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

The accompanying tabulation shows
Crawford County's expenditures for
road and bridge work during the past
three years, as taken from the ledger
account of such expenditures kept by
the county engineers Office as an i'm
portant part of it's duties, and as re-
ported annually to the state.
In 1918 the state legislature passed
law providing for road and bridge
work on scale and by a method very
different from that of previous years.
Undoubtedly the best provision IN
that law was the one creating the
county road system and the township
road system and fixing definitely the
responsibility for the construction and
lmajntAnance of each. 5!,
That law provided that the board Of
supervisors OF each county In Iowa Sc
lect, from the roads outside the limits
! of incorporated cities and towns, q
county road system of highways includ-
ing therein not less than ten nor more
than fifteen per cent of the total mile
age Of roads outside the limits of
towns and cities. It provided further
that the roads selected should be the
main roads connecting the principal
market places in the county and con-
Meeting with similar roads at the coun-
ty lines to form net work of roads Of
that class. over the entire state.
The boards of supervisors were
charged with the duty and responsi-
bility of constructing and maintaining
the county roads, and no others, till
the entire county road system so Sc
lected is finally improved, after which
they may add to the first system Sc
lected such, additional roads as in
their Judgment will be of most serv-
ice. !a,ss
All highways not so included in the
county system constitute the town.
ship road system which must be con-
structed and maintained by the town
ship trustees.
The summary statement of Craw-
ford County's road and bridge expendi-
lures for 1916, 1917 and 1918 refers to
the road work on this county's 152
mile county road system and to the
bridge and culvert work in the entire
county.
In studying the tabulation. it is we'll
to keep clearly in mind the fact that
the unit prices for most of the items
therein have increased greatly since
1915 and 1916, and that labor has in
creased Is to 100 per cent in the same
time. II "a.
Prior to Jan. i, 1918, this county
handled more than one million cubic
yards of earth in road construction
work. at an average unit price of less
than 20 cents per cubic yard. The
cost Of similar work, and, at that, work
heavier and more desirable to con.
tractors awarded in 1918, was. IS to
80 cents per cubic yard. Considerable
of this increase in cost is directly due
to the activities of the I. w. w. or
ganiz4tion,J the would be toters of the
red flag, the pro German social anar-
chists who oppose all forms of organ
lied government, and who oppose the
possession of property by others and
even by themselves. The most of the
labor about machine outfits such as
did our earth road work the last few
years was done by a branch outfit of
the I. w. W. gang. The writer has
been told by, members themselves that
the possession of any property or Of
any money was sufficient cause to dis
qualify any would Re followers Of the
clan. There is but little of reason to
doubt that German money backed the
organization in determined effort to
destroy property and to cripple, by
any and all means, nearly all lines of
industry and endeavor in the United
States, and, as one of the results, this
county has been obliged to pay more
for earth road work, and will continue
to do so as long as they are permit
ted to hinder progress. ..N.
Ten to twelve dollars per cubic yard
was the average unit price paid for
reinforced concrete culvert and bridge
work in 1915 and 1916. Last year the
average was twenty-five to thirty dol
lars, That shows an increase of $50
per cent, which is due to the fact that
cement had, in the meantime, in
Creased from about $1.04 to $3.50 per
bbl., that steel had doubled In cost,
that machinery and repairs had more