The weekly times-record. (Valley City, N.D.) 1912-1922, 1915-12-16

shape the condition most favorable to-
ward state aid and particularly state
supervision. But to make road build
ing a statewide success and get ade
quate results on a proper financial
basis it is necessary to have state aid
and state supervision under the direc'
ton of a highway commission and
state engineer.
In Minnesota the 1909 session of the
legislature proposed an amendment
allowing the legislature to levy one
mill state tax, which was passed at
the general election of 1912, and was
put into effect by the present law
(Chapter 235 G.. L. 1879 The state
road and bridge fund derived from this
tax with other sources of revenue
$1,4S0,O00.00 for the year 1915. Up to
and including the year 1907 the legis
lature had made practice of appropri
ating to the several counties of the
state a portion of the state revenue
fund to be used for Improvement and
construction of roads and bridges
Under this system there was no re-
quirement for supervision, nor any
standard of work set, and by great
many it was considered that the mon.
ey was not properly expended. In
1909 an injunction was issued to re-
strain the state auditor from paying
any more state funds for that pur-
pose, which injunction was sustained
by the supreme court on the ground
that the general revenue fund could
not be used for internal improvements.
Although there has been no great
change in the laws relative to admin
istration of county road affairs, there
has, nevertheless, been a great differ
ence in methods employed by the
county boards of the state. Previous
to the last few years most of the coun-
ty boards appropriated all their coun-
ty road and bridge fund to the sever
al townships, who let all contracts
and supervised the work, leaving the
county board without any authority or
supervision, and, as result, there
were but few counties which could
show any substantial road improve
ment. Some counties did not even
levy road tax. Today all counties
have road and bridge fund and most
of them are levying three mills, in fact
the limit. This year Morrison coun-
tvs road and bridge fund was $4,000.
Consequently the main county roads,
which were neglected before, are now
becoming the best roads in the state
This is direct result of uniform me-
thods advocated by the highway COM
mission, and is largely due to the en-
gineers employed by them. We think
it is wonderful, the uniform co-opera-
ton and perfect confidence between
the highway commission and the
board of county commissioners, and
the fine way the funds are being des-
ignated, for instance: In 1913, Otter
tail county, one of the largest counties
had IS road jobs varying from $1OO to
as high as $4,000. Last year the list
was cut down to IS jobs ranging from
$500 to $2700. This years designa-
ton is confined to 20 jobs and in each
case is a continuation of the work
done in previous years.
l would like to see some public
spirited citizen look up the records of
almost any county where they have
improved roads and see how much
money and labor has been spent on
the roads for year and then go out
and try to find what has been accom-
plished. In many cases you are apt to
be disappointed because you cannot
find it. The money has not been stol-
en-, but simply wasted or else spread
out so thin it cannot be found. There
has been no maintenance and the So
called construction work was often
more destructive than constructive.
I know you will begin to suggest