. |
have a large farm eight miles from a
depot, and l am as interested IN good
highways as anybody can be, as l
have to travel this road many times
each year. hauling supplies and prod
ucts back and forth with my teams.
feel just as every other farmer does
that | would like TO have the best
possible road built from my farm to
the station, and l would like to have
il now. | don't want to wait until it
can be built, even-but with over 20,
600 miles of highway in Maine. l know
must wait. and so have a great ma
jority of the people. We have been
getting about 100 miles of road i'm
proved each year. We shall have 200
this year. We are finding out that the
| amount of money which | supposed
would make permanent highways,
suitable for all. will not do it. hTe
roads which we have built and called
good roads for the past four or five
years are beginning to show that they
were not properly constructed. They
are wearing out very fast. They are
not having the proper care and at
tention. What we need most of all is
cepair and constant inspection of the
roads we have already built. and
what We all need is information, in
struction ana the truth told US about
this highway problem and not preju-
dice and jealousy created for political
purposes.
The new highway law, in my judg-
u1ent, is right. and if the commission
Is left to work out the problem as the
Legislature has put it up to them by
this law. as the people learn of its
purposes and workings, they will come
more and more to appreciate and sup
non partisan measure, and as COM
promise measure between the State
aid read and the State road sometimes
called trunk line. Both are provided
for by the law. and we need to go very
slowly in our criticism of the work
that is begun and not vet actually
completed. We must remember that
the law has not been In effect one
year yet, and that this is the first sea
son when any work has been attempt
ed to be done under it. In one year
more We will be much better able to
judge of the quality of the work, when
We can see some of it, and know
what has been accomplished. Patience
and fair mindedness are necessary to
encourage the commission and for the
Accomplishment of any good results.
1t is a great undertaking and a great
movement in the right direction, and
il We don't Keep 1t out of politics we
shall accomplish nothing. 1t is just
Like the school question. AS long as
We played politics with our schools,
as we did for many years, We did not
get ahead much. Now that we are all
agreed upon the benefit Of education
and are expanding money literally for
it, and nave quit making it a political
issue, we are finding ourselves in pos
session of one of the finest systems of
education of any State in the Union.
There has already been let in about
eight of the counties a section of sew
en- miles of State road, and during the
next month such a section will prob
ably be let in all the counties where
the commission will be able to make
q ioca alton. In one or two counties
there is such a controversy. over To-
cation that the commissin is waiting
until the people in those counties can
be got nearer together on that ques-
ton before they make final location,
but il is not the fault of the commits
sion that these controversies arise
They are brought about through the
desire of different sections of coun-
ty to have the State road built first
for their particular locality. Now,
don't forget that these are State roads.
and not State aid roads. Of which the
latter are being built all the time in
every town and city in the State which