The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1920-04-15
ROADS CONFERENCE
Enthusiastic Sessions Held in the Twin
Cities With 47S County
Officials Present.
Adopted by Conference to
Support BabcOck Plan and
Push 1t Along.


ence opened in St. Paul last Thursday
with 478 county commissioners and
auditors in attendance. Upon the fol-
lowing day session was held in Min
neapolis with an equal number of these
officials present. The sessions were IN
the nature of good roads educative
meetings in which the purpose of the
Babcock amendment to be voted upon
next fall was elucidated by highway
experts. Senator Westlake called the
st. Paul session to order and Paul N.
Meyers, president of the st. Paul as
ISOLATION, delivered the address of well
come. Highway Commissioner Bah
cock then addressed the meeting, in
part, as follows:
Funds to build a, 7,000-mile trunk
highway system of hard surfaced
highway always have been the prob
lem facing good roads BOOSTERS There
are $4,000 miles of roads within the
borders of Minnesota. These are
known as town, county and state
roads. The town roads are maintained
by the township, the county roads are
maintained by the county and the state
roads are designated by the counties
and maintained out of the state aid
and the county appropriations.
'It is these roads which have been
eating up the money appropriated for
road building and maintenance. This
fall will be done away with when
Amendment No. is made into a law.
There are seventy routes tentatively
established in the proposed amend
ment. These will all be constructed,
maintained and financed by the money
obtained from the motor vehicle H.
cense.
''It is the aim of the amendment to
establish an average license fee, which
need-not exceed SIS car. It will be
graded according to horsepower,
weight and value. By January 1, 1921,
there will be 100000 motor. vehicles
regi8tered in Minnesota At the aver
age license fee of $18 each this will
bring in annually $5,4OO,OOO. For the
past two years there have been S.
100000 available as federal aid to
Minnesota. Thus we will have more
than $10,00O,000 year to build these
roads, and I do not think it ever will
be necessary to issue one dollars
worth of bonds"
]. H. Mullen, state highway engin-
eer, dealt with the proposed amend
ment from the engineers standpoint.
He said:
every pound of foodstuff, virtually
every article Of wearing apparel and
nearly all necessities of life must at
some stage in their manufacture or
transportation be hauled over roads
Thousands Of freight cars now being
used for short hauls could be released
from this duty to long haul work if
the roads Of the country were good
enough to stand the heavy truck trans
portation.
"Tests Of the university of Cali
fornia show that pull of 22O pounds
ton is required to haul over a mud
ry earth road, 100 pounds ton over
a good earth road, 80 pounds ton
over gravel roads and only 80 pounds
ton over hard surface roads.
"The average main line roads in
Minnesota carry less than 10000 tons
Of freight a mile a year. This can be
increased Unreasonable with hard
surfaced roads.
S.It would be futile to say ev-
cry trunk highway would be i'm
proved at once. This is not only not
necessary, but would be impractical.
We should, however, improve the high
ways that carry the bulk Of the travel
and leave the rest for a later date"
Mayor Hodgson called attention of
the delegates to the fact that they
must get the new vision and wipe out
all the differences of county lines and
state prejudices. f
Help all the counties in the state
to better realization of the duties
they owe to the rest of the state and
what is best for all of u.s." he pleaded.
'The roads are the most important
problem in the United States today.
Let US have realization that there are
other highways to be brought into be-
ing by hard surfacing the roads Of
Minnesota, these highways are those
which run open and unobstructed from
the hearts Of men in one section to the
hearts of those in other sections
Mayor j.. e. Meyers delivered the
address of welcome to the delegates
at the Minneapolis meeting on Friday,
and he was followed by several other
speakers, including P. H. McGarry,