The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1919-02-19

County lines not otherwise credited 1.S
Under the past and present provis-
ions of the Iowa laws the entire cost
of building the 104 miles of earth road
has been paid mostly by general prop
erty tax or bonds against the same,
and partly by automobile funds. BY
this plan some property owners get
something for nothing while a great
many others get but little for some
thing.
The welfare of any community, city,
county, state or nation depends pri-
marily upon just three things, in or
der of Importance, as follows: Pro-
duction, Transportation and Consump.
tion.
Our Iowa farms have value in the
following three ways: Productive
value, value as home and selling or
prospective value.
1t is we'll always to keep the above
six points clearly in mind when con.
sidering any road or bridge improve
ments. .
The owners Of the property along
the 104 miles Of county road which
has been improved have the same
public privilege to use those roads
as have property owners in Willow
township where there is not a mile Of
county road and in Soldier township
where there is but one mile of county
road on the boundary Of that town
ship. Similarly land owners and tax
payers in Willow and Soldier have the
same privilege to use the improved
roads as the owners of abutting prop
erty along which the Improvement has
been made. But who does use the i'm,
proved road the oftener? There is
but one answer, and that is "the own
er of the abutting property" He gets
the greatest public benefit from such
improvement, yet pays no more, in
proportion to the valuation of his prop
erty, than the owners of the land sit
uated ten or twenty miles away.
Statistics Of the department of agri-
culture show that production is often
increased along roads which have been
improved. That, however, is more
probably an indirect than a direct re.
suit
The value of farm as home is
greatly increased with the construc-
ton of a good road from it to town.
Farms we'll situated with reference
to good transportation systems sell
for higher prices than those not so
favorably located. The prospective or
selling value is higher.
For all of the above special benefits
the owner of the abutting property
pays not one cent more, in proportion
to the valuation of his property, than
does the tax payer whose property Is
ten to twenty miles away and not in
the least so benefited. All get GER
tain amount of public good from the
work before mentioned, while the few
owners of the property along the
roads improved get a great amount of
special benefit at the expense of the
public at large. They get something
for which they do not pay-something
for nothing. Such is not fair and is
not equitable. The nearest approach
to fairness could be attained only by
building every mile of road in the
county and paying the cost in the
same way, but even then the owners
lof land along the roads first so i'm
proved would be ahead the use of the
improvement for a greater period.
The traffic on the roads of this
Of building every mile.
| The present 152 miles of county
road is so located that there are no
farms in this county more than five
miles (by straight line) away from
the nearest county roads except in
parts of Morgan, Soldier and Willow
townships. During the past seven
years. an average of fifteen miles of
road per year has been built. The res
identsIof parts Of this county in which
roads have been we'll improved ought
not to object to the building of an av-
erage Of ten miles per year for the
next ten years, at the end of which
time the present 152 mile system
would be built to good earth road
grade and about so miles of additions
to the same would be built, prefer
ably in Willow, Soldier and Hayes
townships with a few other small ad-
ditions. Then each township would
have fair average of the total mile
age of road in the county and there
would be but very few farms more
than four miles away from county
roads.
The maintenance of such mileage
would cost forty to fifty thousand dol
liars year, IL we did MT, In the mean