Rogue River courier. (Grants Pass, Or.) 19??-1918, 1917-01-30
SIGNIFICANCE OF
MAINTENANCE.
Greatest Part af Highway Ez-
psass Is For Construction.
BUSINESS METHODS NEEDED

There Should D. . Proper System ss
Hssd MsIntsnaNes, With 10 AuxIl.
iary system sf Reed Accounts and
financial cestrsl--Thls Would Place
Expenditures on Sound Ussls.
Tho greatest part Of tho large annual
expenditure for roads IL for construc-
tion. writes u. W, James. chief Of main.
tenanec. United States ofice Of public
roads, In the New York Evening Post
Another large part In spent In repair.
Ing worn out roads. Very little In spent
systematically for maintaining In good
condition roads already built. Tho fact
that Il IL usually impossible to nepar-
ate expenditures for construction, N.
pair and maintenance indicates the In
different attitude Of local officials 70
ward maintenance. what such ihdif
ference means should bs thoroaghl,
understood.
The idea OF building roads with bond
money In good one. Tho arrangement
can often BE- made to good business ad.
vantage. and II good device for MAX.
Ing postcrity share In the payment Of
q certain advantage that We beQueath
70 Il. hut a. usually prscticed the
arrangement Of Issuing bonds serves
actually 70 shift all paymcnt to poster.
ny and to exhaust the proceeds Of the
sale la our own gencratioa. We are
heavily discounting the future In road
building. and unless some change Is
brought about. financial diiicultics are
sure to come that can be met only by
heavy direct taxes that viii have 70 bc
expended without any direct benefits.
Tho flrst step toward rcmedying this
condition Ia really very simple one.
Every mile Of improved road built by
q county from my funds whatever
should crcatc q detcrminable annual
liability against the annual road reve-
nnes Of the county. This liability In
determined by competent engineer NJ
the probable annual coat Of mslnte.
nance Of that particular mile Of i'm
proved road. Ft t
Let IN assume the case u q county
having $1,000 annual road revenue
under the maximum levy. The county
already has 300 miles of common dirt
roads and u nuAble 10 keep them In
good condition for &33 per mile. be-
cause Of the heavy traffic near tho mar.
ket towns SO II plans To issue bonds
and to construct gravel roads near the
principal market towns or railroad
points or ccnters Of population. The
question In, How many miles of gravel
road should the county bnild1 Tho en-.
slnscr advising the county studies the
materials available and estimates that
roads built with the hest local gravel
will cost Si25 per mile Annually TO
maintain. To maintain the dirt roads
ut ieast $50 per mile should tr allowed
on 100 milcs. ny q simple computa.
tion we ilnd that afty-six miles Of grav.
81 road at $l2s In $1,000. aud 100 miles
Of dirt road In $1,000. and our sI0.OC0
revenue In exhausted. This is, then.
the limit OF such road that tho county
sh0uld construct.
Our county governments are not so
efficient M our city governments. How.
ever honest county officials may be,
however seriously they take their dn-
tics, they labor under hcavy bur.
den Of habit aud custom that practl.
cally makes impossible any thorough,
effective work by present methods.
In 1914 the United States expended
In all s240.055.O07 for road work;
quarter Of q billion dollars; more than
one.third Of the value Of the 1916 cot
ton crop at 10 cents per pound, II We
would conserve this tremendous annual
Investment Of public. wealth In public
works 10 that II may be cumulative In
effect and not dead annual charge for
transportation, we must revise our
methods OF conducting road affairs. sn-
troducc proper supervision, proper
business methods and once and for all
take roads out Of local politics,
The fundamentally for accomplish.
Ing those ends Is d proper system Of
road maintenance. with its auxiliary
system Of road accounts and financial
control. Such system win save the
community from assuming an undue
burden Of axed charges, will provide
for tho permanent and effective upkecp
NJ tho public mUvcrly represented ~
the road system. viii distribute the an
nual revenues where traLiu and invesi-
ment values demand, mud not ns sought
by local politicians, and will place tho
lnrgest single Item Of public cxpendi.
turc, that for public roads, on busl-
ness basis The result viii he that the
hugo Investment Of annual public reve'
nucs will have q cumulative value and
the public property represented by that
investment will be permanently con-