Evening capital news. (Boise, Idaho) 1901-1927, 1916-02-17
SENTIMENT FOR
IMPROVEMENT OF
THE CITY STREETS
Business and Professional
Men of the City Speak in
Favor of Paving This
Year.

With $50 men gathered about the
dining room tables of the Commercial
club at noon today, there was strong |
demonstration in favor of street i'm
provements at the close of each OF the
addresses made on that topic and the
sentiment of the speak ers was that AT
least two thoroughfares leading to the
north part of the city should be paved
his season.
The Improvement luncheon was one
of the best ever held at the club. DR..
r. L. Glase officiated as toastmaster
and briefly congratulated the directors
and officers of the club for the good
work of the past year, declaring that
they are getting down to matters sub
stantial and meeting to talk city i'm
provements were the kind of value
and needed here.
l.. C. Merrill, the first speaker, ad-
vocated the securing of the rock crush
ing plant at .Arrowrock and putting in
crushed rock streets. He estimated
that rock could be crushed for Is
cents per cubic yard, which amounted
to one and q half tons and that the
cost of freighting to Boise would be
$1,000 per car. which, he figured would
mean that crushed rock for the streets
could be laid down here at 80 cents per
cubic yard. With money spent in that
manner instead of for up-keep, he left
Boise could soon have a system of
good streets.
Pleads for Co operation.
T. L. Martin stated he was in favor
Of city improvements. He said city
which quit improving was like a bus
mess man who would stop business, 1t
soon would be dead and forgotten.
city dies from within, not without, he
stated, and he emphasized that he was
strongly against organizations formed
for the purpose of criticsing the acts
of officials and others, but stood SOL
idly for such an organization as the
Commercial club. which was trying to
cooperate in building up. He con-
demned the public spirit of citizens
who did not take enough interest in
city and county affairs to get out and
vote and cited that at the city bond
election here in 1914 but a total of 3s1
votes were cast and at the county bond
election 2197 in the latter case less
than one-twentieth of the voting
strength of the county. He closed by
declaring that more interest should be
taken in public Improvements and
stated he favored street improvements
this season.
Council Ready to Act.
Thomas Finegan, street commissioner
of Boise, in his address, stated that
the council stood ready to pave or i'm
prove the streets whenever the people
were ready, but that they We're not
ready and did not propose to try and
force street improvements upon the
people If they did not want them. AS
far as the crushed rock street i'm
provements were concerned he said
Los Angeles had spent 100000 for
such improvements and had now found
they would not stand automobile traf
fic. The road question with automo-
bile traffic, he said, was a big one
and one which was pulling every coun-
try in the world where machines were
used to any extent. He closed by stat
ing again that the question OF street
improvements was up to the people
and that the council stood ready to
act for the people at any time.
e. +. Cation, who was called upon as
a representative of the laboring men,
stated he could not tell how all the
men he was supposed to represent felt.
He was sure of one thing, the laboring
men needed the work, but he knew they
were not selfish and would not care to
add any extra burdens of taxation to
property owners merely to get work.
Boise, he said needed some of its
streets leading north paved and he cit
ed that the city had paved avenues
leading both east west and south, but
none to the north. He said that the
vital question in paving was the cost
and he believed if property owners
could be shown that the paving in
front of a 50-foot lot would not cost
more than 5000 and that they had a
long time in which to make payment
that they would gladly approve such
improvements.
Guy Flenner stated briefly that he
believed in paving to some extent, but
did not think the expensive pavements
should be put down in the residence
section.
Need of Improvement Apparent.
DIR. l.. ?. McCalla expressed himself
In favoring paving and otherwise i'm
proving the city streets. Their need
he declared, was very apparent In win
ter.
c. j. Sinsel stated he favored public
improvements with public approval
and declared that what Boise needed
was :. more cooperative spirit
Ed Peasley, while unable to be pres