The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1920-08-27
EZRA MEEKER ON
CARLYON BILL

Ezra Meeker, that octogenaran,
who came to Washington when it was
part of Oregon in the SOS, travel
ing in an OK wagon from the Missouri
river, and who has ever since taken
an active interest in the upbuilding
of this state, expresses his views on
the Carlyon Bill, referred by the Leg
islature to the people and known as
Referendum No. l. Read his letter.
Vote No on Referendum No.
To the Editor:
l am opposed to the measure known
as Referendum No. /, bonding the
state for thirty million dollars "for
the construction of a state system of
trunk line hard surfaced highways"
described in the bill, of over fifteen
hundred miles. We have no choice
we must either vote the whole sum
or none.
l am opposed to borrowing a fifty
cent dollar that to certainty must
be paid back in hundred-cent dollars.
History repeats itself; this nation
will not continue on deprecated cur
rency no more than in former years
of it's life.
Concrete pavement cost $1.43 per
square yard in 1917, and $2.46 in
1920. Concrete pavement cost $751;
900 per mile in 1917 and $4,000 in
1920. These are official figures.
September Both, 1918, State High
way Commissioner Allen reported
'The average increase of road build
ing costs over that of the preceding
biennium ranges from approximately
twenty-five (25) per cent in the early
part of the biennium to approx
mately one hundred 100) per cent
in the latter part. The price of
common labor has increased from
$500 to $3.50 per day and in many
cases as high as $500 per day is
now being paid. Now, we hear of
a dollar an hour being demanded,
and the Lord only knows what the
price of cement would be did this
referendum pass.
To pave the 1900 miles of state
roads at present cost of $4,000 per
eight million dollars; if this loan of
thirty million dollars is voted, the
price of all road material and con-
struction charges will undoubtedly
materially advance until it is ques-
tionable if sixty million dollars would
cover the cost of the whole.
Again: With the utmost effort
of the State Highway Commissioner
for the present biennium it is a race
whether he can use the whole fund
accumulated from the system of "pay
as you CO." and a part of the appro-
priations will remain uneXpended.
What confusion worse confounded
would follow if this fifty-cent dollar
loan fund is dumped upon an already
overburdened office?
To divert the automobile license
fund from the state road general
fund and apply it to paying interest
on borrowed fifty-cent dollars is high
finance; it's more; it's class legis-
lation pure and simple: it's still
more, it's a plunge in the dark It's
on a par, as the story goes, of the
man who asked his neighbor, "Sup-
pose you had a horse, how'd you
swap"
This license fee fund is not re-
liable asset to mortgage. The franz
ers of the bill realized this; hence
this "joker" of Sec. 10 mandatory
spon the state authorities to levy a
tax each year to pay the deficit, if
any, of interest and principal. When
the pinch of "hard times" comes, as
it surely will come, then will come
taxes to pay the borrowed fifty-cent
dollars.
| am told by parties in position to
know that the California bonding
scheme has resulted disastrously to
that state; that the roads built are
breaking up on account of faulty
construction and that the good {?
roads will soon be a thing of the
past, but the bonds are there to
plague taxpayers for a generation.
Go slow, gentlemen. Be sure you
are right before you go ahead.
If, on the other hand, as claimed
by the friends of the bonding
scheme, the license fees are ample to
repay the principal and interest on
the bonds, the sum so realized would
supply sufficient funds to push
things to the limit of available la
Dor, material and transportation with
out undue increased cost and keep
our teet on the ground OF pay as
you go policy"
It's a bad time to borrow money
to make permanent investment either
state or private.
| will not concede to any man in
this state of having deeper inter
est in good roads than | have. The
advance of our civilization demands
it; the crying urge, "back to the
farm" demands it; the better coun-
try schools demand it.
1T is not because | have lost inter
est in the good roads movement that
| oppose this bonding scheme, but
because sincerely believe that in
the long run it will retard good road
developments where most needed; To-
cal good roads for the farm and the
home are as important as trunk
line highways-may / not say more