The Duluth rip-saw. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1917-19??, 1923-09-01
BIG SUMS SAVED In PAYING
WHEN HIGHWAYS ARE PAVED
Treasurer of San Diego County, California, Works
~ Out Successful Plan for Avoiding Ruinous
Bond-Issue Evil SO Sadly Prevalent.


TRANSPORTATION is one Of the
foundation stones of civilization. The
Romans learned this nearly two
thousand years ago, and we Amer
leans, along with other modern ma
lions, have been re-learning it with
in the past century or less. But with
our development of the dirt road
into the concrete-paved highway, We
have let the interest sharks and the
bond-issue experts blk us into pay
ing for every mile of road built
approximately twice the actual cost
of that mile of finished highway. 1t
is safe to say that, for every mil
lion dollars, actual cost, of paved
road built in these United States
in the past twenty years, another
million has been or will be paid out
in interest, in the cost of bond
issue elections, in discount on the
bonds and in other factors of waste
which do not enter naturally or
rightfully into the real cost of the
building OF that million dollars
worth Of road.
California, which may be taken
as an example, since bodybuilding
has progressed to greater lengths
in that state than in a majority Of
the other states Of the Union, re-
Gently put out a $4O,0O0,O00 bond
issue for paved highway construc-
ticn. It is less than the facts to
say that the roads on whose build
ing this $4,000, GOO is expended
will have cost the people of Cali
fornia, at the expiration Of the
forty years Of life of the bonds, ap-
proximately $75,000,e00. This does
not take account of the maintenance
Of the highways SO built, their
depreciation, or the cost Of altera-
tions in them, according to the
demands of traffic and transporta-
ton.
Other states which have issued
similar bonds are in the same posi-
tion as California, no worse and no
better, and it is fact that, taking
the average throughout the United
States, the paved highway, every
mile Of it, ultimately costs the peo-
pie Of that state from one and one
half to three times the actual ex-
pense of building and paving that
mile. The political sparrow of the
bond election, and the boil weevil
of interest, not to mention the ever
present discounter at the bank, con-
sumo the difference between the
$4,000 to $4,000 which the mile
of paved road actually costs, and
the $4,000 to $4,000 or more
which the people ultimately pay
for that mile. a@
This financial looting Of the peo-
pie is so well within the law that
1t takes no account Of the moral
and ethical and economic questions
raised by the saddling of our flu
ture population with the debt of a
highway which, in nine and one
half cases out of ten, by actual
figures, will be so useless that it
will have to be rebuilt before the
coming generations have finished
paying the debt this generation put
upon them. Unfortunately, these
future men and women have no
voice in deciding what we shall do
with their money. If they had such
a voice, we long ago would have
found simpler, better and less
expensive method of providing the
avenues Of transportation which
traffic demands. So far, however,
there Is no evidence to show that
any state, or even the national
government, has taken any practical
step toward solution of indefens-
ible and unnecessary bond-issue
methods of bodybuilding.
One man, this year, however, has
developed a remedy for the bond
issue evil, and has presented 1t
with such force to the board of
supervisors of his county, that the
board has taken his project, in part,
on trial. The man is George Heston,
treasurer Of San Diego County,
California, and his plan, briefly