The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1929-05-17

The many inquiries received by the
Ten Thousand Lakes and Greater
Minnesota Association regarding farm
lands shows that Minnesota Is attrac-
ting much attention from those agri-
cuIturaIly inclined as well as from
those seeking recreation ST. Louis
county is receiving its share OF farm
settlers as well as its share Of tourists
and reports also show that Ely and
this section of the Arrowhead Is up
permost IN the thoughts Of the tour
ist. You may think this is so much
bushvah in the face of the large area
of wild land in this county, when We
assert that ST. Louis county has more
farms than any other county in the
state-and there are counties IN the
state that are all farms. This county
was also IN the head Of the list for
butter and egg shipments and is about
fourth in the state in cows Consld-
ering that il is nearly first in butter
and fourth in COWS, indications are
that a better class Of COWS are raised
here.
BY law Just passed it is now pos
sible for the chairman Of the county
board to apply restrictions on travel
on the county highways every spring
instead of waiting for the whole board
to act as heretofore. This viii give
the chairman a chance to place load
restrictions in force on damaged roads
as needed. In many sections this
spring. roads were severely damaged
by oyerloads at a time when they
should have been closed entirely 20
travel of the heavier sort and this
could not be done without a meeting
OF the county boards as a whole. On
der this act Commissioner Pete viii
have considerable to say regarding
the roads in his district.
This law kind Of throws a monkey
wrench into the machinery Of the St
Louis County road commission plan
whose idea was TO have all roads In
the county under the head Of COM
mission and take their management
out Of the hands Of the county com
miSsioners and place it into the hands
of Is members of a commission named
from among the several subdivisions
of the county. As Duluth has four
commissioners who stand Solidly
against anything the range three
commissioners propose, it is very plain
to the ordinary mortal just how the
three commissioner districts on the
range would fare in the distribution
Of road commissioners and anything
pertaining to new or old roads which
did not begin or end in the vicinity Of
the Zenith City.
Last week the range trio proposed to
give a contract for paving the North
Line road TO range concerns although
they were a few dollars higher in their
bids than was the St. Paul firm which
received the contract Legally the St.
Paul firm was entitled to the contract
by reason of the difference in price
but morally the range firms should
have had the work The range firm
promised to use local labor and local
supplies What the st. Paul firm will
do remains TO be seen When 1t is con-
sidered that the scale of labor in the
Twin Cities is somewhat lower than
the range scale, it is easy TO conjecture
what viii happen The four commits
Sioners from the Duluth end failed 70
see the contention Of the range COM
missioners and outvoted them in favor
Of the st. Paul firm
UnCer the new gas Tax law, 81 LOUIS
County viii pay ABOUT 100000 more
for gas in 1929 than in 1928. The new
law places the tax at cents instead
Of cents per gallon. Outside of Du-
uth, the county motorists viii pay
about s186,00o more this year than
last. 1t is estimated that the gas tax
revenues in the state this year VIII
total about 81, 500 900 as the money un-
der the new rate viii not go into the
treasury until July /. Next year the
total VIII be about $1,000. 900. This
viii make the counties one-third for
secondary roads S2,5Oo,0oo for this
year. No county shall receive less than
three-fourths Of one per cent or more
than per cent. If the estimate above
proves correct, the minimum amount
to any county will be s18,75o this year
and Sc, 500 in 1880 according to Com
missioner Babcock
The "whoopee" makers among the
young people who imagine that they
are having lot Of fun and keeping