Perth Amboy evening news., 1922-10-27
RUNYON Makes
ROAD ATTACK
Hits Cost of Building Lincoln
Highway in SilzerS Own
County

Ocean county To-Day. MF. AunyoA
referred to the construction OF
section of the Lincoln Highway moi
far from Judge Silzer's home In
MiddleseX county at a $ OF SloO'-
900 a mile. He further pointed out
that Judge Silzer has 1ailed TO raise
his voice in reference to the alleged
extravaganza of the highway com
mission in the preliminaries 10
building a new bridge at Perth Am
boy. The Republican gubernatorial
candidate called attention TO me
success of Highway Commissioner
Seabrook in bisecting his Cumber-
land farms with roads built at state
expense. He declared that the high.
way board should be composed OF
fewer men than at present, IL
that 1t should be concerned with
the interests of the entire state, n
not with any special locality. lie
| called again for the repeal OF the
county reimbursement act, when
! he believed vas of doubtful legall!y
and which he claimed opened the
way to favoritism and extravaganza
The closed specifications adopted by
the state highway commission have
cost the state as much as doub!e
a proper outlay, he said.
Mr.. Runyon ~contended that
Judge Silzer, while blind to what
had occurred in his W neighbcr-
hood, had written fulsome praises
of the highway commission in the
Democratic platform. Only the
alertness of a single one of the eight
highway commissioners saved the
state from spending more han
100000 for an architect on toe
Perth Amboy bridge, the speaker
commended. He also went into fut-
ther detail as to what the Republic
can party represented in the opel
specifications issue.
Mr.. Runyon said:
1.-THE / 1000, 900 bond issue Is
placed before the people for their
acceptance or their rejection at the
November election. Whatever their
decision on this issue may be, there
is no question but hat everyone in
this state is impressed with the high
Importance of good roads. The mis-
doings of the Edwards Highway
Commission, which have been chron-
icled day after day in the public
press, have driven home to the peo-
Pile the necessity for a change IN
that department. If the facts of the
management of that department are
DIS SLdlCup TN uP ~ nv pA nv
ment, Notwithstanding the spotlight
of publicity, they have not denied
them, there must be a complete re-
organization of the State Highway
Commission. The men who are re-
sponsible for these conditions must
go.
"A commission which will pay
100000 for a bridge approach which
their own experts value at 500, 600
cannot be continued in office. They
are either inefficient in that they
procured incompetent appraisers, ut
does not seem to have been the case)
or they were derelict in their duty
when they paid a price several times
above the appraised value, when they
a tail times had the right to con-
denim the property at a reasonable
figure by exercising the right OF
eminent domain. 1t is indeed very
interesting to see that n of the ap-
praisers worked out a method where
by the commission could, by con-
demning some adjacent property, az
quire sufficient land for its bridge
approach for the relatively insight
icant sum of $4,000. Apparently,
however, the commission did not
desire to proceed along the lines
SuSScSlCu ny IiC dPPAd iCNIy boI PdAo
twenty-three times what it need tc
have paid had it followed the advice
Of its own expert.
"If the Perth Amboy bridge ap-
proach were an isolated instance of
the commissions extravaganza with
the peoples money, it would not be
fair to condemn the commission,
but there are many other instances
of carelessness hat shock the cca-
science. Witness to the effort to
obtain the appointment of a con-
sulting engineer for the Perth Am
boy bridge on a basis which would
have cost the state ove 5000, 900
and which was blocked by the ac-
ton one commissioner looking out
for the public welfare. 1t was only
as the result of his vigilance that
the engineer was engaged to do the
same work for $4,000.
THE commission las been letting
contracts for warrenite pavement
at a cost of so per cent more than
contract awarded for the Lincoln
Highway near New Brunswick is
striking proof of the extravaganza
and waste of the state highway
commission. Not only did they pay
so per cent more than they needed
to pay for similar n~on-patented
pavements, but by picking a patent
ed pavement they lost the right 10
federal aid for these roads; so much
more is involved than the differer ce
in the contract prices. All this ex-
travagance in connection with tle
bridge approach of the Perth Am
boy bridge, and in connection with
the Lincoln Highway near New
Brunswick, occurred in the home
county of Judge Silzer, the Demo-
cratic nominee for governorsh.p.
Has he raised his voice t. condemn
the Edwards highway commission
for these matters, which must have
come to his attention? Not a sin
gle word. On the contrary, the
Democratic platform, which he ad-
mits he wrote, is most fulsome in
praising the achievements Of the
Edwards highway commission
1.-THE commission has a the
fatal propensity of looking at the
state highway system as a means of
giving special benefits to the locali-
ties where each commissioner lives,
In this respect Commissioner Sea-
brook has been far the most suc-
cessful. Newspapers in all parts OF
the state have described at length
the wonderful roads which have
been laid across and around the
Seabrook farm. 1t is my thought
that the commission should be COM
posed exclusively of men who will
look at the state highway system a.
way as a state matter and not a
local thing, n place improved
roads where they would be of bene.
fit to all the people of the state
This cannot be done in the log-roll.
ing of a large commission. l be