The daily star-mirror. (Moscow, Idaho) 1911-1939, 1917-02-27
IMPROVED HIGHWAYS EARN
FROM $40 TO $lO0 DAILY
Dr. L. l. F1ewes of United States Office of Public
Roads Gives Appealing Figures in Address Be-
fore 200 Citizens at Chamber of Commerce Today.

"At first thought a wide difference
appears between public expenditures
for highways and the idea of invest
ment," said DR.. L L. Hewes, director
of the Federal Road Act in district No.
I, in his address before the chamber
of commerce today. More than 200
road boosters were present.
ut is of considerable assistance in
our study of problem to approach it
in a new direction" said DR.. Hewes.
"In ordinary affairs the word invest
ment is we'll understood ,and is as
sociated with a complementary term,
income. 1t is then necessary to con-
slider the question of highway income,
and we shall try and arrive at some
agreement as to the relation of these
two terms.
early in our history highways were
crude. They served as stage routes
incomplete and abhorrent. When the
railroad came it was a welcome relief
to abandon them to local service. For
half century the financing of high
way construction and intermittent re-
pair was a matter of local taxation, and
irksome, as the device of statute labor
indicates. There was almost no at
tempt to fix highway standard and
then to create public fund for keep
ing to that standard.
cd of ], tn- H.
ancing had by 1891 begun to reach the
limit of public endurance.
1.-THE lesson was soon apparent. By
concentrating funds, by the adoption of
sound methods of construction, and by
the employment of skilled highway
engineers good roads could be had.
And every mile of good road built in
community which had up to then been
lacking adequate roads, created an in
sistent demand for more miles.
Highway disbursements for two
years have rapidly increased. But as
yet no account has been taken of local
expenditures other than from bond is
sues. The first count of annual high
way expenditures including the local
expenditures, was made in 1904 by the
office of public roads, and showed a
total Of $80,000,000 for that year, one |
fourth of which was the value of sta
tute labor. The same count in 1909
showed a corresponding figure of $780,
100000. The last count was taken for
1915, and the total expenditure was
found to be approximately $2S2,0OO,-
600, of which probably not more than
$15,000,000 was in statute labor.
1.-TWO significant facts stand out
from these figures: First, the great
ond, the relative increase of state con-
troll. Roads received $80,000,000 in
1904 and $282, 100000 in 1915. States
controlled less than six per cent of the
80 per cent in 1915.
Equally enlightening is the econ
omic saving which good roads permit.
1t is commonly accepted that it costs
between 20 and 80 cents to haul ton
of coal one mile on an average un-
earth road. On hard surfac-
ed modern state highways the cost is
seldom above Is cents.
"Your attention is then invited to
the saving in commercial hauling on
a road that carries fom 100 to 1000
tons daily. Is not such road earn
ing a daily invisible income of $40 !
to $1,000, respectively"
GIee Club Sings
The program was opened with two
numbers by the University OF Idaho
Glee club, which were much appre-
ciated c. N. Johnson, glee club vio- |
mist entertained with violin solo. {