The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1920-10-28
FAST GAINING FAVOR
Amendment No. l Will, According to
Reports Received by Highway
Association, Carry.

Put Cross In eS SQuare-Fall
to Vote Means the Same as
Cross in "No" Square.
Good Roads Amendment No. is
rapidly gaining in public favor as
facts are reaching men and women
voters through the newspapers and
speakers for the Minnesota Highway
Improvement association, Senator L.
II. Nord, secretary, announces. He
says:
Reports are encouraging, yet there
is danger in over confidence. 1t
should be remembered that Amend
ment No. l is handicapped by the re-
quirement that majority of all votes
cast are necessary to it's passage
which means that every failure to
vote is the same as vote against it.
Vote eyes" or Pay.
Opposition was created mainly by
Misrepresentation. It has been
falsely stated that Amendment No.
would mean wholesale paving Of
trunk highways and that there is a
plan to sell road bonds to the limit
and force the taxpayers to eventually
redeem them.
The fact about the pavement fea-
ture is that, should the amendment
fail, counties will be forced by economy
to do the same hard-surfacing that
the state will undertake under the
proposed plan.
The state will have approximately
SO 100000 year current revenue to
spend on the trunk highway system.
Proper maintenance of the entire sys-
tenn, which the state is bound to pro-
vide first, will take the biggest part Of
the fund. Engineers are positive,
however, that after this requirement
is met there will be enough money left
to grade and gravel 400 miles and hard
surface 200 miles every year. In six
years the entire system will be graded
and graveled, and there will be 1900
miles of hard-surfacin where gravel
maintenance would be excessively ex-
pensive.
Cost is Unaffected.
Good Roads Amendment No. l says
nothing about types of roads, and I'M
der it the state will use gravel, con-
crete, macadam, brick and other kinds
just as the counties are doing now.
Roads on which the gravel is ground
up and blown or washed away almost
as fast as it is applied must be hard
surfaced for economy, whether by the
counties with increased tax funds or
by the state with automobile savings
under Amendment No. plan.
Furthermore, with the present
scarcity of labor and materials, en-
gineers assert that $1O,OOO,OOO year
is all that can be economically and eff
ficiently spent on the trunk system.
The proposed plan will yield up
wards of s25,00O,O0O a year without
tax increases or bond issues, compared
with the total of less than $4,000, 900
this year. Counties and towns will
continue to receive more than $751;
900, representing all the state and
other present tax receipts for use on
local roads, and no longer will carry
the great burden of maintaining and
improving the main roads.
Claims Easily Proved.
These facts prove the claim, every
road good road" Many farms living
off the proposed trunk system regard
the plan as of greatest benefit to them
because local roads will be improved
as fast or faster than the trunk roads.
They show the Importance of getting
the truth about Amendment No. and
refusing to credit mere rumors. The
Legislature of 1919 is almost unani-
mously on record as presenting Good
Roads Amendment No. as the best
that can be devised, and that endorse
ment alone is entitled to more weight
with the thinking men. and women
voters of the state than prejudice or
rumors.
Tax or Auto Money?
Important points to keep in mind
are these:
Steadily increasing traffic, and nota-
bly, motor traffic, will force Minneso-
ia to spend larger sums each year for
road maintenance and improvements
regardless Of the road program adopt
ed.
Amendment No. l will place fair
share Of the expense on motor traffic,
which is willing to pay, and there will
be no need for increasing road taxes
or issuing bonds which otherwise must