Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1921-09-01
WASTED ROAD MONEY

/
State Engineer M. W. Watson
says that Kansas Is wasting lts
road money" He is right-and II
Is doing 1t worse now than ever be-
cause the motorists are paying more
to be wasted, over two million dol
lars a year in license taxes. It ID
not fair to blame the county ana
township officers. The fault lies
| with the childish manner In when
the legislature has framed the road
laws of the state. Why Kansas
, persists in following Civil war period
methods instead of using those
which other states have adopted ana
found worthy Is beyond comprehen-
sion.
The writer has during the sum
mer driven through Nebraska, Iowa.
Illinois, Michigan. All have state
maintained primary roads. Ihese
are the principal arteries OF traHic
such as the Lincoln Highway. They
are marvels Of dirt road making,
twenty feet wide, with fine culverts
and bridges, rounded corners, no
mass Of weeds and rubbish In the
middle, but well drained smooth
roads where four cars can drive
abreast. The state grades and drags
them. gangs of men work steadily
on them. When it rains there Is
mud. but at the earliest possible
moment the big state tractors ana
trucks drawing the drags ana pan
ers are on the job. Illinois ana
Michigan are paving the main roads,
the state doing the work. In c0nse-
quence there is being built a con
nected series of roads, From chi
cago to Clinton, Iowa. AZ miles is
a standard 10 foot concrete or DrlcK
highway, exactly like the paved ROAD
east of Abilene. From Chicago TO
Danville 146 miles. has just been
opened another such road. Michl-
gan is building similar roads. Iowa
IL having on the eastern end of the
Lincoln highway. On this road In
Iowa is over 100 miles of gravel
dragged, graded and maintained all
the time. In all these states the
secondary rOads-the tow N s p
roads leading to the principal high
ways-are left to the townships and
counties. The state roads are marked
fully and completely by the stae and
numbered. You travel across Iowa
on primary Road No. 6" for in
stance and need no other signs than
the state provides.
Kansas leaves it to the counties
and they leave it to the townships
and they leave it to the road dis
tricts. Some do well, some seem to
have no idea of how to build road.
You leave the Nebraska highway
and jump off into ruts this side the
state line. You find counties like
Dickinson. Geary, Shawnee and
Douglass that pave the Union Paci-
fic highway and in between are
stuck in them counties like Riley
and Pottawatomie that will do moth
ing. If the state did it, the whole
road would be paved.
Take the road from Abilene to
Industry-some of it is maintained
some is partly maintained, some of
it is a disgrace to the county. Take
the Abilene Solomon road, said by
tourists to be the worst nine miles
between Kansas City and Denver in
the best of weather. They are
samples.
Kansas will never have good roads
until it learns to build and maintain
them systematically by state con-
troll where it is made business and
not pastime.
In the meantime unless there II
legislature with sense in road mat
tiers we shall go on wasting most OF
the nearly three million dollars We
pay for motor licenses. To keep up
an army of employees at the state
house we are wasting over $4,000
year in the Anticipated system Of
furnishing license tags-it is all
part of the bane of Kansas road
system, too much politics and not
enough horse sense.