164 AORICUI.TURI; OF MAINE. 



STATE ROADS BUILT FROM BOND ISSUE. 



I assume that you all know that a connected system of inter- 

 county highways or trunk lines is not only required by the new 

 law, but that these principal thoroughfares or state highways, 

 as they are called, are to be built entirely from the bond issue 

 and the bond issue is to be used for no other purpose. 



HOW MUCH FOR EACH COUNTY? 



Therefore, the question arises in every county in the state 

 when the citizens attend our hearings and present evidence of 

 the need of main arteries through their respective counties, 

 How much money is our county to receive from the bond 

 issue? You all doubtless know that the constitutional 

 provision permitting the legislature to issue bonds for 

 this purpose carries with it the requirement that the proceeds 

 of these bonds shall be divided and expended equitably among 

 the various counties, and undoubtedly you citizens of Andros- 

 coggin and Penobscot and Cumberland counties are quite as 

 anxious to know about this as the citizens of Oxford were the 

 other day when we held a hearing at Rumford Falls. 



WHAT DOES EQUITABLE DIVISION MEAN? 



I admit freely that this question of equitable division is the. 

 most difficult problem facing the Highway Commission todiy. 

 What do the words equitable division mean and what was the 

 intent of the law ? While this is a question which, under the 

 law, must be determined by the Highway Commission in con- 

 junction with the Governor and Council, yet, because of the 

 fact that it is a constitutional requirement, it is one in which 

 every citizen in this state has a right to be interested, and it is 

 therefore, in my judgment, a proper question for the considera- 

 tion of the people at large. 



To begin with, I think no one will challenge the statement 

 that it was clearly the intent of the law that all counties should 

 receive a fair and equitable proportion of this money. H this 

 clause was inserted for any particular purpose it was to guard 

 against the undue expenditure of this money in any one county 

 or in any one section of the state. The whole state was to be 

 benefited by this expenditure. Ever since the amendment was 



