The weekly times-record. (Valley City, N.D.) 1912-1922, 1915-12-16
Minnesota Official Tells
Of State Aid for Roads

At the Midwinter fair meeting at the
Grand Friday afternoon Charles A..
Forbes, of the Minnesota state high
way commission, gave an experts
summary of the present status Of state
aid for road work, with special refer
ence to the work in Minnesota, where
he is assistant state engineer and
knows whereof he speaks. Mr..
Forbes address, which was well re-
ceived, is given in full below:
The matter Of good roads in these
northwestern states at this time Is
largely educational and requires all
the forces of the community to make it
permanent success and extend the
mileage Of good roads by constantly
exerting an influence by word and by
action in favor of intelligent road
building and road financing.
Before the advent of the railroad
during the early years of the nine
teenth century in this country one of
the leading political questions was con-
cerned by the building Of the public
roads by the federal government, and
one of the most important of the pro-
jects undertaken during this period
was the construction of road known
as the Cumberland Pike, and it's con-
struction was kept up until about 1885,
when federal aid was Withdrawn, and
maintenance of public highways was
left entirely in the hands of local all
thorities, either the township or county
being the unit. This plan was a heri-
tage handed down originally from the
English laws from generation to gen.
Grafton, even to the present day, and
is more or less familiar, SO it is not
necessary to go into minute descrip-
ton, and should now be referred to
only as an object lesson to inspire the
local community, the township, the
county and the state to some plan that
will insure a systematic, definite plan
of comprehensive road building.
This appeal is made primarily to the
farmer, as all laws must come from
the first unit of community, and we
should not lose sight of the basic fact
that the money provided by any state
to aid or promote any activity is, after
all, produced almostly wholly by d.
rect taxation imposed upon or paid by
the people of that state.
1t was a New Jersey farmer who first
conceived the idea that the public
highways were of interest to all the
people, not only of town or county,
but of the whole state, and
there was enacted by the legisla-
ture Of New Jersey the first state aid
law providing for the construction of
certain roads in accordance with tne
plans and under the supervision of a
state road department, and for the
payment of portion of the cost by
the counties and a portion by the
state. That law was success and has
been adopted in various forms by
many other states. The successive
steps taken by the several states have
followed more or less the same gener-
al lines in practically a uniform order.
In Minnesota the present road laws
and method of road administration are
the result of continuous work on the
part of prominent men in the state who
have been conducting a Campaign for
the enactment of proper road laws and
better system of road management for
the last 20 years.
To discuss the various state aid laws
and the numerous ways in which def
mite construction is carried on would
take much more time than can be CIV
en- in a paper like this, as local condi-
lions in the state must influence and