Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1919-01-24

Road legislation probably will fol
low a schedule something like this:
A bill will be passed reappropriatiug
the unexpended balance in the 1917
fund; another will make Immediately
available the permanent highway
fund for the present year; third will
double the automobile license fees to
add 81, 900. 900 year to the highway
fund.- soon afterward the plan will be
suggested of submitting a bond issue
of $4,000, 900 to the voters in 1920,
the bonds to be based on anticipated
revenues from an increased auto tax,
either before or just after this bill
materializes will be another specify
ing the roads on which new highway
funds are 10 be expended, and then
likely will come the usual biennial
appropriations for state roads. An
other road bill will be introduced to
adopt the state plan of primary and
secondary roads to county road build
ing, but this is not necessarily part
of the general highway program.
There is no difference of opinion be-
tween Senator P. Fl. Carlyon, who ad
vocates a s3O,O0O,OOO road bond is
sue, and the state administration,
which favors a pay as you 60 policy.
that cannot be adjusted easily. Both
wish to raise the automobile license
tax to add about 100000 a year to
the highway revenues, and both are
willing that for the next two years
this money should be raised and spent
on road work irrespective of any bond
scheme.
Carlyon wishes to have a vote on
the plan of floating big bond issue
and building big system of hard
surfaced roads at once; the admins
tration declares this is inadvisable for
the two reasons that too much money
would be lost on interest and that
there is no organization in hand to
| expend such vast sum and too much
would be wasted on overhead to per-
feet an organization.
But when one scratches beneath
the surface one cannot find any OBJ
lection to referring the bond question
to the people and scrapping out the
issue there. So pretty good guess
would be that Carlyon will have the
chance to submit his question at the
November election in 1920 and the
record that the state administration
itself makes on road work in the
meantime will have big part to play
in the fate of the bond issue.
ernor Ernest Lister and Highway
| The administration--mea Gov
Commissioners James Allen-are not
certain that Carlyon provides ade-
quately for maintenance, but Car
lyon claims he does. That is mat
ter of detail the legislative roads and
bridges committees will thresh out
and in no wise affects the final action,
which means increasing the annual
expenditures for road building.
roads which are ready for hard sur
facing are decided upon in gem
eral way by those who have been
most active in the roads movement,
the legislature may make a number
of changes on its own motion, and If
1t does. neither Carlyon nor the adj
ministration will be seriously offend
ed, for compromises are expected.
Carlyon has another scheme that
Just about halfway appeals to the ad-
ministration. He wishes to apply the
same broad principle In county road
building that is adopted in state
work. In other words, Carlyon starts
with the argument that the admins
tration and highway enthusiasts gen
orally make that a vast amount OF
road money is wasted in the roads
and bridges funds of the counties.
Then the Thurston county solon
jumps clear to the front of the pro.
cession and begins working back. He
suggests that limitation be placed
on the amount of money that coun-
ties be permitted to spend on repair
work to old roads and REQUIRE the
rest of the money to be expended on
permanent county highways. He
would make the county road system
an auxiliary to the state roads, but
carry out the same theory of building
county trunk lines and constructing
tcheaper branches.
Always, Carlyon would provide.
perfect grades and drainage should
be provided for the county road sys-
tenn, whether the roads be of first or
minor Importance. Even down to set
tiers trail he would insist on good
grades. The old Donohue road law
would be called upon to help out this
scheme.
Both sides insist that the road SUI
pervisor system results in partially
building up road in summer time
that is destroyed or seriously dam
aged in winter, then beginning the
next spring to do the same work over
again. Both sides wish to do away
with this practice, but somehow in
working from a common starting
point to common ending the two
official ends of the controversy get
mixed up and lose sight of each other.
This may be due to the fact that
Calryon and the state administration
do not mix, though there is a hare