Report of Slalc Iligliwny Engineer. 51 



St;ilr Ilij^liwjiy Engineer mikI Stjile I )('|);ii'tiiicij1. with w lioui lo consult 

 jiikI ;i(l\ise, woukl constitute an economical and eft'ective organization 

 and working system for road building and maintenance. A working 

 organization wliereby any community may acquire permanent mainte- 

 nance and skilled supervision of roads. 



Cash Taxes — No better reason exists for a man to work out his road 

 taxes than for him to teach out his school taxes. The working out of 

 taxes is an inadequate, inefficient and indefensible form of revenue. The 

 men wdio work ont their taxes, as a rule, know nothing and care but little 

 about the work. ]\Iany of them work with the sole idea of working out 

 the taxes, not to benefit the roads. It is not so much the fault of the 

 men as it is the fault of the system, a "venerftlile" system, which has 

 been handed down from generation to generation until it has become 

 rotten wdth age. 



Elimination of Politics — Another indication of rottenness in our 

 "venerable system" is the infusion of politics into road affairs. The 

 roads do not belong to any part, set, or faction, but are the property 

 of all. In some of our counties the road affairs are nothing more than 

 a political machine. In more than one instance the roads have been 

 made to suffer in order to reward a political worker. This can never be 

 entirely eliminated from the business, but a healthy public sentiment 

 for the selection and the retention of men for their fitness for the w^ork 

 rather than for their political affiliations will be helpful. 



Cross-State Roads— ^The idea for cross-state roads is a commendable 

 one in some ways, but they should be considered in the light of a series of 

 connected local roads, and therefore their value in a local sense rather 

 than that of through travel. Through roads will serve long distance 

 travel more from the view of pleasure than a commercial value. But 

 we should not lose sight of the fact that roads should be built for the 

 comforts and pleasures of travel as well as their pecuniary value, while 

 the cross-state road has a commercial value as a through road, since it 

 will aid in the development of the State. On the other hand, it is the 

 improvement of the local road, the road from the granary to the rail- 

 road shipping point, the road which builds up the social, education and 

 commercial sides of the country and community life, that are so badly 

 needed and which will serve the best interests of the State. Water and 

 rail are the established means for long distance transportation, the high- 

 Avay for local exchange. The electric road serves the purpose of local 

 transportation to a limited extent, but no means of rail transportation 

 can reach every man's farm, cannot possibly usurp the place of the 

 wagon road. The wagon road serves the purpose of local transportation 



