Beporl of State RigJnvdi] Engineer. 47 



teutiou aud spur given tlie road interests by the engineer, 9.') per cent 

 of these taxes are now collected. 



Tlie amount of work for which the engineer is called upon is 

 evidence enough of the need for such an official. The county court 

 of Greene county signed a voluntary statement to the effect that tlie 

 county liighway engineer filled a long felt want, and that the position 

 saved $4,000 in different ways to Greene county in the year 1908. 



The cost of the county highway engineer to the county is not 

 greater, in many instances, than the sum of the fees paid out under the 

 old fee system. Take, for example, the county of Buchanan, where in 

 the year 1908 the amount of salaries paid into the county highway 

 engineer's office was $4,400, and the year preceding the advent of the 

 county engineer the fees for road supervision cost the county $4,608. 

 In Chariton county the salary of the county highway engineer is 

 $1,500, while the last year ])efore the engineering supervision the fees 

 paid the ex officio road and bridge commissioner were $2,194. In John- 

 son county similar comparison shows fees under the last year of the 

 old law to have been $1,550; the county highway engineer's salary is 

 $1,200. In Pettis county the fees were $1,280 and salary of engineer is 

 $1,400. In ^Mississippi county, the fees were $1,380 and salary of the 

 engineer $900. In Scott county the fees for road supervision averaged 

 over the seven years preceding the county highway engineer act $1,730, 

 not including fees of records of several instances where special commis- 

 sioners were employed. The county engineer was paid a salary of 

 $1,500, and this is another county which suspended the act. Besides 

 this, the engineer has the supervision of road and bridge work, of the 

 overseers, of the surveying, ditching and clearing of the right of way, 

 and a number of other duties are required of him than were of any man 

 under the old system, or ever will be required of an ex officio county 

 highway engineer. His whole time and attention is required upon the 

 county's roads, for which the county is paying but little or no more than 

 it formerly paid out in fees for inferior service. And, furthermore, the 

 pay of the county engineer does not keep the amount of his salary from 

 the roads because he is paid out of the county funds, as any other 

 county officer is paid, and not from the road funds.- 



Six years ago Dallas county paid $4,450 for 120-foot steel bridge 

 with approaches. Under the engineer's plans, by rejecting bids and 

 re-letting, a similar bridge recently was built for $2,750. In the adjoin- 

 ing county of Polk, where a similar condition existed, a contract was 

 closed upon our plans in which all bids were rejected two different times, 

 the first received being over $5,000. The contract price was finally 



